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How to Use AI as a Co-Thinker, Not a Competitor · Business Roundtable

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: David Carr, founder of Steward Your Business Will. We bring
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: people together to accomplish great things. We have a brand
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: new guest this week. I'm super excited to have Philip
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Topham on here. Philip is done a wide range of
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: different things. We're gonna get into it, but board executive,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: AI advisor, founder of Craft Thinking, co founder of Save
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: You on AI. We're going to learn all about how
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: do you co think with AI in today's world, leading
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: with clarity in a really a disrupted world. Right now.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the podcast.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Philip, great to be here, looking forward to it.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Great conversation, absolutely absolutely. You and I got to meet
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: recently at the Executive Next practice here in Orange County,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: which was fantastic, and you gave a great talk about
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: boards and how they're using AI. And I said, well,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: we got to get Phillip on this podcast. You've written,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I mean a lot of different essays, you're on substack,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: generative AI, you have a new book coming out, I mean,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of different things, and I thought, well,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: let's get you on here and talk about this. But
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: before we dive into the media that I always like
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to have our guests share a little bit about their
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: journey as an entrepreneur, business owner, leader, just you know,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: take us through your own journey, Philip of what got
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: you today and why you're doing the things that you're
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: doing now.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: So let me start with first. I'm always looking forward
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: and I've totally focused on the generative AI.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: When the chats gipp landed, I thought, oh, this is great, this.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Is pretty neat, but I was a little hesitant because
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: normally I'm ahead of the curve.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: And a one hundred million downloads later, I said wow.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: And that's when I committed myself personally to writing on substack,
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: and I said, I'm going to challenge myself personally to
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: write two articles a week for fifty weeks, one hundred articles.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: I'm now up to one hundred and thirty five articles,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: and I've dug deep to understand it.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: How I came here was I've always been interested.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: In the future, sci fi reading a routine, got into computers.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: I've been a CIO for some large companies and then
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: some my own startup and also give it back right
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: now at both the University of California Riverside and Irvine
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: to deep tech companies, new founders, I advisory boards, and
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: then I even I like camping, I like Bill Yours,
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: I do scuba diving. I'm now trying to travel the world.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: I'm going to go to Egypt to the Pyramids here soon.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: I love it all right.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I love it. You have a zest for life, so
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: do I fill up? And then we have a lot
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: of similar passions. You can tell about my lightsaber behind
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: me for those of you are watching the video, you know,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: so I love that you have that. One of the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: things you coined that I heard you say, I don't
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: say this when we were at the conference and executive
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: back practice, as you said this word co thinking with AI,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: and I thought, okay, this hasn't presented this way, and
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: that really stuck with me. And it just feels different
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: than most people how most people are describing AI always
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: ais are going to replace my, replace me. But I'm
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: starting to see a little percolation in this about thinking
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: how do we help elevate our workforce? But can you
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: break that down a little bit, what do you what
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: do you mean by when you say co thinking with
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: because maybe new to a lot of people.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so let's let's start with the two letters A I.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: If I asked ten people, I'll get twenty opinions. Let
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: me level said. When I'm usually talking about AI, I'm
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: talking about all the stuff that suddenly came out when chatchipt.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Open AI launched on the scenes and.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Then made conversations available with this artificial intelligence that you know,
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: we could have conversations. And what I noticed was this
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: hype over using the technology for replacing jobs or we're
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: doing a reitive task, like all the knowledge worker jobs
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: are going to go away, And I'm thinking, what value
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  Speaker 3: do I really do if I'm matching invoices. I'm like,
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  Speaker 3: I'm moving, I'm a knowledge worker, I'm matching an invoice.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: But what I realized as I'm working with people is
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: that stuff that's intrinsically human, our our creativity are thinking.
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  Speaker 2: The AI doesn't have it, they.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Don't have the emotions that they have what we write
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  Speaker 3: about it. So thinking was this idea. I found myself
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  Speaker 3: using it to augment the way I thought about things.
