Before my MBA, I used to think that business “problem solving” was about analytical thinking. But during my consulting days, and then as an entrepreneur, here is what I figured out:
1. Human emotions and ego create a vast number of “business problems”. This would include all the politics, turf wars, and situations where companies know what to do (or can figure out), but are unable to — because humans won’t cooperate.
2. A smaller % of problems pertain to systems thinking, processes, and how the world is structured.
3. The third, and possibly the smallest bucket, is the problems requiring hardcore analytical thinking (e.g., data, spreadsheets).
This list is by no means MECE, but will cover a good number of problems.
That is why, in business, you will always need people skills, no matter how much AI advances.
– Rajan