“Adding Quantum Value” is a series of blog posts that explain why adding value to your business with quantum computing is so difficult. It is intended to help the reader understand the different subtleties, and to pinpoint where their own pain points might lie. If you have such pain points, reach out and see how we might be able to help you.
In this second blog I approach the challenge closest to the business, but also least in scope for all quantum projects; the original business pain.
The original business pain
It is perhaps good to begin with what the “original business pain” is. First off, this is not the first thing that comes to mind to the people responsible for organizational goals. Secondly, it is also not applicable to all organizations. Only organizations that might have forgotten their original business pains, can really have this challenge. So, it is much more likely to exist for say a bank, a government, or oil and gas, than it is for internet companies.
The original business pain is the original challenge the organization had in its core business prior to the digitalization era. Organizations once started to resolve a certain pain felt by the people they served. This was their purpose or mission. They translated that mission into actions and results based on their available knowledge, means, and resources.
A good way to discover what the original business pain is for your organization, is to simply ask yourself; “Why are we doing what we do?” and, “When do those we serve view our results as good?”
Why is it relevant?
These might seem like trivial questions, but as any agilest can tell you, they are in fact the questions about why we do work in the first place. The problem that arises is that a lot of organizations have gotten used to the method to achieve results, and that method has evolved almost into the purpose of organizations.
So, for a consumer bank the purpose is not to have a fast-banking engine or be able to process payments fast, but rather to assist its consumers in doing safe (monetary) actions that require peak periods of inaccessible means.
Now it isn’t weird that we focus on the method to achieve such results. After all, if the core banking engine fails, so does the business and its purpose. But if we want to look at change, or radically new technologies, it is good to start back from this original question and try to answer it anew.
What can it do?
In multiple projects I noticed that this is a powerful question, with an almost assured result. Not just because quantum technologies are so special, but because they are not the only disruptive technology recently available today.
Aside from quantum technologies, there is also artificial intelligence, memory-based supercomputing, cloud, trust technologies, robotics, and overall advancements in science and technology. And, of course, combinations thereof. Revisiting your original business pain from scratch almost always gives an improvement or new added value that you didn’t have before.
How to start
Revisiting the original business pain, and the approach thereto, might uncover new chances that previously were simply not in the realm of the possible. There are several positions where to start, often in a combination of the executives that know what good results are, internal thoughtleaders and business champions that understand the business, and thought leaders around new technologies with an open but critical mind. These can uncover possibilities which you may pursue in follow up projects.
If you are having trouble to quickly and effectively uncover such possibilities, and changing them to fast innovations that can quickly prove their effectiveness, please reach out via the contact form.
