Are we being turned into monkeys?
Fabian Bartnick
Revenue Management the right way | Founded 2 companies that optimize hotel & restaurant/bar profits through software, consulting & coaching | 50,000+ took my Revenue Management training
Revenue Management has been talked about a lot. And it always went with the "Trend". When it was Analytics....all RM could talk about was Analytics - harder, faster, better, booyakaa. Now we are at the end of the "Automation" cycle - preferable with some AI to sound cool.
The funny thing about automation is what it can do to us. We like to say: free up time, become more creative, blabla but lets be honest....thanks to social media providing the breeding ground: Automation = monkey management???
Has automation turned us into monkeys in real life?
There are many benefits that automation can bring to businesses, personal lives, processes, etc. from increased efficiency and cost savings to improved accuracy and consistency. However, there is also a possible darker side:
The concept of automation can be misconstrued, leading to what I call "Monkey Management."
Let's talk monkeys, shall we?!?!
The phrase "Monkey Management" refers to the famous experiment where monkeys were placed in a cage with a ladder leading to a bunch of bananas. Whenever a monkey attempted to climb the ladder to reach the bananas, the researchers would douse ALL the monkeys with ice water. Over time, the monkeys learned to associate the ladder with the unpleasant sensation of being doused with cold water, and they stopped trying to reach the bananas altogether.
Now here is the kicker: The researchers removed one monkey, put a new one in. The cute little new to the crowd monkey did what monkeys do. See banana, go for banana.....only to be beaten up by all other monkeys :-( huh!?!?! Yup, poor little one had no idea why it was beaten up....never had the water treatment.
Next, took another monkey out and of course...see banana, go for banana, gets beaten up....even the poor cute one from round one beat up number 2....but had no idea why....monkey see, monkey do. "That's just the way it is!"
And it continued until none of the original monkeys were there no more and no monkey had any idea why they were beating new ones up....it is just the "way it was always done"...
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Behaviour became automated. And Automation & Algorithms many times go hand in hand = Monkey management. And is it making us stupid???
Some examples that make us monkey....
One reason is that "Neurons that fire together, wire together" - Neuroplasticity! And considering those Neurons going to bed, not firing, not wiring...monkey!
Second, so much easier to keep the brain chilled. Thinking creates heat!
Third, soooo damn convenient :-)
How to avoid becoming a monkey?
THINK!
Love,
Fabs
PS: thanks to those listening in on the Voice of Revenue podcast. We hit 200 downloads...yeeeeehhhhaaaaaa!
Regional Head - APAC
1 年Very nice Fabian, catch up soon in Indonesia
The Lamb's Book of Life
1 年Sad truth is that we humans are choosing to become monkeys .
Thought Leader with a proven track record in Revenue Management, Pricing, Transformation, Business Analytics, Online Distribution, Planning and Strategy.
1 年One beautiful thing about RM and the best Managers understood this was the creativity and innovation that was brought about in the way inventory was managed or based on new insights how experiments are done to tweak inventory, pricing, distribution, etc. with an aim to surely optimize revenues but more importantly to see if there is a new segment for a new product ( new, bundled or higher inventory type) which is how RM turned out to be exciting. Have seen a lot of managers these days set their systems to copy the competitor pricing with some variation to bring in a sense of differential but that is what you Fabian Bartnick have rightly called out i.e. Turning us into Monkeys.
Enhancing Earnings: Expert Revenue and Distribution Optimization for Independent Hotels
1 年Funny post Fabian... ?? ?? ?? - we've been monkeys for generations... most are only realising this now.....