Leading a business today is like running up a downward escalator and hoping you will be able to slow down when you get near the top. For those of you who have not tried this, I can tell you what happens when you ease off as you get near the top – you end up at the bottom with a bump!.

I like this analogy as it’s the same in business today – when you think you have made it and ease off, bad things happen. These can materialise in many ways as a result of your easing up and can include staffing issues, competitors stealing your lunch, suppliers being courted elsewhere, customer service levels dropping and new products and services emerging that invalidate your current offering, read on!

No one ever said it would be easy to develop and grow a business.

But In today’s dynamic and competitive business landscape, developing and executing effective strategies is paramount for organisations to achieve growth and maintain a competitive advantage. Business leaders are the driving force behind their companies and they must continually face the challenge of identifying new opportunities, evaluating threats and market trends, and making strategic decisions to propel their organisations forward.

Business leaders can no longer just run the business and expect continued growth from selling the same products and services to the same customers because the world is changing at a pace previously unseen and all business leaders should maintain an awareness of this because if you don’t you could well follow the demise of such mega-corporations like Blockbuster, Kodak and Blackberry.

Those mega Corporations suffered because they failed to see the threat from the internet, digital transformation and the solutions being developed by upstarts using these technologies

Digital transformation is still a threat to many legacy businesses but what about Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Is AI the new Digital Transformation? Is it a threat or an opportunity?

One thing is for sure it would be foolhardy to ignore it.

AI is a subject that is now very much on the agenda of many of our Pabasso – Peer Advisory Board Associates business leader members and it should be high on your agenda.

I read in The Times yesterday that there are at least two articles published every minute at the moment on AI, it’s a hot topic.

So who in your business is responsible for monitoring the AI threat/opportunity?

If you haven’t given that responsibility to somebody yet I suggest you do so asap, this is not a development that you can afford to be complacent about!

P.S. In case you are interested one paragraph of this post was drafted by ChatGPT and edited by me, can you guess which one?