15pctAISuccess- Part 1

To be in the 15% successful: Part 1 - Communication between business and Tech

In a previous blog, I outlined 5 reasons Rand Corp mentioned for the extremely high failure rate of AI projects (85% failure rate) and the top one was communication issues between the business and the people dealing with the AI. Let me call them “Tech”.

In my experience, poor or even the lack of communication between the business side and the “Tech” side is the reason for failure for most data projects.

In the past it was because “Tech” thought it owned data and could do whatever it decided to do, and had control of a huge budget just because nobody understood what they did.

The business side did what they did, within the bounds of “Tech” or even without “Tech” assistance, they made money, met business KPIs…

These were the days when “Tech” was seen as a pure cost centre.

Fast forward to today, what has changed?

Or more pertinently, how much does this “Tech” “Business” divide contribute to 85% failure rate?

Who is responsible for the 85% failure rate, Business or Tech?

It would be ridiculous to state that the people who have been running a business for a while, all of a sudden are found to be unable to do so. Yes, technology is advancing quickly and the markets are more dynamic because of that. But have the fundamental business practices and patterns totally changed rendering business experience useless? No, because whatever we may think, adaptation is part of business, it may be required faster nowadays, but it is nothing new to the business side. Inherently, there is knowledge and understanding on the business side, and a desire to do well.

Similarly, especially when it comes to engineering skills, these can be picked up and relatively objective tests exist to gauge the quality of the engineers, especially the coding aspect.

So, what goes wrong?

Duck quacking to chicken, only worse In South East Asia, there is a saying when 2 people are simply not communicating, “it’s like a duck talking to a chicken”.

Business people speak business language, with appropriate short forms that belong to their business, whether that be common business words such as EBIDTA, RoR, or more specific to your industry and business.

Engineering people speak in terms of coding efficiency, server configuration, network speeds..

This doesn’t mean that the two sides are not dependent on each other, it’s just that this interdependency has to be understood and taken into account when trying to solve problems efficiently so as to hit those business KPIs.

And to add more technical speak, there is a “missing layer” that is often overlooked, or not given proper thought, the difference between the tactical and the strategic. While it is not difficult to plan and undertake a precise tactical exercise such as “increase the number of people taking up my credit card” or “decrease the number of defaulters”, this has to be understood in the context of the business as a whole to be truly successful. Plugging holes in a ship, while useful, doesn’t necessarily bring it to the next destination.

What does this mean?

This means 2 things.

At a tactical level, there is a need to align the understanding of business units and the “Tech”/data science/engineering people. You may already have engineers/data scientists, you may already be running analyses and using some level of data to make decisions, or even run campaigns in marketing speak. In order to make this really efficient, the 1st step is to ensure the understanding of both sides are aligned.

In some organisations, people who bridge this gap are called translators. I think it is an appropriate name. The business does not need to learn how to speak code, the engineers do not need to learn how to speak business, the translator speaks both business and code.

Many organisations have had good success at a tactical level, extracting some value from their data, being able to maintain a small group of engineers/scientists/coders, have proper returns on their investment in data science/engineering/AI, although many do not measure these returns and ensure efficiency. But even then, taking the next step into the strategic area is often a step too far.

Nowadays, it is trivial to run a small program on cloud resources, build a small model and get some scores you can apply to your business. But to do so consistently and truly move the needle of your business as a whole – not just 1 isolated department - takes strategic thinking.

There is a need to discuss about the business KPIs in the short medium and long run, understand the data and resources required to achieve these, break down the process into an achievable journey. Then engage in implementation is a sustainable way. That is the role of a data officer. The key thing is that not many organisations need one full time, on the payroll.

What is the missing ingredient?

The missing ingredient is the skill set required to, at a strategic level, embed the use of data into the organisation. This is not simply digitizing some services, creating some online forms, or running some campaigns, but reviewing and how to, and enabling an organisation to truly transform.

It really depends though on the aim of the organisation. If the aim is to thrive in the long run, then embedding the advantages your organisation can obtain from efficient use of data and technology is the right way to go. There is no need to fear data and technology, they are tools, horses that the business can harness and use to pull the business forward.

A good soul-searching is required to understand.

Here and now: What is the current situation in people, process, product (3Ps)?

There and when: What are the business aims, and how are the current 3Ps to support these aims?

The journey: How to go from here to there as smoothly and efficiently as possible

And this soul searching has to be done across the organisation, not in individual silos.

How can we help?

At DataMobius, we believe that a tactical PoV is certainly a good door opener and a way to start building trust with our clients. However, given our beliefs or right-sizing and relationship building, we believe that true value can be unlocked via strategic collaboration, assessments, that is working strategically with you to enable the transformation of your business to be ready for the new world.

Under our “Strategy and Transformation” set of services, we have individual services as well as packages of services that can be customized to meet your needs including the rate at which you can consume them.

By Kailash

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