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  Speaker 2: I'm a naturally, I'm a deep thinker.
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  Speaker 3: Obviously as a writing I'm sharing my thoughts my thinking
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  Speaker 3: discovered that it was augmenting my humanity right, letting is
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  Speaker 3: getting rid of the drudgery. Like I would have never
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  Speaker 3: have been able to write if I had to edit.
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  Speaker 3: I'm a terrible editor. I hate it. But grudgery has
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  Speaker 3: gone away. But now I can say I can write,
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  Speaker 3: I can talk, and then I can recraft the story
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  Speaker 3: and I can think about what does that mean? How
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: does it mean? And that's what I mean about co
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  Speaker 3: thinking and I we can There's lots to unpack there,
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  Speaker 3: but let's just start there.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think, well, I think that's I hope
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  Speaker 1: people that are listening into this because I really like
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  Speaker 1: that approach that you're bringing to bring out some of
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the drudgery of things and how do we make our
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I like that augmented? How do we become a better
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: version of ourselves? And here is another tool out there
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  Speaker 1: to do that. I think, you know, trying to remove
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: some of the fear or the worry or the doubt
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: instead of saying, how do we lean into this and
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: have a healthier conversation? And I thought, I really what
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: I saw you and others facilitating that at that Executive
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  Speaker 1: Next Practice particular the panel that you were on. Now,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of folks that I work with are in
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: the small business professional services realm. How do you see
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: them now leaning into this that don't maybe have massive
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: AI budgets or there to be. But then we got
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: to figure out how to co think with this, like
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: they can't ignore it. I mean, like you said, it's there,
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  Speaker 1: it's upon us.
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  Speaker 3: Oh boy, I love the softball questions. That's an easy one. Frankly,
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  Speaker 3: you know it's this is the thing is when you
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: hear the two letters AI and you hear all this
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  Speaker 3: massive money that open AI and Google and they're spending
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: the stuff, well they're spending it, so that's really cheap
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: twenty bucks a month or even the free versions are free,
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: you know. So all that's required is for you to
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: use the prompt asks questions, but start having conversations with
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: it in a way and there's a little bit of adjustment.
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  Speaker 3: And I'll give you an example. If you and I
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: had the conversation. We both live in southern California. If
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: I said I'm going down to the river this weekend,
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: you might know that I'm going to Lake havisu Colorado
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: River to jet ski or something. Yes, immediately, if I
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: set up in a Sacramento you might go, I'm going
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: to the Sacramento River. Don't that?
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: But if I tell it Ai, I'm going to the.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: River this week and I'll go what river? I don't know?
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  Speaker 3: You have you have to tell it the stuff. Humans
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: will do it a little different, like we'll ask. And
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: so that's where the craft thinking comes in. It's how
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: to adjust the way we have a conversation to augment ourselves.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I that that is a great analogy because
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: I think people don't realize, oh that't hasn't it has that?
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't have that knowledge base. I mean the knowledge
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: is there, but how do you access it? How do
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: you set it up? So I'm gonna back up, I
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: leave a little bit more of the what would you
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: say if if there's maybe a smaller firm or they're
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: looking like, what would you say is the first meaningful
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: step that they should consider with integrating AI into their
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: you know, to co think with it. I mean, like
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: you said, you can go get the free version, but
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: maybe just like Haye ad hoc, like as a company,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: like kind of making a practical step of like okay,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to go step into this world.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, every every company, especially the service companies, you have
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  Speaker 3: a unique gift.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know whatever that service is.
