The Magical Creature is more important than the rider
- Dithanon Khrutmuang
- Mar 21
- 6 min read
Updated: Sep 3
A remarkable aspect of your mental life is that you are rarely stumped
Daniel Kahneman, The author of Thinking, Fast and Slow
Table of Content
If you had to choose between a savvy and experienced business owner and a
powerful magical creature, which do you think would take a business further ?
If today Jeff Bezos started a new business, bringing with him the experience from working at Amazon to try his hand at a new venture, and relied on his personal experience and skills in decision-making without depending on technology or data, compared to a new entrepreneur fresh out of university named Mr. Nobody, but Nobody and his business partners have built a database for analysis and use AI technology to assist in decision-making.
Who do you think would come out on top in a competition in the same business industry, Jeff Bezos in a version without relying on magical creature, or Mr. Nobody who relies on magical creature, specifically camel ?
Jeff Bezos might have the upper hand in the first round over Mr. Nobody when it comes to making quick decisions without relying on data or bothering to ask AI, since he has been through the business wringer more times than he can count. What's so hard about a small new business ?
But in reality, in the human brain mechanism that Daniel Kahneman, the author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, mentioned, "A remarkable aspect of your mental life is that you are rarely stumped."
This situation would surely happen to Jeff Bezos as well, because even though he is talented, he is still human. Making decisions too quickly often leads to more harm than good. But if you take a moment to slow down, rely on data and AI a bit, Mr. Nobody or even you could beat Jeff Bezos just the same.
After 2024, there are only three types of decisions
From Eric Schmidt's statement in the book "The Age of AI and Our Human Future" he talks about there being only three types of decision-making in the world, which are :
Decision-making by humans
Decision-making by AI
Decision-making by humans in conjunction with AI
In the first point, human decision-making, before the year 2024, it was normal for all of us, including entrepreneurs, to make decisions this way. For example, deciding to invest more or deciding to discontinue some products that are not profitable. Even though in the past we used to make decisions collectively by organizing meetings to gather relevant parties to vote, everyone in the meeting room was still human. Humans with multiple brains collaborating to make decisions to create opportunities or solve business problems. But that was still not good enough in the present era.
Humans = Players of the game of snakes and ladders
As a leader of an organization, players have the right to decide solely with their intellect where they want the business or company to go. Every decision made can have both positive and negative effects on Profitability (P), Customer Satisfaction (C), and Business Growth (G).
Or the player may choose to ride a magical creature to help make decisions Players can choose to ride magical creatures to enhance their abilities, allowing these creatures to take their business further and faster than before. If you're unlucky enough to choose to ride a dinosaur, you'll move slowly and may not get your business very far, as dinosaurs represent outdated, old school business practices that don't take advantage of data and AI.
But if you're lucky enough to choose a powerful magical creature like a unicorn or a camel, your business will rely on decision-making using data, including AI, which will help your business achieve its goals faster. I will explain further in the next chapter how unicorns and camels differ.
The essence of a magical creature lies in the hidden abilities within a company. If you choose to let the magical creature roam free, it's no different than starting machinery in a factory without any supervision. In the case of magical creatures like unicorns or camels, if you don't control or ride them, it's as if you're switching on autopilot allowing the magical creature to take control of your business. It's akin to making decisions solely by AI, without the guidance of your own brain that sets the vision.
Humans who decide to join with AI = players riding magical creatures like unicorns or camels
This means that if you choose to ride a magical creature, especially a unicorn or a camel, as a business leader, you can use the abilities of the magical creature to take you further, faster, more accurately, and with lower costs. Importantly, as the rider, you can also steer your company in any direction you wish. Remember, decisions made by humans in conjunction with AI are always better.
Comparing the decision-making of humans VS players riding mythical creatures like unicorns or camels
For a real-world example, let's take the hotel industry, which seems like AI technology wouldn't have any beneficial outcomes because hotels are not tech companies.
In reality, AI involves data, and if you notice, any business where staff use data to make decisions has an advantage over competitors.
Initially, when organizations started to adopt AI, using actual business data, like through service providers such as AWS bedrock, the costs were high, limiting AI use to large businesses that could afford the investment, like big hotels using AI to enhance management efficiency or guest experiences.
However, the future is promising as the investment costs for AI are expected to decrease, opening opportunities for medium to small businesses to benefit from AI.
The goal for most hotels, including my resorts in Thailand, is to manage costs effectively, enhance guest satisfaction during their stay, and increase website traffic to convert viewers into paying guests.
So, if humans had to decide which costs to cut for the best outcome, or guess what guests like or dislike, or find the best methods for cross-selling and up-selling, do you think they could really do it ?
But if we choose to ride a magical creature like a unicorn or a camel, by investing in AI and Data as needed, hotels will be able to make precise decisions about where to cut costs, understand what guests like to provide spot-on services, and our website will attract quality traffic that will become our future guests, thanks to the magical business assistants named Data and AI.
You'll see that we don't always have to do business in technology, but you
can emulate the thinking methods of leading tech companies and adapt them to
your business.
Then, how can we have a magical creature as wonderful as Jeff Bezos has
Amazon or Jensen Huang has Nvidia?
I have four steps behind the success as follows :
4 Steps of the Magical Creature Model to Conquer the Business Game
Step 1 : Choose the right magical creature for your business.
Set business goals and realistically assess your business's current state.
Step 2 : Feed your magical creature.
Use Data and AI technology, as well as gather or develop a team that recognizes the importance of technology in solving business problems appropriate for the magical creature you chose in the first step.
Step 3 : Embark on the journey with risk awareness.
Analyze your business's problems and risks, up to mitigating risks before taking action.
Step 4 : Always take care of your magical creature.
By monitoring its profitability, customer satisfaction, and business growth.
This 4-step magical creature model can indeed be applied to businesses of all sizes and stages, no matter what your business is like, such as startups, growing businesses, mature businesses, and declining businesses. These four steps will help create a framework to keep you from getting lost and also boost your confidence as a business owner or leader to safely lead your business to success.
Your turn :
Examine your own business to see what kind of decisions are being made
today: by humans, by AI, or by a combination of humans and AI.
Do you think AI or data technology plays a significant role in your business,
or is it irrelevant ?
Have you taken any steps or planned to make your magical creature smarter
than you ?
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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