Winners and Losers of AI

July 13, 2026

Good morning!
Welcome and Happy Birth Day to Otto! The Bee Balm are in full bloom — as are many of the other prairie flowers, though the Butterfly Weed are suddenly gone.

We are in the middle of what the meteorologists are calling a heat dome… triggered supposedly by the Pacific Ocean getting lots hotter…

• This past week took us to the northwestern shore of Lake Superior for a two-day family event.
  • We had not been there since 1992 — 34 years ago.
  • Not much had changed, but it FELT different… somehow not as magical, unique, clean, and pristine.
  • We enjoyed cool temperatures in the 60s but foggy/ smoggy/ smokey air.
  • Oodles of spectacularly-orange Indian Paint Brush flowers…
• I’ve often wondered about this but never did the math… until now.
  • When a coffee pot promotes itself as featuring a 12-cup carafe, it is using four ounces as a presumptive base line…
  • … Who has a four ounce cup of coffee in the United States?  Europe or Egypt, perhaps, but in the U.S.?
• Did you watch those Norwegians melt away in the oppressive heat and humidity of tropical south Florida?
  • It just didn’t seem fair, though neither is England typically tropical — until now.
  • And, how about Wimbledon in the heat?!
• Counterintuitive:  Minnesota has the highest rate of melanoma skin cancer among the fifty states.  (U.S. Centers for Disease Control)
• Rear View Mirror:  It was a good quarter to have been long on cocoa — and short on gold, silver, and platinum.
  • If you wanted to simply retain the status quo and/or to remain neutral, there were several foreign currencies to have considered.
• Winners and losers in this age of artificial intelligence?  (McKinsey & Co.)
  • Leading the way:
    • Quality control
    • Accounting
    • Software development
  • Lagging behind, but still increasing:
    • Collaboration
    • Resilience
    • Empathy
    • Innovation
    • Leadership
• “Be the type of energy that no matter where you go, you always add value to the spaces and the people around you.”
• One of my next pilgrimages should probably be to see the new Ted Roosevelt Presidential Center; put it on your list, too.
• There is an excellent June 23, 2026 article by Westerman and Kiron in M.I.T. Sloan Management Review.
  • It is SO GOOD I’ve been struggling with getting it summarized for you.
  • You might want to reference it all on your own and give it a good read:  Pfizer
    • But, please, not until after you’ve finished these Musings…
  • “Pfizer succeeded in digitizing its manufacturing operations not by improving the technology alone, but by rebuilding trust,
  • processes, and collaboration between digital and plant teams…”  (Go figure… trust, processes, and collaboration…)
  • “… the (Pfizer) transformation leadership team knew that trying harder with the same approach would yield the same results.”
  • “… the first breakthrough came from reframing the mission.
  • Instead of implementing the manufacturing execution system, this new team would focus on enabling the manufacturing execution system capabilities.”
    • (Genius!)
  • “This shift in wording alone represented a fundamental shift in mindset — positioning the team as partners helping facilities achieve operational goals with the manufacturing execution system as a means to an end.”
    • You might want to reference it all on your own and give it a good read:  Pfizer