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  Speaker 3: You're delivering, you have a unique gift. And when you
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: double down on it, figure out what is that unique
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  Speaker 3: gift that I have, rehab company has, and then what
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  Speaker 3: are all the stuff that's kind of like ah, that
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  Speaker 3: like the editing of this case or writing the copy
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  Speaker 3: for LinkedIn. That's some mechanical stuff. But maybe you're presenting
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  Speaker 3: some information to a client and you're before you were rushed,
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  Speaker 3: you couldn't. You had to write it out, you go
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  Speaker 3: back your notes, you pre pred it down. But here
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  Speaker 3: you could literally speak your eye ideas of what you're
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  Speaker 3: going to present to the customer.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm going to meet this customer. Here is their situation.
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  Speaker 3: I'm trying to help them accelerate their sales, and I'm
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  Speaker 3: thinking about different things. Help me understand how I might
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  Speaker 3: approach this person. Now you're having a conversation with yourself
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  Speaker 3: but also with the computer, because we naturally do that.
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  Speaker 3: We always have that little person sitting on our shoulder
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  Speaker 3: and we're thinking. But we can now say it out loud.
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  Speaker 3: If we get feedback, that's priceless, right that any service
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  Speaker 3: providor can do it. Any company, and I believe every
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  Speaker 3: company should have.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think well that's a very safe environment
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  Speaker 1: that you can start after that question is not with
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: a real customer or a real client maybe messing it
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  Speaker 1: up and saying, let me test these things our ideas here.
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  Speaker 1: And I've seen some really neat technologies now where you
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  Speaker 1: can talk to it and have a talk back to you,
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  Speaker 1: or different ways of interfacing with it. So don't be afraid.
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  Speaker 1: What I hear you say is don't be afraid of
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  Speaker 1: exploring that and really getting a better understanding, because I mean,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: I have work in professional services. I submit a proposal
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  Speaker 1: out there in the past before AI and I and
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: we didn't win the work, and we understand. But now
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: I could maybe anticipate that what you're saying, develop us
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: work through that, anticipate what some of the objections or
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: questions might be before we even actually send it out there.
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  Speaker 1: See what you know.
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  Speaker 2: Learn absolutely. Let's suppose you have a past proposal that.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: You you would use as you're the new thing. You
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: would literally have a conversation and say, hey, I'm thinking
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: about submit I'm looking to submit a new proposal.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: I like you to take a look at the old proposal.
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to be loaded up and then say this
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: particular situation is this, I'm worried that I'm not got
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: the right messaging or I'm worried that I've got too
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: much or too little.
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  Speaker 2: You help me think through how I might with the
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: good things in the proposal, what are the bad things?
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  Speaker 3: And here's the kicker. You can also go what are
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: the implications of the next steps, Like if the customer,
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: if the proposal is asking for this, what might be
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: things I think they're looking for this? What other things
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  Speaker 3: might they be looking for that I haven't yet thought about?
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  Speaker 3: As just simply asking that question. Even if the answer
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: is not perfect, right, that's not the point. You have
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: an answer and you'll be able to react to it.
