[Ailist] AI - an established business strategy

[LCammack3 at cs.com]

Greetings to Mukul and all,

I want to endorse what Cheri just posted. My sense is AI might be considered 
as more of a philosophy rather than simply another tool, which differentiates 
it from short-term fixes and commensurately deters its acceptance as a 
corporate "fad of the day." 

What jazzes me is AI, as a contributing pioneer in the "positive" movement, 
has significant credibility and application although in other guises. Many 
influential writers and thinkers, while perhaps not using the descriptor of AI, 
nonetheless are tapping into its key components. Constructs such as the power of 
story, employee inclusion, positive rather than deficit approaches, the 
significance of vision, are becoming widespread in applications ranging from Martin 
Seligman's work, the emerging dominance of Toyota, John Mackey's Whole Foods, 
Jim Collins and Tom Peters, even Starbucks and Southwest Airlines (to name 
just a few in the US).

Currently reading two intriguing books on transformation - Change or Die, 
Alan Deutschman (HarperCollins, 2007) and Applebee's America, 
Sosnik/Dowd/Fournier (Simon & Schuster, 2006) which endorse many of the fundamental tenets of AI 
in a variety of settings, even though the writers seem unaware of AI as a 
"movement."

Luke Cammack