Paul Martyn is right to cringe a little every time he hears a solution provider say:
1. As Paul points out in his recent article, if strategic work is not already happening, that’s not a technology problem. That’s a leadership problem!
2A. You can’t drop tech in and suddenly become more efficient unless you have all the data and processes in place to support it — and it’s a money back guarantee you don’t have all of the data and processes in place to support it.
2B. Unless AI stands for Augmented Intelligence, AI will actually consume MORE of your time as you deal with the hallucinations and errors it will create on a regular basis. (Remember, only 1 in 20 organizations are seeing a return on their AI investments, and I guarantee those are the ones that either got tricked into, or simply bought, old fashioned RPA (robotic process automation) that actually works.
Don’t fall for the spin. If you want strategy
1. Make sure it’s already happening.
Maybe it’s only 10% of categories going through strategic sourcing, but you have to start somewhere. Then you can increase that percentage as you automate more tactical work.
2. Allocate time to (old-school) automation.
One at a time, pick a very time consuming process ripe for automation. Map it end to end. Redesign it for automation. Automate it. As time frees up, more time for strategy and automating more processes.
3. When the automation effort in time-consuming / painful processes that remain exceeds the expected time return over the next 12 months, look for outside help.
Not before. And that’s how you don’t fall for the spin!