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  Speaker 3: But when you're the only person doing all of the
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: thinking and all of it gets tired, it gets so
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: you have a you can have a conversation with the
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: AI and that's the real point. You're co thinking.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. Now. Before we recorded the podcast
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: up United conversation and a couple things stood out to me.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: And when you're talking about layers that we have within
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: organization of individual tools, organizational kind of intentionality, and then
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: the enterprise efficiency if you will, could you kind of
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: break that down for me and for our audience.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, every First off, every company whoever owns the company,
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: they have and they have they have a reason for
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: owning the company, right company serves. They have some intentionality
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: around what the company is supposed to provide. You know,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: we intend to be the best in this industry. We
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: be intend to be the best in that industry, or
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: we put customers first. And the reason we have it
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: is we want to have a lifestyle business, or we
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: the reason we do it is we want to get
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: venture capital and sell it to Silicon Valley and retire
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: and go on the beach. Everybody has a core intentionality
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: or I just want to put food on the table
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: for my families to go college. That's very important.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Every person has that. But the business exists a serve
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: everybody's needs.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: And so in the business, when you start thinking about
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: your business, I always break down, there's the CEO, the
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: C suite, maybe director, salespeople. They all fit in a
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: different place and you each have different roles. And so
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: you can actually use the term I use a digital
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: twin your co thinker.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, yes, And.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: You could have a co thinker. I believe every person
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: has a you should have a co thinker that helps
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: them with your job.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: The thought partner knows that your job.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: They know where you're fit, they know what you're supposed
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: to be doing, your objectives, what.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: You intend to do, or your intentionality, and it helps
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: you think through those.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: I even think it should be on the ORG chart.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I love that well. I love the idea
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: of a code thinker because I see this in an organization,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: particularly small organizations developed and I think this is I'd
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: love to get your thoughts on this with AI. If
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: you develop a code you know thinker this, you know
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: this using the AI, if something happens to that individual
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: in the organization, they get sick, they're out, they need
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: to take vacation, maternal leave. If you're developing, and I
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: see where you can get value and say, I've got
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: some questions for you that you're gone, you're the person
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: is gone, but I can can I get some understanding
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: of how to do you payroll of the invoices or
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: something's missing? You know, And that if I have that
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: well developed within the organization, can be very powerful, you know.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: I Yet, yet I hadn't thought of that, But yes, absolutely,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: you the more these systems are adding memory to their capabilities,
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: they know a lot of that stuff and as you
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: start putting in the information, it has a body of knowledge.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: So if you're you're the payroll person and you're putting
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: in all the payroll stuffs, it can co think with
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: you how payroll and help you with those sorts of
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: things as well. But but it's the parts. Those are
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: some of those are the mechanical parts, but there's a
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: lot of things like how do I handle that difficult
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: person I'm doing cols, what are the strategies I've never
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: done this before?
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Can you help me through this? How much role play
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: this difficult person?
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: Those are great ways.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: To use AI as a as a helper.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, No, you're you're speaking my language, Philip, because
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: that's part of what I do with Steward your business
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: is organizational health and giving them some tools to start
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: working through that. And then I come in as a
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: coach and we work through some things and elements and
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: consultant as well. But I think getting you going absolutely,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: I think it's a great perspective, Philip, of like how
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: do you use those why follow up question I guess
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: to the the to the co you know, creating this
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: digital twin if you will, how do you because I
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: could see this could be a little bit of a
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: trap if they're not prepared for this or thinking forward enough.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: L how do you help avoid leaders avoid the trap
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: of maybe being siloed, meaning everybody kind of using their
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: own Like you said, it's free, I'm gonna go pick
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: JAM and I'm gonna go pick copilot, I'm going to
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: pick chat GPT, so they're all starting their own little
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: conversations if you will.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So that's always back to the Yes, that's the
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: little bits of governance that's around the government, best practices
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: around governing and managing your business. You always want to
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: have some thoughts as to your what's your AI policy.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: It doesn't need to be fancy, it doesn't need to
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: be you know, incted blood, but it's the guidelines, like
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: we prefer this tech technology so that we can all
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: share best practices for this technology doesn't prescribe people. It
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: also depends on the type of business you are. Like
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: I for most people seem to be overly worried about
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: the privacy piece.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Yes, complete, but you stop.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: And think about it. Who's really, really, really trying to
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: steal all your ip Like if I am the largest
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: of pharmaceutical companies and I have a secret formula. Really,
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: they're not trying to steal a secret formula as much
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: as they're trying to steal like my marketing plans. When
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: am I going to market my produgt and and those industries.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: They're naturally careful, so they they'll talk. They have their
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: own they're big enough they they buy their own services
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: and say, use my use only the approved company services
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: to deal with these sensitive topics. But it's the same things.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: They're smart enough to go. If I call them up
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: on the phone, say tell me your secret formula, they'll go, no,
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to do that.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: I think people for some reason over worry it. But
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: if I'm a if I'm an I don't know why
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: I'm accountant. So if I'm an accounting firm, right, how
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: many ways are the new entry of of recording an entry? Like?
