Rules of the Business Game
- Dithanon Khrutmuang
- Nov 21, 2024
- 9 min read
Updated: Mar 13
Why is the utilization of technology, data, and AI often limited to large organizations or companies, when in fact small to medium-sized businesses can start more easily, with less complexity, and require a smaller investment budget compared to large businesses ?
Table of Content
This article will guide you in discovering how businesses that utilize technology, data, AI, as well as good business strategies, can help you as a business owner or leader to run a business that is profitable, loved by customers, and grows with mitigated risk more than yesterday. I can assure you that the content of this article is enjoyable to read, as I have minimized technical jargon as much as possible, and compared (metaphor) business to magical creatures models and playing the game of Snakes and Ladders, to make it easy for you to understand and apply to your business in real life.
Dithanon Khrutmuang, an SME business owner and a real user of technology, data, and AI to enhance his own business.
Success in business depends on having a competitive edge, similar to the game of Snakes and Ladders you played as a child. Whoever reaches the finish line first is the winner.
Today (end of 2024), if you had a magical power to produce Blackwell GPUs before Nvidia, then today, I believe you would definitely be a celebrity to the extent that magazines like Forbes and Fortune would invite you for an interview instead of Jensen Huang, the real owner of Nvidia.
The question is, how can you find this magical power in real life? The answer is that you can find this magic through a magical creature.
A magical creature helps you create magic to gain a competitive edge in business. You need to have a magical creature first to have magic. Think about it, could Jensen Huang alone really create the Blackwell GPU? And what allows Jensen Huang to magically conjure up the Blackwell GPU? It's because Jensen Huang has a magical creature called Nvidia.
The term "magical creatures" doesn't literally refer to companies, but rather
represents the hidden capabilities within a company, such as the ability to make
precise decisions through data, the use of AI technology to enhance Profitability
(P), Customer satisfaction (C), and business Growth (G).
But why haven't many companies around the world been as successful as
Nvidia? Why are there still so many companies that can't show their magic? Why
are those companies just ordinary, or even worse, so bad that they can't go on until
they collapse? One reason lies in the high failure rate of startups.
The failure rate of startups in America is notably high, over 20% of new ventures fail within the first year, and 66% fail within six years.
(Zacharakis, A., Meyer, G., & Decastro, J. (1999). Differing Perceptions of New Venture Failure: A Matched Exploratory Study of Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs. Journal of Small Business Management, 37, 1.)
This series invites you to explore what factors prevent companies or businesses from Profitability, Customer Satisfaction, and Business Growth. These are crucial elements that enable a company to differentiate itself and gain a competitive edge, leading to the creation of impressive products or services, just like Nvidia did with the Blackwell GPU, marking another milestone in AI development.
But that doesn't mean a good business has to be a great one or always change the world.
In fact, in the following chapters, you will be introduced to three main magical creatures : dinosaurs, unicorns, and camels. These will help you as a business owner, who might be just starting a small business on your own, to becoming a medium-sized organization that has been in business for over 10 years but still can't create new products or services to take your business to the next level.
This article and the tools provided at the end of each chapter will help you build the best company or business possible. It doesn't have to change the world; just being able to make a difference and stand out in your community or niche market means you are on the right track.
The business game you need to understand the rules.
If we compare the steps in conducting business operations, from establishing a company, creating products or services, naming the brand, collaborating with suppliers, hiring a team, marketing to find customers, building relationships with customers, improving efficiency and managing costs, investing to expand the business, to conducting financial transactions such as taking out loans or raising investment from shareholders, and much more, all of these involve your decision-making as the owner or leader of the organization. If you make the right decisions, you're always playing the game well. But if you make a wrong decision, it's as if you've lost in this game of business.
That means the number squares in the game of Snakes and Ladders, which we have all played before. Starting from square number 1 is like starting a business. How far you go in the game, to which number square you reach, depends on the particular Snakes and Ladders game created by someone. Some games might end with someone reaching square number 100 first, and that person is the winner. In other games, reaching square number 30 might be enough to win. This is no different from doing business.
Since every business is clearly different, some may need to start as a startup that requires a significant amount of funding, utilizing Big Data and AI for comprehensive management. Additionally, expanding branches with teams abroad, selling products or providing services worldwide, is considered a success. The final figures for these companies in the Snakes and Ladders game would definitely be more than 100.
On the other hand, for companies that provide services or products to a specific group of customers and are smaller businesses, they don't necessarily have to start as a startup that takes the risk of raising capital for a significant investment. As long as the business can generate enough profit to survive, that's already a winning goal in the business game. This means that the business game of Snakes and Ladders for small businesses might end when you reach square number 30, or perhaps even before that.
The number of numeric slots in the business game is not measured in units of time, but in units of distance that the business has successfully covered.
