Fortunately, artificial intelligence changes our entire strategic process. Immediately solve a set of steps that previously involved a lot of effort. At the same time, it allows us to put emphasis, work and thought on what, in my opinion, is the key and central node… the construction of differentials.
Knowing is not knowing. Today, data and information abound… Brands, whether SMEs or multinationals, find themselves in a quite unthinkable scenario because they manage to produce or access what was previously sought as a treasure because it was a scarce commodity: statistics, hard data and information.
The chest is now open, it is practically infinite and you hardly have to go out to look for it. This makes your content lose some value or depend more than ever on how it is used for relevance.
Before, data was power and brands went to consulting firms to produce or collect data. This industry was formed as a data provider, within a value chain where the information was really limited and a formidable deployment had to be made to obtain it. Clearly, this is no longer the case.
Data builds story. Knowledge must be produced. Recalculating, what appears is the common vision and construction to provide value. Now the point is to be able to discover something invisible from the number, but already within a complex and continuous process of articulation.
And here the concept of “insight” appears to describe this procedure: it is not data that is obtained, but a strategic operation that the company is willing to take, to make it its own and with that build a difference in business management.
There is a central strategic conceptual value which is that different levels of the company have to be involved: ldecision and implementation. This force is what is needed for this insight to operate powerfully and coherently.
What is essential is invisible to the eyes. The construction of differentials is increasingly complex and therefore the double articulation between the strategy consultancy and the company, the relationship between the parties, is also a fundamental point.
For the link to occur in a real, solid and powerful way, there needs to be a lot of talent and intelligence on both sides to be able to understand and accompany the entire process. People, institutions, companies, organizations; We have in common that we cannot see each other entirely. The blind spot of oneself is always present.
Then, the latent oppositions are made visible: the focus is placed there, precisely where the habit is most accommodated and, therefore, imperceptible to the organization’s own culture and practice.
A work in present continuous. To disassemble the algorithm, first look at it as peripherally as possible. This task involves something complex, because the consultant sees something that the company does not yet. And what you cannot see is everything that is outside your algorithm… your own way of thinking, understanding and acting.
When one is immersed in a certain logic, thinking about another possible one is very difficult. It involves getting involved and the company has to let in, something that is not an easy task for either party. Looking from another perspective can show us how it flows and elaborates what is essential: the invention of a common language, a basic and agreed diagnosis from which to apply insight.
This agreed and consensual diagnosis immediately builds the action plan. At this point the route is outlined and from there all the instrumental baggage that the organization has to enhance it, beautify it and improve its communication is articulated.
Insight is a journey, not a destination. The process is a continuous iteration and transformation. You work together with the client, you listen, you explore. There is debate, points of disagreement and agreement. In any case, what is generated is a collective construction. The solution as a whole is another precious thing about the methodological work and together, it is enough to produce the mechanisms to see it. It always has every chance of being built and constituted. And once we find it, everything is ordered. Meaning appears, the view from a different approach that constitutes the light that allows insight to be applied.
Demand as an indicator: listening as a compass. Once we obtain the proposal, that is, the insight built in action, only then do we go towards the demand. The demand is never propositional, it will never tell us what to do.
The way we relate to the consumer is strategic. So, it is at that moment when the pretest stage is necessary: all the tests of how to do it, adjust it and implement it. It is even the first true indicator of the power that what we are doing will have: how fertile and relevant it will be and what level of adhesion it will obtain. This, which appears to be something simple, is very complex and implies a deep commitment among those immersed in the transformation process.
In summary, the aim is to use technology on an agreed diagnosis and act in a volatile and often unpredictable present. And when the process is finishing, the entire path is retroactively resignified. It remains to provide it, apply it and be able to account for this need that brands and people share.
*Fernando Moiguer is CEO of Moiguer Strategy Consulting. Professor at UBA and Univ. of San Andrés.
by Fernando Moiguer
