PaperOccasional Papers in Operational Excellence, No. 1
The Systemic Attrition Spiral
When Scale Learns Proximity: How Artificial Intelligence Threatens the Last Advantage of SMEs, and the Lean AI Response
· 25 pages· In English
SMEs have always lost to big corporations on scale; they survive on intimacy. Agentic AI now lets the giants simulate that intimacy at scale. Drawing on past technology revolutions, this paper explains the double squeeze, the doors into the attrition spiral, the view from China, and a five-step Lean AI roadmap for SMEs.
What you will find inside
- Why the threat is proximity, not cost.
- The double squeeze, and what AI can and cannot copy.
- The third door: AI that manufactures failure demand.
- The cost of waiting, and the view from China.
- The five-step Lean AI roadmap, and what to do with the people.
Who it is for
Leaders of SMEs and mid-caps in any sector, and their advisers.
The author
Manuel Gourmand
Founder of Phi-Lean · ENIM engineer · MSc Lean Enterprise, University of Buckingham
Let's talk about your flow
Thirty minutes on the phone is often enough to know whether a diagnostic makes sense, and on which scope. No commitment.