For example, Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, went to launch in Thailand, which created a significant impact in the country. With the support and cooperation from Thai companies and workers, Nvidia has effectively moved up a notch. Suppose previously, before coming to Thailand, Nvidia was at position 83, but after the event in Thailand, Nvidia moved up to position 84.
It doesn't matter how long Nvidia takes to prepare for its launch in Thailand, whether it's a year or just a day. We measure Nvidia's progress by a single step.
On the other hand, when Nvidia managed to invent the Blackwell GPU, it was more than just a single step for Nvidia, but a significant leap that catapulted Nvidia up the game of Snakes and Ladders by more than 10 steps. In 2024, Nvidia's stock soared by approximately 168%.
That's the beauty of the ladder, which doesn't necessarily mean that this can only happen in big businesses like Nvidia. Small to medium-sized companies can also create ladders just the same, and it is indeed happening in today's world. It's just that you might not have noticed because those companies or businesses are small and may be far from your attention.
Dithanon's Business Insight |
My business has utilized customer purchase behavior data to predict the likelihood of customers buying my products. Since my product is a tent used for accommodation, factors such as festivals and the tourist season affect customer demand. Therefore, analyzing customer behavior leads to increased Operating Efficiency. In simple terms, the products I produce can be converted into profit faster, investment money is not tied up in stock, and production is just enough to meet customer demand. This ensures my business does not miss out on making a profit at any time. This is the ladder that allows my business to move forward faster, akin to climbing up three steps at a time compared to walking normally, which would only advance one step. |
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If a ladder is a shortcut, a snake is a pitfall. In the context of business, pitfalls can range from internal organizational problems to external factors beyond a company's control, such as national economic issues. However, the most severe pitfall that could lead to disaster for your business is making the wrong decision.
At the beginning, I mentioned that if you, as a leader, make the right decision, it's always considered a good move. But if you make a wrong decision, it could have serious consequences and bring your business back to the point where it once was, or refer to a financial status that is not as good as before the crisis. Just observe that if you have ever run a business, there are times when you have a lot of money in your bank account. However, if you make a wrong decision, such as investing in the wrong place causing you to incur losses, it results in the money in your account returning to the small amount it was before your business became successful. That's when your business has run into trouble.
The only way to prevent your business from encountering snakes is to thoroughly assess the risks and to solve problems quickly enough before you inadvertently step on a snake's head, causing it to bite and potentially bring your business back to where it was years ago, or even worse, to the point of bankruptcy. We will delve deeper into snakes or pitfalls to find ways to avoid them in Chapter 6.
By now, you probably want to roll the dice in such a way that your business lands on a square that will take it up the ladder, leading to quick success, and avoid the fate that leads to stepping on a snake, which would result in business setbacks, right?
But in the real business world, there are no dice rolls, only your decisions and the strength of your business that will either lead you to ladders or snakes.
This means that the game changer is not luck, but a magical creature that you can control.
Therefore, the importance in the business game is to develop your own mythical creature to create ladders for business development and to avoid or mitigate risks to withstand the damage snakes can do to your business.
The meaning of crossing the finish line
The definition of reaching the finish line varies for each business. For some businesses that aim to change the world, like Nvidia, the owner Jensen Huang may want Nvidia to be at the core of the AI industry. Therefore, Nvidia's finish line could be to achieve the largest possible market share in chips and become a monopoly business without breaking the laws of the respective countries.
Meanwhile, for some medium-sized companies, their finish line might be a certain level of ROI (Return on Investment), and maintaining that ROI without it dropping any lower would also mean that the business has crossed the finish line.
That is an example of the meaning of the finish line, which is the ideal that a business can achieve in the industry it operates in. It doesn't matter how grand it is; it's enough to be the best version of itself.
One difference between the finish line in the game of Snakes and Ladders is that the game ends immediately when someone reaches the finish line first. However, for businesses, crossing the finish line is just an indicator that your business has done everything well, comprehensively, and most importantly, you are satisfied with this level of success.
In the next chapter, we will delve into Step 1 : Choosing the right magical creature for your business. You will understand what options you have and which mythical creature is the best fit for you. creature for your business. You will understand what options you have and which mythical creature is the best fit for you.
Conclusion
The rules of the business game are comparable to the game of Snakes and Ladders.
Number squares = The distance that the business has successfully covered
Ladders = Shortcuts that result from making the right decisions
Snakes = Pitfalls, mostly arising from making the wrong decisions
Player = You, as the leader of the organization
Magical creatures = Companies or businesses
Reference : *New Blackwell GPU, NVLink and Resilience Technologies Enable Trillion-Parameter-Scale AI Models https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-blackwell-platform-arrives-to-power-a-new-era-of-computing
This article was written by myself, Dithanon Khrutmuang, founder of Power Ladder, not AI. Although in reality, AI could describe its own capabilities.
OR Schedule a consultation with us to find the right way to use Data and AI for your business, both in terms of enhancing efficiency, mitigating risk, and reducing long-term costs for your business starting today.
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