“You Can’t Win It, If Not In It”
Disregard My AI Advice & Your Winning Probabilities Aren’t Greater Than Winning The Lottery …
“You Can’t Win It, If Not In It” — or so goes the famous tagline on California Lottery Ticket Scratcher.
As companies plan to further leverage AI-driven growth prospects, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of building OUTSTANDING Advisory Boards to do so. To put it bluntly: disregard my AI advice & your winning probabilities aren’t greater than winning the lottery….
My message is equally important to CEOs and to their financial backers:
- BOD members are not your friends — they are your investors!
The only impartial advice to CEOs and VCs may come from … the Advisers they choose! Please see my comments in: If I could only offer a single advice to a progressive CEO — this would be it!
Problem
I was recently interviewed by Navigant’s team of researchers — in charge of Smart Buildings market.
Our session quickly shifted from covering Net Zero Energy (NZE) developments to a much broader discussion around Building Materials. And since I covered NZE in: Utility 2.0: AI-Driven Digital Transformation That Changes Everything… — we focused on concrete, the most widely used construction material in the world! I made the following observations:
• The largest pre-cast and cast-in-place concrete manufacturers in the world are still using concrete as a commodity, and as a dormant asset
• Concrete executives and their BODs are blinded to new opportunities, as their companies, the industry, and the economy around them change
• Instead of competing on price with other commodities such as steel and laminated wood products — concrete producers can embrace innovation and turn their products into a “smart”, must-have construction asset
• In addition, in times of increased trade wars, nationalism and protectionism — a sleepy concrete industry can also become a smart hedge against tariffs, custom duties, and price fluctuations of steel
• IMHO, today’s $1B, $10B, $20B, or even $30B commodity concrete manufacturers are still losing a very significant portion of possible revenues
• Yes, some of conventional players can work hard on introducing cost cutting measures and save $400MM following a 2-year strategic turnaround
• However, with today’s share price trading lower than it was 15 years ago — it’s time to focus on bringing new revenues that are at least 10X bigger than the amount of savings!
• Concrete is considered a “dirty” building material using climate change lingo
• Turning it into a “must-have” commodity and the most “sought-out” construction material — will require much more than just using renewable generation throughout its manufacturing process
• I’m also convinced, that AI-enhanced “green” concrete can also support massive utility-scale deployment of renewable energy generation
- The Bottom Line: getting out of commodity business offers the best turn-around prospect — even to the largest concrete industry giants!
Solution
Concrete manufacturers and their Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) divisions need to embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI) investments. Just look around: in most cases, AI is the biggest driving force behind remarkable innovation in material science, logistics, transportation, manufacturing, controls and renewable energy efficiency and generation.
I say so, relying on my 30-yr hands-on AI expertise. Moreover, adopting innovative technology is just the first step leading to profitable AI business models and avoidance of unexpected losses.
When I look back at my 30+ years of using PracticalAI™ in Technology, Finance & Renewable Energy (TFE) sectors — I see an evolving pattern: I learned to focus not only on making existing businesses better, but also on what is missing.
They say AI has potential to be used in virtually every industry, and that it has ability to reshape the way people live and do business. How true…Yet, what I realized long time ago — is that product-oriented entities are usually losing ~70% of POSSIBLE revenue streams.
In addition to Push-Only approach, concrete manufacturers could focus on generating huge secondary and tertiary revenue streams — and call it: The Push, The Pull and The AI Bull™.Such strategy is scalable and sustainable — and as a side-bonus, it also provides option for revenue smoothing.
I view TFE as 3 intersecting pillars of a modern business world. And such expertise, allows me to bring unique perspectives to problem-solving. What I enjoy the most, however, is successfully porting breakthrough strategies from unrelated fields — to new markets! So, I help BODs and Advisory Boards launch profitable AI projects & ventures that work!
Already 20 years ago, my startup: International Neural Machines Inc. (INM) — was the ONLY, product-oriented neural network AI company in Canada! At that time, I dealt with complexities of risk management running a whole slew of Fraud Detection & Money Laundering Detection projects at financial institutions — linked to Visa Fraud at Canadian banks, World Bank, and Workers Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB).
More recently, as a founder of Canada Green ESCO Inc., I frequently covered Climate Change and Environmental Risks — dealing with stranded assets at largest utilities. Back in 1990s, I also used to be an Associate Professor at The University of Waterloo, School of Optometry — and helped graduate students, become proficient at advanced image processing.
I’ve been involved with both: the funding and the receiving end of entrepreneurship. Example: taking a tiny start-up and turning it into a $125MM Market Cap — by merging with a publicly trading company on Toronto Stock Exchange and employing 150 people.
In addition, I’m extremely proud of the work I did at Microelectronics and Computer Consortium (MCC) in Austin, Texas. MCC was the first, and — at one time — one of the largest, computer industry research and development consortia in the United States, headed by Navy Admiral, Bobby Inman. At its peak, MCC housed over 400 PhDs under one roof and I was supervising for 3 years a large group of world’s brightest neural network and Artificial Intelligence researchers — on behalf of $7B NCR Corporation.
So, today, I mostly help PE/VC/CVC funds and their portfolio companies during due diligence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) investments. Yet technology is only one part of a much bigger picture. After all, the graveyards of innovation are full of brilliant ideas with a lousy business model — no matter the industry.
And when I join Advisory Boards, my aim is not to help increase revenues that year, but to set exponential growth trajectories for the next 3 years!
Yes, I’ve done it with Verizon in the past, and wrote about it in:
· Keyword Spotting — The Art Of Listening & Observing
You can also find many of my comments on Technology, IoT and Artificial Intelligence at our website, linkedin, or twitter, including:
- How To Turn Corporate Venture Capital Into A Magnet For Raising SEED CAPITAL
- Corporate Venture Capital — The Most Underutilized Factor Endowment Of Corporate Giants
- 3 Tips To Avoid Startup Funeral — And A Story Of How Not To Paint Yourself Into A Corner
· Plan B Ventures — The Last Call…
· What Deep Learning Is Good For — And When It Shouldn’t be Used
· Self-driving Hype vs Self-parking Reality Or ….Form vs Substance in SmartCities
· On AI, Autopilots & Self-Driving Cars….Respect The Bee!!!
Unique pattern recognition abilities allow me to see what’s still missing & how to maximize business offerings & profitability. And looking at existing problems with a pair of fresh eyes — often brings a set of creative solutions, that were never even considered in the past.
Oleg Feldgajer is President & CEO of Canada Green ESCO Inc. Oleg is positioning the company to become a leader in financing AI enhanced green energy projects and ventures. CGE’s mission is to guide DISRUPTIVE businesses in ENERGY & TRANSPORTATION toward profitable business models. Oleg is passionate about such mission, and firmly believes that without AI based innovation, we will all prematurely choke on polluted air and dirty water. CGE delivers 100% financing (levered and unlevered) to its clients — and utilizes large equity pools, and non-recourse debt. Oleg offers creative, fresh ideas to open-minded businesses — that embrace both: logic AND opportunistic intuition. CGE stands against mediocrity & its modus operandi is quite simple: If CGE is not invited to join your BOD, or Advisory Board — we failed!
