Are you getting value from what you do?

Getting Value from What you do

In previous editions, I’ve sometimes struggled to pick out AI/Charity headlines to feature in the newsletter. But this week, I think there’s quite a lot to discuss!

First, the podcast.

This week’s episode features:

Adam Scoot - Leadership consultant and Agile coach.

Stuart talks with Adam about process - and in particular about Value Stream Mapping, and how organisations can quickly and cheaply identify ways to make their beneficiary journeys more effective. More below.

AI and Charity News

Not a day has gone past over the last fortnight where AI hasn’t been mainstream news. It was less than three weeks ago that the UK government launched its AI Opportunities Plan. My newsfeed went crazy with experts, pundits, and, well, people-like-me giving their opinions on it. As with most things, we’ll only know once the dust settles how resilient the plan is in a fast-changing world. For this audience, there was less to note immediately - reading through the plan there was no mention of charities. But - given how closely so many organisations work with government departments, there definitely will be impact from it. Consider services that are co-delivered with government departments through contracts, and consider how charities may have to adopt AI techniques to effectively deliver those services. I’m going to call it out here - there is a need for a commonly agreed set of of benchmarks and milestones for AI maturity in the sector. And this needs to be charity, and vendor independent, transparent, and adaptable for organisations of different sizes and sectors. Something to discuss with my colleagues at Charity IT Leaders

And there’s more… This week we added a new company to the league table of those investing in AI to create models that answer any question we need them to.

Consider Microsoft, Alphabet(Google), Amazon, Oracle, Meta and how much they have poured into AI development. Not quite the $500B that was announced for Project Stargate… which in country magnitudes is roughly equivalent to some of the worlds richest countries - for example the GDP of UAE or Singapore. But between the big players, we can estimate they are investing upwards of $200B (see previous edition of newsletter for discussion on Microsoft investments).

And the new company we added? DeepSeek - supposedly developed for $6M (ten times less than the GDP of Tuvalu, at the bottom of the GDP rankings). And lots of people, based on a trying a few prompts, are claiming its better than ChatGPT (except if you ask it about Tiananmen Square)

But - down to earth, what does this tell us, and is this of any relevance to charities?

Well, I think, the biggest lessons from this are that a) A lot will change in the coming 3 years, and b) It is likely that competition in the AI space will drive down the costs for consumers and charities, unless, (and this a big unless), protectionism kicks-in and larger companies manage to push others out of the market, fix prices high, and hopefully recoup their (massive) investments.

Final thought: the old adage - if you’re not paying for a product, then you are the product - is worth bearing in mind. If it becomes harder to monetize AI through selling to consumers and businesses, then other monetization models will appear.

Season 2 Episode 7: Getting Value from What You do.

In this week’s episode I focus on a particular technique - Value Stream Mapping. I discuss this with an expert who has done this multiple times for large organisations - and generated large time and money savings for them, whilst improving customer experience.

We talk about the technique in detail, and discuss why it is relevant to charities - particularly looking at beneficiary journeys.

We also consider the relevance of VSM in an AI world.

Stay Tuned for more insights in future episodes

If you’re new to the podcast - then definitely take a look back at some cracking episodes. Whilst there is a storyline flowing through the episodes, they work in any order, so don’t feel obliged to listen to them in order. My podcast stats platforms tell me that people generally start at the beginning and work their way through. I’d advocate for the Roses chocolate-box approach - just dive in and pick whichever one takes your fancy. Episode 4 with Avril Chester and Mary O’Callaghan has been the most popular of Season 2 (if you wanted the Pro-Tip for those looking for the ‘hazelnut in caramel’)

Virtue & Virtuosity ‘aspirationally’ comes out fortnightly, or given work pressures sometimes closer to monthly. If you’re keen for me to feature something going on in your charity, please get in touch - and do comment on anything in here, or in the podcast that you like.

Remember – follow on your favourite podcast platform, today, so that you don’t miss an episode.

https://virtuevirtuosity.com

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(please ask if you think there is somewhere I else I should be publishing, and I’ll endeavour to add it!)

About our host and guests

Adam Scoot, Consultant

Adam is a Management Consultant and Enterprise Agile Coach with extensive experience leading defence, finance, and technology transformations. He specialises in building effective, value-focused teams, streamlining delivery processes, removing roadblocks, and driving cultural change. He aligns leadership, reduces decision delays, and creates sustainable systems that help organisations adapt and improve continuously.

Known for his approachable leadership & coaching style, he help teams and leaders deliver outcomes that support organisational goals.

Stuart McSkimming, Podcast Host

Stuart is an independent consultant and founder of the sector-specific Technology consultancy, Virtue Chain . He is an award-winning leader with over twenty years’ experience in NFP/Charity leadership roles, predominantly in the technology/digital and transformation space. He is an expert in getting the most from teams and focusing organisations on strategic goals to get the most from Technology & Digital. He is passionate about organisations focusing on inclusion and finding ways to attract a diverse mix of top talent into their teams. He has worked as a CIO for two organisations – Shelter and Royal British Legion, and also a variety of roles elsewhere. Stuart is extensively networked in the not-for-profit sector both in the UK, and internationally, and is the Vice Chair of top membership organisation, Charity IT Leaders. Stuart enjoys regular public speaking, and also has been known to do stand-up comedy gigs occasionally.

Virtue Chain offers a unique model for charities to access technology advice from experts with relevant experience within the sector across a number of different specialist skillsets. If you or your charity are looking for one-off tech-focused advice, or an ongoing call-off service with our experts, then get in touch with [email protected]

Virtue Chain offers fixed price strategy and roadmap development particularly with AI, and exclusively for NFP and related sectors.

In case its not obvious, views expressed are Stuart’s own view, and don’t represent those of any organisations he is working with or mentions