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How Real Is Artificial Intelligence?

By Art van Bodegraven | 03/11/2018 | 10:12 AM

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

Real enough?  And, has AI infiltrated the ranks of HR professionals?.  If so, HR remains one of the last bastions of unthinking acceptance of received wisdom - and the lack of courage to act on it.

The sad truth is that AI is being applied to a number of people analytics, to parse qualities and trends - and attributes - that make for winning employees.

Putting aside the nuances of  human analytics, AI is now playing a role in hiring.  One may only hope that the professionals know what they are doing in this arena.  We have endured generations of testing, personality assessments, structured classification systems, and - the dreaded - job interview.  From those we know next door to nothing about how how skills match up with needs, especially in the 21st century, and mostly spend our time vaidating preconceived notions, chest-thumping, promoting the wonders of the prospective employer, and assessing how well the candidate is likely to perform on the job.

All pretty much useless - or worse.  Here's how AI is actually useful in a modern context, in predicting desired performance, and in unearthing, through data, analytics, and algorithms, likely success factors.

Forget Education.  People without any college have incresased over time, and some high-performers have not attended college at all.  But, they perform, as solid team players

Grit Matters; IQ Doesn't.  Lengthy studies of numerous factors identified a common thread of success.  It was not health, appearance, or intelligence; it was raw persistence and passion that made a genuine and measurable difference.

Experience Isn't Everything; It might Turn Out To Be Not Anything.  More studies have shown that mid-level college graduates with extracurricular activities outperform leaders and club presidents.  Every organization needs more team players and fewer stars.

Your Star Might Not Be Their Star.  Apparent success at the last job is a zero indicator of high performance at the new one.  Hours worked (results from focused effort) might be useful; once again, indicators of teamwork are much more powerful.

Ignore Facebook, Now And Forever.  A photo showing a drink is a far better representation than a SnapChat of drug useage or indications of bigotry.  Drinking, social, is acceptable; other behaviors can signal sub-par outcomes.

Leading organizations are using smart AI to sharpen the game their new hires can play; laggards are still playing toe in the water and testing/evaluating.  Guess who loses the end game, and guess who blames others for the failure.

Honours, Plaudits, And Awards

By Art van Bodegraven | 03/09/2018 | 10:45 AM

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

My esteemed publishers at Agile Business Media have scored the Red Carpet treatment of Tony's, Oscars, Grammy's, Obie's and Golden Globes in the age of print media.  The May 2017 issue reported honours presented by the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) with Regional Azbee awards for editorial excellence.

My bias is that recognition comes from a clear separation of the editorial and advertising sides of the house, in a trade press chock-full of faux ads disguised as news and case reports.

The Agile publications cited include: DC Velocity; and CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly.

Individual awards landed in the laps of: Toby Gooley, SCQ Editor; Mark Solomon, DCV Executive Editor - News; Agile's Group Editorial Director, Mitch Mac Donald; and Karen Bachrach, DCV's Executive Editor - Features.

No, president Trump; we do not get tired of winning.

And, these are winners, all.   Deserved congratulations!

A Model For Mad Men

By Art van Bodegraven | 03/07/2018 | 8:43 AM

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

Once upon a time, a living exemplar of The Man In The Grey Flannel Suit, populated, even dominated, the burgeoning universe of American business.  Uniformity, but brilliance, fueled by a three-martini lunch.  Before Don Draper's fall from grace.  

Just imagine what it's like, wearing flannel; it'd be like walking about in winter sheets.

Alfred P. Sloan (P. For Pritchard) was a brilliant businesss mind, surpassing Henry Ford, as he built General Motors from the framework of United Motors (his father having bought a bearing company that prospered from its relationship with Oldsmobile).  Born with a silver lug wrench, so to speak, he went on to Brooklyn Polytechnic, then to MIT.

Alfred personified the "organization man", educated, from the right side of the tracks, and superbly organized.  He pioneered techniques later perfected by IBM's Thomas Watson: annual model changes; planned obsolescence; design; styling; brand identity; ; financial management; and ruthless industry dominance.  His creation defined an age, defied performance paradigms, and became humankind's largest-ever industrial enterprise.

He was not an aesthete or visionary, but a shrewd manager of diversity, a philanthropic engineer and  super-rational devotee of inventories and moving/selling sheet metal.

His power was immense, the original celebrity business leader, in the mold of Jack Welch (or Steve Jobs with a soul).

Without a soul, GM (somewhat like IBM or Renault) collaborated with the German Nazis to  put Opel and GM at the service of the Reich.  Without GM, there would have been no Messerschmidt, no invasion of Poland or Russia.

The ultimate right was GM's to run its global business.  Meanwhile, Ford engaged in violence against its workers; GM took the espionage route; each was intent on its own definition of success.

