Blog 1-7: A wee bit of perspective

Last month I announced the start-up of my own company Em-Jay. This was met with a flurry of congratulations, but also a few questions, specifically “Why?” Why go on your own? Why consulting? Why not retire? Why not open a pub in the highlands of Scotland?

OK the last one did cross my mind at one point!

Personally, I have tried to avoid the term “moving into consulting” as unfortunately in today’s world it can also carry negative connotations. A phrase often used that exemplifies this is “lend me your watch so I can tell you the time”. This is a characterization I aim to avoid fully.

There are a number of reasons I felt the need to jump into this line of work (or back into, as I dabbled a little in my earlier career). There is one reason that underpins them all though, and that is the failure of the manufacturer to acknowledge and learn from the past to ensure the path through the digital future is easier.

People talk about Digital Transformation as if it is something new, it is not. Having been in and around Manufacturing plants for over 35 years, I can tell you digital transformation was already starting way back then, and most likely will never stop evolving.

We have a lot to learn from the past, however it is also threatened due to the cancel culture growing in certain corners of society. Surely in manufacturing leveraging and learning from our past exploits is critical to making the correct step into the future? There are a lot of sunk cost investments out there which are springboards, not anchors around our necks.

Similarly, there are lots of new topics emerging in today’s world (AI, Collaborative Frameworks, etc), for those to work effectively we must build upon the foundations laid over the past years, improve them, and align them.

Take AI as an example. It is already being proven that if that data it is learning from is biased, wrong or simply dodgy, then the output will be the same. Quite a few articles have been published on how this "Data Gap Continues To Inhibit Artificial Intelligence", however this data gap has been present for decades and is still a long way from being resolved. So, are we really learning from the past and resolving for the future? Or are we simply putting sticking plasters on the problem hoping It will go away on its own?

Having spent time on different sides of the fence, combined with having the pleasure of meeting lots of smart people across the globe, across different industries, I simply want to offer my perspective, my opinion, and hopefully stimulate some debate.

Here are a couple to share already, let me know if they resonate:

• Anyone that says they have the answer on their own is probably wrong.

• Anyone who says they have the solution without understanding YOUR problem, is definitely wrong.

In the spirit of collaboration, I will share my views over a series of blogs released over the coming weeks. You may agree, you may not, it is only my opinion where I aim to be deliberately provocative. It wouldn’t be collaborative if it didn’t stimulate constructive discussions and debates.

Learn from the past, to prepare us well for the future!

Blog 2-7: Perspectives from the Past, coming in a weeks time.