Is your job at risk – Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

Career & Employment

Companies started looking at business outsourcing in the early 1980’s.

Outsourcing is a structured arrangement with a company and a services provider for transferring the functions from in-house to external providers. The services are usually delivered overseas for lower costs. Therefore cost and efficiency is one of the key drivers for most companies to embrace outsourcing.

Nowadays it is an accepted fact that all companies outsource their back end services and operations.

However due to war for talent in developing countries, companies are rapidly finding their costs are going up and benefits eroded.

So how do companies increase productivity ?

Productivity is the measure of how much output a company generates with one measure of input per unit time.

The perception is that we use people predominantly for their interaction, judgement and analysing skills. That is for their people skills.

However businesses around the world are realizing that they do not have a very high level of automation in their IT systems and processes. Therefore people are being utilized to overcome this gap to provide the necessary services and products. And in the last few years we have end up using more and more people in the gaps.

These gaps are prevalent throughout the delivery life-cycle of a product or a service. They commonly occur when the cost to change existing technology is not feasible. Therefore it is more cost effective to deploy more people to the life-cycle.

Companies have been trying to achieve the nirvana of a globally integrated single instance enterprise platforms. However the realities of cost, time, market changes and regulatory updates make this dream very difficult.

Enter the world of artificial intelligence and robotics. Technology is disrupting the world and providing innovation to get things done quicker, easier and better.

So what is a robot and how does this look like ?

When you picture a robot working in the office are you thinking of a robot sitting next to you with arms and legs typing on the computer? This is not how it will look or work.

Instead think of a player-less piano. This piano is the same instrument, plays the same piece of music but without a player.

Anywhere there is a repeatable rules based work a robot can be “trained” to do the task. It can “watch” a person do the task and “learn”. There is no need to change any of the existing systems or delivery life-cycle. Therefore implementing a robot is fast, easy with limited risks.

A robot can be deployed for a third of the cost of an offshore person. It will work 4 to 20 times faster than a person 24 hrs a day. It will not complain or ask for a raise. If work increases a new robot can be deployed for $10K-$20K within a couple of hours.

So how does the future company look like?

The way things are panning out, it looks like a company manager will have two reporting lines as shown below.

Untitled

Readers what do you think?

MRL

Do I resign from my job to start a business?

Business

I have had the bug to start a business for a long time now.

A bit of background, I am a mid thirties married guy. Career wise I am doing okay in a mid level management role. And if I stick around I will rise up the ranks.
Financially we are comfortable and have saved “f**k you” money.

Why in god’s name do I want to do start a business?

  1. I get paid reasonably well with limited stress
  2. get along well with my boss/colleagues
  3. have skills that can be transferred across multiple industries and locations
  4. have a great lifestyle
  5. have/can buy anything I want/need
  6. and am saving/investing money for the future

So why do I want to exert and push when I can relax and take it easy? I can keep working and saving/investing money for another ten years and be done with it.

The reasons I can think of are –

  1. Starting and running a business is something I believe I can do very well.
  2. It will expand all of my skills and provide immense personal satisfaction
  3. I like the aspect of being in control of my destiny.
  4. Opportunity to make a big impact for my family and the world.
  5. Opportunity to create something that will improve people’s lives.
  6. Opportunity to earn more and fill up my cup.

So what are the cons of following this path?

There will be a financial impact. The worst case scenario is that we will chew into our savings with no income. I will dearly miss the regular pay cheque hitting the bank account.
This risk will be mitigated somewhat because my partner is keen to work and able to support me. (Thanks baby!) And I am prepared to work other part time jobs to keep the cash flow going. Worst case, I go back to working as an employee.

I will be losing a year of career growth as an employee. This one I am not overly worried about because even if I fail in my business, I believe this experience will set me up for greater success as an employee.

The critical success factors I will be working towards is to earn $80K by the end of the year. Will set up weekly and monthly reviews with my partner and mentors who can judge and provide honest critical feedback on how I am tracking. This is to ensure I am staying the course and enable us to change directions if required. I will try to utilize this blog to track progress.

So what am I going to do?

I will target opportunities that will reach and impact a minimum market of 1 million users. The predominant investment into the business will be sweat equity of effort, skill and time. The maximum investment will be limited to $5K to generate revenue. I will target multiple opportunities with fast prototyping and launch.

Sharing all the above with you, I am now leaning towards resigning my job and starting a business. The pros far outweigh the cons. I think I will benefit immensely on a personal and professional level by giving this a red hot go.

Readers what do you think? Please let me know your thoughts and feedback.

Get rich by increasing likeability in your life

Motivation

Every day across the world in boardrooms, committees, social groups, clubs and families – people are constantly making choices on who they should choose for the promotion, who should be selected and who they want to spend time with.

Even in situations where a technical skill is required to complete a task it is the “likeability factor” that is the deciding choice. The conversation might go something like this

“So what do you think of Mr A?”

“I think he is very competent and everyone in the team like him”

“what about Mr B?”

“Although he is good technically he has issues getting along with people”

Therefore in this situation it is entirely feasible for a person with lower technical skill but with a higher likeability factor to get the role. I am not saying technical skill are not relevant in the above situation but the ability to get along with people, the “likeability factor” is rated higher.

Therefore learn the key soft skills that will improve your likeability factor. Try to build an “old shoe” personality where people are relaxed in your presence.

Here are some things that are paying dividends for me

  1. Aggressively listen and pay attention when a person is talking.
  2. Every one of us crave validation – did you hear me, did you see me and did what I say mean anything to you? Are you fully here with me or are you distracted?
  3. Smile often and regularly.
  4. Try and avoid arguments, complaining and criticising people. The best way to improve on this is to track when and where you were successful or can improve. This has immensely helped me focus and improve.
  5. Genuienly try to see things from the other person’s point of view. Mastering this will equip you with the ability to sell snow at the North Pole. It requires the application of all the above skills.

Readers what do you think? Any other tips that have helped your dealings with people?

MRL

Outstanding success at a job – Earn more

Uncategorized

 

A lot of people seem to think the fact that they stayed with a company for many years they deserve a huge salary. Another common issue many people get caught out by is the requirement of advanced skills to perform a task. Everyone forgets the primary purpose of a business is to make money. Therefore to earn more money we have to get closer to the money. As an example sales.

Okay so now we are closer to the money but how do we translate the role into a higher paying job? By achieving outstanding success at work. We do this by

  1. Do some homework on
    1. a) Understanding the vision, values, purpose and objectives of the business b) Reviewing the company strategy to achieve the company objectives
  2. Meet up with senior managers in your company and understand their role and responsibilities
  3. Ask them what you can do that will “knock their socks off!”
  4. Execute and deliver on the above

You might need to re-run the approach to the above steps and work with senior managers in your company.

Readers, what do you think? What are the tips that worked for you in achieving outstanding success at work?

What is a rich life?

Uncategorized

“Money” seems to be the one word that is present everywhere. The word features in every aspect of our lives –  songs, movies, ads, businesses…… and the list goes on.

To be successful these days, you need to be rich in happiness, friendships, health and ideas – Sir Richard Branson

Ideas and their execution is what makes a difference in our lives. This blog is about working out how to tap into the huge number of opportunities that present themselves in our lives and to become rich.

Here’s to our exciting journey ahead…… cheers

MRL