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Is that a secret?
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: Do I worry about it? No?
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: Nothing proprietary there.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well you brought so we talked. You have a
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: lot of experience. We just talked about governance. I'd love
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: to get in there because you work with a private
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: director association, another you're helping boards, you know, so whether
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: you actually have a full on board or you know,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: something smaller in your business, how should they be thinking
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: about that from a you know, a governance perspective, leadership perspective.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I mean there use the secrecy is definitely one of
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: these sues you're bringing up. But how and how they
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: look at strategy and how they're they're running their companies.
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: Perfect, Let's let's level set a little bit here, because yeah,
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: so governance is a fancy weird you know, realistically, the
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: governance is what are.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: We going to do? How are we going to run
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: this business?
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: And and most people they have a sense of what it.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: Is like We're going to be honest, we're gonna be ethical,
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: we're going to be caring, we're gonna we're going to
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: tell people what we're doing and you know, meet our word.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: You know, they they have that sense.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: When companies get super duper duper large, that gets more
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: and more challenging because you end up dealing with more governments.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: You might be dealing with Europe or you know, and
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: so you have.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: A lots more regulations because different countries have different and
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: it gets a mess. But at the end of the day,
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: the top of the business of the board, they're dealing
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: with a strategy, like what is our business? Do we
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: expand over here or not expand over here? What's going
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: to happen when let's imagine we have a future where
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: we have robots. You know, we have cars now, maybe
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: we want robotic driving cars. What might that look like?
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: That's strategy, right, But you know if I have a
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: robotic car, the tactics might be how do I repair
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: the car? Right? Those are tactics, And so the big
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: thing for small companies is to is that's where the
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: cothinking is really important. Are you working on the business,
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: which is the strategy, or are you working in the business,
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: which are all the tactics?
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: M right, yeah, well, and I think it's easy. It's
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: most time I find, at least especially small businessors are
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: working a lot in the business and they're not spending
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: enough time on the tactics. And where do you see?
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: You mentioned the digital twin? Where do you see you know?
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: And the strategy perspective?
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: Philip? Is it?
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: You know you mentioned asking questions and some things with
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: clients and customers, But what do you see as a
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: leadership perspective, how we can better use AI and making
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: those strategic decisions.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so here's a here's a here's a great one.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: I use a lot of times. There's two things I
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: asked people.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: One is.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: What a lot of people look at the risk of things.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: I said that we don't.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Need AI, We're going to go slow, We're going to things.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: And I asked the question, what happens if you're the
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: last person in your industry to you start using these technologies?
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: What what does that do to your business? And what
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: would happen you were.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: The last one to get on the train or start even.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: Working right, especially it's just and then the second question
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: I usually ask, how would you completely reimagine your business
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: in the age of the jetsons, uh to like the
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: compute future where you have the iron Man Jarvis answering
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: your questions and doing your business for you?
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: What would that look like? And now it's it's it's like,
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: would you be in business right?
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: I don't know, Like there was a point in history
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: when taxi cab the gold yellow medallion in New York,
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: you know, and then Uber comes along and takes eats
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: their lunch right now.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, things will change.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: That's always been true.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Smart businesses are thinking about how what is going to
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: happen and planning out the answers, like practicing how they
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: would make the decision.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: You don't need to make the decision today because it
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: hasn't happened.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what would.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Happen if we could redo our business?
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: What? What?
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: What AI startups are coming.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: For our business? Right?
