Lead Story – Beds, Baths & Bankruptcy – What went Wrong?
Readers, the day has come. Stuart has given every opportunity to transform Bed Bath & Beyond’s retail business. Well, as Stuart writes, that lamp was put out this week:
Last weekend, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. 360 stores and 120 buybuy BABY outlets remain open for now as retailers seek to liquidate their assets. While this is the latest big scalpel in the tumultuous retail sector, other companies in the home furnishing industry, notably Williams-Sonoma, have embraced their pragmatic “digital-first but not digital-only” operating model. . [Bed, Bath & Bankruptcy – cataloging the multi-year failure of an omni-channel retail transformation]
So what went wrong? Stuart quotes a retail expert and reflects on Bed his Bath & Beyond’s turbulent history on Diginomica. He concludes:
It wasn’t the technology that was the problem. The later investment in Google and Oracle as transformation platforms was a sound move. The problem was basically the lack of vision early on. Target is often cited as the retail brand that saw the way the wind was blowing and made what many commentators at the time considered a counterintuitive strategic decision.As CEO of Bed, Bath & Beyond, Tritton, a Target alumnus, tried to do the right thing, but the pace of change was too lethargic.
The pandemic has changed many retailers, including Bed Bath & Beyond. But being reactive has its pitfalls. Stuart:
The fact that companies needed COVID before BOPIS became a reality says a lot. There has been a disturbing reliance on deploying zero-calorie mission statements in the end-of-life, not enough to keep companies on their feet in the Transformation Accelerator.
The obvious “don’t get comfortable” lesson is completely unsatisfying here. I draw another lesson. It’s about staying creative and always pushing harder regardless of the macro weather outside. Oh, please briefly describe your mission statement.
Recommended by Diginomica – This Week’s Diginomika Top Stories
Vendor analysis, Diginomica style. Here are my top picks from vendor coverage:
- Google Cloud Posts First Quarter Profit, But Growth Slows As Macroeconomic Crisis Intensifies. Google Cloud is putting together (financial) action, but as Stuart reports, it’s happening in difficult economic times. He quotes his CFO, Rose Porat.The point we are trying to make is that there is uncertainty in the economic environment. As such, we saw headwinds from slowing consumption growth. Customers are serious about optimizing costs given their macro environment.“
- ServiceNow hits $2 billion in first quarter, beats expectations and raises guidance – Derek talks ServiceNow’s milestone quarter. How has ServiceNow thrived when other vendors have struggled? Derek quotes CEO Bill McDermott.Filtering out all the noise leads to one simple reality. There are apps for everything, but no one needs them all. This integration is a boon for ServiceNow, an intelligent platform for end-to-end digital transformation..”
- OneStream in the New CPM World Powered by ML – Brian’s Back
on fresh tarmac burnFrom OneStream’s splash show where Sensible ML news made the headlines: “OneStream’s Shea also spent some of her opening keynote time discussing how and what applications large-scale language models, ChatGPT and other recent innovations will enable in the coming months and years. described how it left him with a lot of ideas about what it would be like. For example, he showed that AI tools trained on OneStream’s documentation can answer much more specific questions and provide multifaceted answers than previous generalized chatbots. On stage, he asked a power company to demonstrate how a customer could create a new working capital function in his one of his CPM applications. The software didn’t just return canned responses. Instead, he formulated his 5-step method to follow and suggested very precise code to insert into the recommended solution..” -
An early adopter of AI, Informatica is poised for a generative era, but is not yet profitable. Chris examines how one of his platform heavyweights, Data, is approaching generative AI.
Select a few more vendors without quotes.
John’s Grab Bag – Madeline continues her ‘What I’d say to me’ series with leaders that have left a personal impression on me. her email. George takes a different AI angle at Builtworld AI startups, leading investments that transcend fintech and marketing. Are we at a quantum tipping point? Chris considers commercializing his Quantum again. Softly, softly towards the inevitable future, says his patron.
Finally, Discussing the Automation Skills Paradox – Can Enterprise Automation Be Democratized? The Importance of Automation Anywhere Does the automation skills paradox matter? It all depends on whether the democratization of automation tools becomes a reality in the field.
Best of Enterprise Web
my top 7
- Cloud infrastructure revenue growth slows to 19% in Q1, but still hits $63 billion in the quarter – Ron Miller said of cloud vendor mixed results.Clearly, we are still in a cycle of cost cutting, which is impacting cloud infrastructure revenue growth, but Synergy Research reports that there are signs that the recent downturn may be breaking out. I’m here..”
- US consumers send a variety of signals in an uncertain economy. Speaking of “variety,” it’s also a good word for consumer psychology. McKinsey: “So it’s no surprise that the US economy continues to send out mixed signals and consumers are doing the same. The latest U.S. Consumer Confidence Survey shows that consumers are optimistic and continue to spend despite fears of rising prices and job security..”
- Hugging Face launches open-source version of ChatGPT to challenge the dominance of the closed-source model – Open AI will always be credited for popularizing LLM via ChatGPT, but the dominant Will he continue to be a good player? I’m a little unsure.
- Generative AI means increased productivity, which could lead to fewer software developers. I said that generative AI is evolutionary and not revolutionary in an enterprise context, and I stand by it. However, based on my latest research, developers may need to make an exception. LLM is especially good for code. Joe McKendrick examines what happens next for developers. I don’t think developers are leaving, but for the average developer, this should look like a wake-up call:”Business analysts and product managers become the new prompt engineers, translating business needs into prompts and generating the required code.The oft-commented Clive Boulton has similar thoughts.
- Addressing Security Risks in AI – This article is a compilation of the deeper and more important research papers that can be accessed from the submission. big takeout? Don’t silo your AI security program.
- Top 10 Questions About Digital Transformation [Most Important Q&As For Digital Strategy] – Third Stage Consulting – Eric Kimberling continues his candid transformational posts.
10 Things About AI – Another important voice in enterprise technology is heavy on AI. Stephen O’Grady from RedMonk. My stance on AI unemployment has changed. why? Over the years, I’ve gone deep into technology and seen its limits. Automation will take jobs, but it won’t necessarily eat the job market. As for O’Grady, it’s clear to tie AI to his earlier analysis of “cloud primitives.” As he points out, important his LLM questions are still unanswered.
So the question facing the industry today is not whether generative AI can act as an abstraction for different primitives, but rather what is the appropriate level of abstraction. How much specificity and guidance do you need? What should be left to AI and what should be firmly in the hands of humans? As expected, the market is now actively experimenting with this question.
capricious
Styx’s coveted ‘Too Much Time On My Hands’ award goes to the Newfoundland man who scored the phallic iceberg. By the way, from this list of all-time food failures, did you know that Colgate once made lasagna?
Another week, another helping of AI Snark:
double dose, actually:
Save more vinegar for another occasion for ChatGPT lifehackers. Their incredible personal efficiency improvements (and play-by-play updates on those improvements) are hard enough to keep up. So far – parrots are smart! see you next week…
if you find #ensw For good or bad hits and misses, let us know in the comments: Clive (Almost) always. Most enterprise hits and misses articles selected from my curated selection @jonerp newsfeed.