Alfred's steely and perpetual visage still looks down on the GM board room in Detroit's RenCen, where his hopeful legacy focuses on education, health care, and sundry magnificent good deeds.

This is the legacy of the tyrant whose hubris destroyed the colossus he had conceived and built - the man who ruined GM (and poisoned its workforce).

Suspicious Minds

By Art van Bodegraven | 03/04/2018 | 2:20 PM

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

To the shock and surprise of absolutely no one, The Ol' Blogmeister has been unveiled as a dancer, an uninvited guest at the masquerade.  By now, you all now that I can't spell without help, and struggle with tense, case, and number in otherwise thoughtful observations.

Basically, and expecting the worst, I pipelined dozens of blog posts, beginning now, and running through the opening of festivities at the beginning of March 2018.  The fly swimming in the soup is the need to change internet service providers, email addresses, and passwords.  The consequence is that each and every blog from then 'til 2 March 2018 is riddled with errors, most of the mis-spelt variety.  

Today marks our return to a more perfect world - and we are ready.  It's good to put on one's work clothes and get one's pen dirty in good causes.

The meaning of our adventure in the supply chain management space is to remember that over-committing is as bad, or worse, than under-committting.  Don't over-invest in what might be; do invest in reasonable precaution on the trip to risk mitigation and management.

Apologies, btw, for sassy, but deficient interim entries.  Please cut me some slack when egregious error diminishes my message.  Thanks for understanding.

Are You Ready For Cyber-Crime? Probably Not!

By Art van Bodegraven | 03/02/2018 | 11:07 AM

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

We tend to think of cyber-crime as white-collar fraud.  Fake IRS returns, imaginary credit cards, creative accounts, check fraud involving friends and neighbors, churches and service organizations.

But, businesses need to do more, to protect against risk.  Malicious marketing campaigns; disruptions caused by privacy breaches and botnets.  Customer data and trade secrets are at risk.

And, as IoT devices proliferate, the related vulnerabilities grow exponentially, especially as the mini-technology gets integrated farther back in the chain.

Recognize that many industries have been affected by cyber-crime.  Steal shamelessly from their techniques, and help manage risk through the experience of others.

Basically, your responsibility is to take a measured risk-based approach.  Are you vulnerable to attack, or worse?  Is your intellectual property safe?  Is it in the hands of the Indians or Chinese, both notorious for the theft of ideas?

Be constantly vigilant.  Is AI a vulnerability, and a risk for threats in an interconnected supply chain?

Be prepared; be resilient.  Know how long recovery might take, and who has the resources to remediate?

Boy Scout time; be prepared.  And, be on top of your game.  Your customer base is at stake, as is its integrity.

Toyota Jumps On The Material Handling Bandwagon

By Art van Bodegraven | 02/28/2018 | 7:28 AM

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

In hot industry news, the renowned Dutch material handling company, Vanderlande, was acquired by Toyota.  Vanderlande, a billion dollar corporation, is over 65 years old, and its material handling offerings include software.

Toyota picked up Bastian a couple of months ago.  Its systems integrator role included a position as Toyota's largest forklift provider.  Its goal is to be - not become, but be - the world's largest material handling provider.

Global visions predominate.  While traditional providers promote forklifts, Honeywell has acquired Intelligrated, and KION Group claimed Dematic.  

There is an over-riding thematic vision, though.  As a handful of enterprises stake a claim in a new world, brick-and-mortar players are determined to out-Amazon Amazon, with digitalization and omni-channel dreams, with returns and shipping costs eating into Jeff Bezos' universe.  And a select few global players are in the game . . .

Good luck with that, wanna-be's

Supply Chain Complexity And The Art Of Survival

By Art van Bodegraven | 02/25/2018 | 12:55 PM

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

Turning for a moment to Gentleman Jack, consider how butt-ugly supply chains are.  The complexities involved are in global reach, and must account for world events.  

What we have to deal with, at macro and micro-levels, are: accomodating insane customers and demands; globalized operations and relationships; supplier intricacies relative to the business; and cosmic trends in globalization and operations that account for increasingly incoherent behaviors.

Our challenges become how we lead this hot mess, and where details address those primary sources of SC complexity.

First, avoid complexity as a leading tactic for managing trickeration.

Second, seek and find good working partners - 3 PLs, suppliers, and advisors.  Third, invest in technology - applications, tools, data management, and automation.

4th, build and maintain flexible workforces, with multi-skills, cross training, creative acquisition, and retention. 5th, learn how to collaborate with suppliers, building trust, sharing results, and creating mutual value.  6th, get the right people in the room, at the right times.  Populate the resources with intelligent, high EQ leaders; shoot the managers.

Finally, 7th, link global and business issues, and build sourcing and procurement around them.

Okay, supply chains are complex, but living with them can be straightforward - if you've kept your wits about you.

