AI: The Missing Piece

As you may know, only a small percentage of corporate AI initiatives achieve their objectives and increase ROI.

Some reasons commonly provided for this low rate of success

• Unclear and/or inappropriate goals
• Failure to consider impacts and interactions among all business objectives
• Lack of consultation with and involvement of all appropriate company functions during both planning and implementation
• Untrustworthy and/or fragmented underlying data, the proverbial “Garbage in; garbage out”
• Inadequate governance policies
• Poor training
• Insufficient attention paid to addressing internal resistance to change
• Trying to do everything internally when external experts and/or tools could increase the likelihood of success
• Rapidly changing environment

All of the above represent problems that prevent plans from being fully realized, but one important problem is missing from all of the explanations I have read and heard: the importance of ensuring that the project lead and other key members of the management team are operationally gifted.

What is does “operationally gifted” mean?

 People may be born with a variety of exceptional talents. They may be artistically, athletically, intellectually, mathematically, mechanically, musically, operationally, socially, or verbally gifted. Some people have multiple gifts; others have none.

Although study and practice can improve almost anyone’s skills in any of the above areas, those who have inherited those gifts via their DNA will be able to reach greater heights. For instance, in my youth I took voice lessons. I had a lovely but not exceptional voice, so even if I had studied with the world’s preeminent voice teacher and practiced religiously, no one would ever have selected me to sing in any of the great opera companies. I am not exceptionally gifted in that way.

Companies need management team members who have a wide variety of gifts. Too often, however, companies do not have in their ranks a CEO or enough key managers who are operationally gifted. An operationally gifted person sees the goal in its entirety, can discern whether the goal is appropriate and adequately specific, and is able to envision and put into place the pieces needed to reach that goal effectively and efficiently. Not having someone with that gift may determine how well a company can successfully implement change and whether it can implement the change at all.

With regard to corporate AI efforts: Having an operationally gifted project lead can help avoid pitfalls 1-8 in the list above and ensure the best possible outcome.