Did you know that whenever something fails in your life, it’s your fault? Seriously, if you really think about it. But yes, you are right, this is a provocative thought. I had a colleague make that statement on stage to a room full of peers, I was shocked too. My initial reaction was to react with rebellion and my brain searched for an argument on why this statement is wrong.

One thing that continues to surprise me is the misinformation around the topic of data privacy and the legal requirements. Especially around hot topics such as the Cloud Act. I’m not an attorney, but I give quite a few presentations and I make it habit to ask who has read the swiss data privacy act or who knows what ISO 27001 governs. I would say the hands raised to these questions is definitely below 10% but everyone seems to have strong opinion about it.

Do you enjoy sending invoices, paying bills, arranging insurance, shopping, booking flights and hotels and hire cars, and so on? I don’t. In a perfect world, I would do only the tasks at work that I love, and enjoy my non-working time with family and friends. I’m excited by the thought that my personal assistant, for example Cortana, will be able to take care of all of these chores for me.

It will happen. Already I rely on Outlook’s AI to learn which emails I need to prioritize and which I can ignore. I look forward to seeing this functionality expand to help me decide, for instance, what I’d enjoy watching on TV. Sooner or later, I will be able to say “Cortana, buy me a new shirt” or “Cortana, find me a hotel in Frankfurt”. I will trust Cortana to know my preferences and make the same decisions I would have done if I’d put the time into researching them.  

On a recent  Swiss International flight to the United States, I was remembering the book “The Future Computed,” by Brad Smith and Harry Shum. They tell the story of Melisha Ghimere, 20-year-old computer science student who leverages AI in Nepal to help farmers monitor the health and well-being of their livestock and to prevent outbreaks of diseases. You can find my book recommendation here.

I was fortunate enough to be flying in business class. As I read, the flight attendants moved through the cabin asking passengers to choose their meal from a menu with three or four options per course. They noted down each passenger’s preference on a piece of paper.

“Customers articulate, business value in many ways, but at the end of the day, every description resolves down to just three dimensions: increasing my revenue, lowering my costs, and reducing my risk.”

Did you know that the current B2B model originated in the 1880s? In fact, it’s attributed that John Patterson is the “father of professional selling”, who in 1984 bought a controlling interest of the National Manufacturing Company of Dayton, Ohio. Later he renamed the company to National Cashier Register or in short (NCR). If you already have experience in B2B sales, then most of the things you know about how to sell comes from the framework he introduced and made NCR a huge success.