Using AI to Transform Your Business

Archimedes famously said, "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." He didn’t live long enough to test his theory, but the world has never forgotten his claim.

The lever became first an engineering tool of great importance. Today, this ancient wisdom is relevant to modern business leaders seeking transformative growth without complete organizational overhauls.

In fact, the concept of leverage has become core to most business strategies. It’s about working smarter and not harder to accomplish our goals.

It’s easy to see which members of a team have fully embraced this concept. They are the high performers. Generally, the Pareto Principle tells us that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. So, it’s pretty simple math to find out who is making a difference in your company.

Finding out exactly how they are doing it is somewhat more difficult.

RBI’s chief data scientist, Scott Schang, has been exploring this question and the principle behind it through the lens of advanced business intelligence. What is emerging is transformative: AI can identify precisely which "20% levers" in your business will yield exponential results.

This isn't just theoretical. When we analyze businesses through comprehensive AI-powered deep research, patterns emerge that aren't visible through conventional analysis. These patterns reveal specific leverage points – small investments or changes that cascade into outsized returns.

The real power comes not just from identifying these leverage points, but from applying them systematically across four interconnected principles that determine business success. This the way you use AI to transform your business.

The Four Principles of Business Transformation

Schang does a lot of work with business strategist Perry Marshall. Together, their application of advanced intelligence systems has allowed them to identify four fundamental principles that create compounding advantages when properly leveraged.

1. The 80/20 Principle: Finding Hidden Leverage Points

Beyond simply understanding that some activities yield more results than others, true 80/20 thinking involves identifying the fractal nature of this principle – the 20% of the 20% that creates 64% of your results. 

AI-powered intelligence can now map these patterns with unprecedented precision, showing exactly where your leverage truly lies.

When we run comprehensive analyses for clients, we're not looking for obvious correlations – we're seeking the non-obvious leverage points that competitors miss. It might be a specific customer segment, product feature, geographical area, or marketing channel that drives disproportionate value once properly activated.

2. Simplification: Creating Complexity Behind the Scenes

The most elegant customer and employee experiences often require extraordinary complexity behind the scenes. Apple's intuitive interfaces are built on staggeringly complex engineering. Amazon's one-click ordering represents a massive logistical infrastructure.

What would it mean to create radically simpler experiences for your customers and team members? Not by cutting corners, but by investing in the behind-the-scenes complexity that makes simplicity possible?

Our intelligence systems now analyze thousands of customer and employee touchpoints to identify precisely where simplification would create the greatest impact – and what systems need to be built to make that simplicity sustainable.

3. The Star Principle: Finding Your Unique Territory

Richard Koch describes a "star business" as being number one or two in a market growing at 30% annually. But Schang finds this definition too limiting. The true star principle is about identifying any aspect of your business that can be positioned as utterly unique in your market – creating a category of one.

It might not be your entire business. It could be one product, one service, or one aspect of your approach that becomes your defining characteristic. When this unique element is powerful enough, it can transform your entire company's identity and market position.

Our deep research capabilities now map competitive landscapes with unprecedented detail, revealing the precise white spaces where you can establish uncontested territory – not just where markets are growing, but where your specific capabilities can create a unique position.

4. Network Effect: Creating Self-Reinforcing Momentum

The most powerful businesses create ecosystems where growth becomes self-reinforcing. While we often think of network effects in terms of technology platforms, they apply to all businesses through strategic approaches to retention and referrals.

Most companies treat retention and referrals as happy accidents – "Our customers love us, so they come back." But very few have systematic strategies to accelerate these effects. Our analyses reveal that the lowest-hanging fruit for most businesses is formalizing and optimizing these processes.

The true network effect extends beyond direct referrals to what Schang calls "one-off referrals" – strategic collaborations, joint ventures, and partnerships that create expanding networks of influence. Our intelligence systems now map these potential connections, showing exactly which partnerships would create the most powerful compound effects.

Using AI as a Tool for Transformation

Translating these insights into action requires more than reports. According to Schang, immersive workshops where leadership teams engage directly with these intelligence tools create the most profound transformations.

This approach bridges the gap between insight and action, creating both immediate results and long-term capability development. Leaders don't just receive recommendations – they experience firsthand how to leverage advanced intelligence to identify their own leverage points.

One of the most valuable aspects of this approach is how it generates diverse perspectives on the same business challenges. When five board members or executives engage with these intelligence tools, they discover five different approaches and opportunities – creating a rich tapestry of possibilities that would be impossible for any single analysis to provide.

This diversity of perspective doesn't create confusion; it creates optionality. Leaders can evaluate multiple high-potential pathways forward, selecting those that best align with their resources, risk tolerance, and strategic vision.

We're entering an era where business intelligence isn't just about reporting what happened or predicting obvious trends. It's about revealing the non-obvious leverage points that create disproportionate results from limited resources.

By combining deep AI research with these four fundamental principles, leaders can find precisely where to focus their limited time, attention, and resources for maximum impact. It's not about working harder – it's about identifying exactly where to apply pressure in a complex system to create transformative results.

At RBI, we're at the forefront of this new paradigm, helping leaders move beyond conventional analysis to discover the specific levers that will transform their businesses. Contact us to see what a difference applied AI can have on your business.