People Changes And Challenges; Fleeing The Comfort Zone

By Art van Bodegraven | 02/23/2018 | 12:24 PM

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

A MHL piece gets some things right - and some things wrong.  A commentator claims that the SCM term has been with us for only twenty years.  Actually, the term has been published for over thirty-five years, and in common usage for over thirty.  Our use of the term dates to the early '80's.

The writer defines  a flow of the processes, all chasing the same goals.  The complexities of sourcing, manufacturing, warehousing, inventory control, shipping, processing, and order processing help make the activities understandable, and create harmony where chaos had previously reigned.

In theory, SC visibility lets everyone see what goes on throughout the chain.  But, too often, the game begins with cost-cutting, and ends with an end-to-end chain improvement.

A CEO's great challenge is knowing when to leverage people's intelligence.

Achieving visibility is an exercise in  teaching people what's what. Typically, a CEO leads the effort.  But, the obstacles are high.  People's tolerance for change is low, teams have a tendency to go rogue, and resistance is the order of the day.

CEO's almost never order change.  It is not until folks leave their comfort zones that they are free to pursue visibility - and see how the enterprise can perform at a higher level.

It's up to you; it's up to your CEO.  It's a new possibility.

Inspire Me, Big Boy . . .

By Art van Bodegraven | 02/21/2018 | 11:17 AM

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

There is a school of thought that posits that one of the major jobs of leaders and managers is to inspire teams and the workforce, with motivating elements of intimidation, team play, and hands-on  work of functional example.

Here's what can actully be done to inspire others - not a damn thing.  The notion of motivation and inspiration is largely an illusion.

What can be done is to enable the circumstances that promote individuals to inspire an motivate themselvs, create an environment of high performance, and remove obstacles to team  success.  Otherwise, forget it.

That said, for those inclined to attempt inspiration, a few things that might be tried include, if motivation is to be attempted nonetheless.

Make connections that stick, with people who you could help.

Meet others, and brng others together; create ad hoc networks.

Expand yoiur own network by assembling those with common interests.

Believe in the goodness of people; act accordingly.

Welcome, embrace, those who disagree with your points of view.

Adopt a cause, and dedicate yourself to it; get behind a core belief.

Act without fear, even when afraid of the unknown.

Give to the community.

Be grateful; show empathy; celebrate successes.

Be responsible and dependabe; show others that they can count on you.

Tell a good story; create lessons from life; relate stories to people's ability to inspire and motivate themselves.

These are as close to motivation as you'll get.  

So, teach teams and wokers to motivate and inspire themselves - now.

A Future That Might Never Be; Technology Without Robotics

By Art van Bodegraven | 02/16/2018 | 11:27 AM

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

Optimistic views of the future, thirst for transformations in medicine, food, and more.  We anticipate 3D self-propogating body parts, and precision robotics, that can perform amazing feats of incision, excision, and body repair.

In a variant of the field, IBM'S Watson is busy crunching numbers in hopes of refining Artificial Intelligence(AI) to discover new technology applications.

But, we have scratched another surface, none involving precision technology.  The action, per Fortune magazine is centered in pharma, genomics, agriculture, and reduced wait times for treatment.

Hardwired solutions abound: Uber, Lyft, Concentra, Nomad Health, Johns Hopkins, GE Healthcare.  The genomic solutions include: Crispr, Cpf1, Cas9, Editas, Allergan, Keytruda, and 23andMe.  Big Pharma puts big-time players on the field: Merck, but Food is red hot: MemphisMeats, Aquabounty, Impossible Foods (in general, plant-based, lab-grown, and fast growing).  The traditional industry giants stand astride the planet: Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, DuPont, GMO's and Syngenta, along with ChemChina).

This view of the future is radically different from the technology applications that, with robotics,have been the center of our thinking.

The opinions expressed herein are those solely of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of Agile Business Media, LLC., its properties or its employees.

About Art van Bodegraven

Art van Bodegraven

Art van Bodegraven (1939 - 2017) was Managing Principal of the van Bodegraven Associates consultancy and Founding Principal of Discovery Executive Services, which develops and delivers supply chain educational programs. He was formerly Chair of the Supply Chain Group AG, Partner at The Progress Group LLC, Development Executive at CSCMP, Practice Leader with S4 Consulting, and a Managing Director in Coopers & Lybrand's consulting practice. Concentrating in supply chain management and logistics for over 20 years in his 50+ year business career, he has led ground-breaking strategic, operational, and educational projects for leading US and global clients. Art was principal co-author of DC Velocity's Basic Training monthly column for a decade, and was the principal co-author, with Ken Ackerman, of Fundamentals of Supply Chain Management, the definitive primer in the field. His popular blog, The Art of Art, has been a staple of DC Velocity's web site since its inception.



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