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: I love as you're as you're saying that example of
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: the taxis Philip. What came to mind for me was, uh,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Netflix and Blockbuster, Blockbuster being the biggest video right, they
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: were there, they were the top of the heap. Yeah,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: and then they were, oh, we'll do streaming, but it
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: was already too late. Netflix had already got their foot
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: in the door. They already and they did it kind
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: of step wise. They said, we'll mail you whatever DVD
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: is back and the day for those people that remember this,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: But and then they went to streaming, and then they
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and then they the Blockbuster is no more so to
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: your point, and I think more than ever, I love
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: your thoughts on this. I was talking with another colleague yesterday,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: but you know, AI is here. It's not like in
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: the past. Where we had different softwarees. We want to
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: it's kind of thrust upon us, if you will. So
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: you know, like you said, you kind of ignore it
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: at your own peril.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: Right, yeah, So I'll use this analogy for a lot
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: of us like you and I. We've we've lived enough,
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: like we've seen technology come and go. And I just
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: wrote an article, you know, the express express train ticketed
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: passengers only somebody was suggesting that this change is you know,
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: just suck it up. You know, the change is no
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: big deal. Right.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Well, I went through the dot com, I.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: Went through the iPhone, through all these things, deglobalization, the.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: Collapse of the Berlin Wall, all these.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: Things in my lifetime, right and I go. And so
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: I could say, hey, mister new person and with AI,
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: just suck it up. It's just changed, no big deal.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: But what I will say is now put that entire
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: lifetime of change into the next five years. Okay, now,
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: what is your business again? That's scary, it's scary, But
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: what're not so scary.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Is this technology lets us.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Do what we're really really good at, which is being creative,
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: inquisitive humans, figuring stuff out and taking care of people
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: and working relationships and helping customers and helping them solve problems.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: We're good at that.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: There were eight billion people on the planet good at it.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: Yes there's problems, don't get me wrong, there's problems, but
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: you know, if we were not very successful at it,
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: we might have maybe one hundred million people on the planet. Right,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: So we've done something reasonably well and we need to
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: get better.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: So I tend to be a I don't always look
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: at the bad stuff.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: I'm a pragmatist that says, you know, yes, there's room
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: to improvement. Absolutely, But I'm also a believer this technology
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: can use those of us to Again.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I don't have to learn how to be a grammaratist grammatist.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: It just helps, does it for me?
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah? No, Well, I love I love your perspective, and
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I appreciate the the the positive voice to see things.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, the reality of what you're saying is the
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: gravity of that. I think it is important that we
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: kind of take that to home. But what I had
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: I had a conversation on a podcast recently a gentleman.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: We were talking he does SAP enterprise users signing us off.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: We were talking about this and he he We're talking
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: about how technology and AI specifically, we feel that it
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: could help make us better people. But from your perspective,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: how do you you say AI can accelerate or amplify
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: maybe a return to more authentic relationships. We've had a
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: break down there. We were more connected, but I think
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: we're still missing the authenticity that of being truly known
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: and having the deeper relationships. Unfortunately, our world is a
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: broken world, but we've done some better things. How do
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: you see this helping us in that space?
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: I think there's a very deep question. But the more
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: that some of this drudgery is taken care of, and
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: the more that there's transactions, I think we then are
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: very It's very obvious when we get a great relationship,
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: it's much easier to say, all, Wow, I really made
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: a connection to that person. I really made an impact.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: And I believe once as we start seeing the impact
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: on that like I belong. As you mentioned that the
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: Private Directors Association and that organization, you could argue professional
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: organizations have had a very difficult time through all the
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: new content on YouTube and everything else. What makes that
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: organization work is the personal relationship ships, all the connections
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: and all the opportunities to talk and help each other
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: and talk about all the changes that are occurring that community.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: I believe that we've come through this phase of discounting community,
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: discounted relationships. AI is going to make it, give us
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: more time to recognize those relationships are so important. And
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: I believe that we'll as we get we'll go back
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: to what we want. I'm I'm scared. I'm worried. Oh,
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: let me help you. Right, that's a relationship, and so
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: I think we'll go through this weird period, but I
