In this article, Nora Ghaoui explores the ability of AI to write a strategy. Three years ago, I asked if large companies all had the same strategy. Perhaps their strategies all sounded the same because managers picked up the same ideas from MBAs and consultants, or because they hired the same copywriters. Last month, a new source of non-differentiating strategy appeared – strategy written by AI. GPT-3 The AI in question is GPT-3 from OpenAI, which has been getting a…

Nora Ghaoui shares an article on how to keep building your consulting pipeline even when it’s a tough year.  Building a consulting pipeline is tough in any year. In 2020, the uncertainty caused by the pandemic made companies cautious, so it was harder to get projects agreed and started.  I tried out different actions to build my project pipeline, and some worked better than others. Here are the top 3 things that made a difference to building my business as…

Nora Ghaoui shares an article that explains how to get business results from managing data science initiatives. Data science can be a valuable tool for solving business problems, but the companies that I work with make little use of data science methods. There is a sense that the discipline is a black box to be left to the experts. That is a missed opportunity for creating business value. Data science initiatives can be managed in the same way as other…

Nora Ghaoui explains why there are benefits to being on the outside looking in.  When you’re trying to tackle a business challenge, what you can solve and how you can solve it depends on the position that you are in, not on the skills that you have. As I have switched roles between management and consulting, I have learned that when you’re on the inside (as a manager) you can’t use the tools from the outside (of a consultant) and…

This post from Nora Ghaoui takes a look at revenue models that work for smart products with a digital service. Making a smart product needs more than adding an app. You need to cover the costs of the digital service or risk losing money. Which revenue model can you use? And why would anyone pay for this service? The revenue model for a digital service needs to cover the costs of running it Let’s consider the options for a new…

  Nora Ghaoui shares the top three ways she built her business as a solo consultant during the difficult year of 2020.   Building a consulting pipeline is tough in any year. In 2020, the uncertainty caused by the pandemic made companies cautious, so it was harder to get projects agreed and started.  I tried out different actions to build my project pipeline, and some worked better than others. Here are the top 3 things that made a difference to building…

  Nora Ghaoui shares an article that identifies how to read the signals that predict what people will do next.  Have you ever been in a situation where something happened, say, a relationship ended, and you thought, “I should have seen it coming”? Would you have wanted to see it earlier so you could do something about it? You can. You can see things coming by paying attention to the clues in people’s behaviour that tell you what they will…

  Nora Ghaoui examines the limitations of artificial intelligence as it pertains to building a business strategy. If company strategies risk sounding the same when written by people, what happens when they get written by AI? In this post I examine an AI-generated strategy statement for what it says about the abilities of AI and creating strategies. Three years ago, I asked if large companies all had the same strategy. Perhaps their strategies all sounded the same because managers picked…

  From her company blog, Nora Ghaoui shares a two-part series that examines the strategy statements of large companies and explains why strategy writing often results in generic statements. By the time a large company has finished its strategic planning cycle, it ends up with strategy statements that could apply to any company. The same phrases show up every time.  Why is that?  Do great minds think alike, are people running out of ideas, or are market trends forcing them…