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: think we'll find more of that authenticity as we come
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: out and figure it out. Oh.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm encouraged to hear you say that, Phillips,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: of all the research and where you're at on things.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: And again, you guys check out AI. He's got on
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: subsectly what over one hundred and thirty thirty five articles
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: you said, the.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: Thirty articles, and the big big push right now is
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: the Craft Thinking and that will be launched.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: It's a proper book turned into a book.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Come to you.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: There you go.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: I got it over to the editor to help me,
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: a real life human editor.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: Right, I did. I did the manual stuff, but he's
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: gonna do tell me. I'm all stupid or not.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: It encourages me as one that's you know, my passion
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: is bringing people together to accomplish great things, to bringing
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: that human connection. I feel like to your point, Philip,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: I think our human experience we are designed, and I
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: believe you know we have an innate draw within ourselves
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: to connect with each other. We have this podcast, you
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: and I are connecting. We're sharing it with the world,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: and we want in the in the attempts that we
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: can reach more people, but because we want them to
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: connect and we want you as you guys are listening
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: to this. If you guys have a question or comment,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: please put in here or we'll get it to Philip
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: so he can respond. Philip and I are connected on
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: LinkedIn as well, reach out connect. He's been great, he
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: was really responds to me. I got to meet him
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: because this is beautiful, Philip, because I know I saw
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: you were going to speak at the event, I reached
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: out to you on LinkedIn. I got to talk with
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: this guy, and then I got to meet you in
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: real person in the event and here we are on
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the podcast. I think it's a beautiful thing and I
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: so appreciate having you here.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: Absolutely It's been great to have the conversation and share
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: a little just a little bit of folks.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: I'd love to have any other conversations out there.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: Make my promises to everybody. I hope to shorten your journey.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: As we're as we're getting wrapping up on the podcast,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: and Philip, I would love to have you back, and
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: we probably have to have another roundtable because I love
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: the one that you did on your on the panel.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Uh last was last month. You know what if if
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: you know, if they listen, is if we have leaders,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: business owners, folks that are up and coming and using
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: you know AI, you know what would you say? Okay,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: if nothing else, would you practically say, Hey, where do
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: I begin or where should I just look at or
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: evaluate so that I'm the future ready, that I'm prepared
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: for what it's like you said, it's here, it's coming.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: How do I just better equip and enable myself to
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: to co think with this ada be in a better
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: place going forward to two things.
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: One is give yourself grace. Anytime we're learning something new,
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: it feels weird, squishy, uncomfortable. Am I doing it right?
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: Am I doing it wrong? What's the best? And as
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: adults were worse than that. So channel your channel, your
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: two year old, but why, like, how does this work?
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: And so that's the first thing. Give yourself grace and
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: then just use any of the tools. I don't care
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: what tool you use, typing or speaking into it and
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: saying I'm new to AI, I'm.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: In this industry, this is my job, this is what
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: I want to do.
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: I want to learn how to use AI for whatever reason,
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: or I don't even believe it's right, help me understand
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: and start having a conversation with it. And then you
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: can ask what tool, what products should I use? To
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: what training courses should I do? It'll pretty course, will
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: it be perfect? No. In fact, you might think a
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: course that sucks, that's okay, but you'll learn just like
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: you did on the bike.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: That's not the learning style for me. So one step
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: at a time, as.
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: Opposed to living into the fears of, oh it's too
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: fast for me, I'm just going to retire out because frankly,
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: if you're even at the retirement age, you've probably got
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: twenty years of life afterwards that you could do so
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: many things on a big impact on the world. And
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: here's a tool that can.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Leverage your abilities and gifts for everybody, So.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: Just get started.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Man. I love that fella. Thank you so much for
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: being here on the podcast with us. I hope you'll
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: come back again. You just give us some great insights.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me love
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: it well awesome. Of course we love having you guys.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Subscribe and follow along. Leave your comments. We'll make sure
• 32:04
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• 32:06
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• 32:07
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• 32:11
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• 32:14
  Speaker 1: People podcast. Thanks ever everybody for listening. Until next time,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: be well. Thanks everybody threat here