Leadership AI perspective
Half a day on what is real, what is hype, and ten places AI could pay off in a business like yours.
Simeon Margolis · Boulder · Chicago
In 30 days, you'll know where AI actually pays off in your business.
Not a generic training. A specific answer for your operation, your data, and your people, from someone who has run manufacturing and consumer products businesses.
Where things stand
54%
of billion-dollar companies have AI running across the business
1 in 3
of smaller companies can say the same
6%
of companies anywhere can trace 5% of EBITDA to their use of AI
The gap isn't the technology. It's knowing where it pays off in your operation.
McKinsey, The State of AI, August 2026. 1,719 executives across 97 countries.
Where it pays off
The work your team already does, with better information and less friction.
Quoting and estimating
Ten years of quotes and job costs, usable in minutes.
Scheduling
What the scheduler knows, written down and usable by anyone.
Ingredient coverage
Coverage and production trade-offs in real time.
Maintenance
Work orders and manuals, searchable at the machine.
Quality
Complaints, inspections, and corrective actions, read for the pattern.
The thirty-year guy
What he knows, captured before he retires.
Flagship engagement
30 Day Immersion
I spend time with your leadership and operations team, watching how work, information, and decisions actually move. Then I show you where AI pays off, what it takes, and what to do first.
4-step process
Walk it
Time with the team. Your quoting, scheduling, maintenance, purchasing, and production, as they really run rather than as the process document describes them.
Find the money
Where better information and practical AI change margin, throughput, or cash. Ranked, with an honest read on the size of each prize and what it takes to get it.
Show the team
Hands-on sessions with your people, using your actual work. Not a generic curriculum, and not a demo on someone else's data.
Leave a plan
What to do first, who owns it, what it costs, and just as important, what to ignore.
Two Additional Ways to Work Together
A first look
Ongoing
Put it to work
Implementation support and ongoing advisory, so first projects reach production instead of dying as pilots.
About me
Thirty years of running things, mostly the hard way.
I co-founded Good Day Chocolate and ran it as CEO for nearly ten years, through formulation, manufacturing, national retail, thin months, and eventually a sale. More recently I have been CEO of MRC Polymers in Chicago, a manufacturer that turns recovered plastic into engineering resins. I have also spent time in technology, entertainment, consulting, and even beer.
I have made payroll in thin months, moved production, priced and re-priced products, hired and downsized, raised debt and equity, sold a company, and sat on the other side of a board table. In every one of those seats I ran into the same thing: good companies held back by how they are run rather than by what they sell.
AI is the newest version of that story. Applied to the real work of a business it is a genuine advantage. Applied generically it is an expense with a subscription attached. That is the difference I care about.
Let's start a conversation
Curious where AI would actually pay off in your business?
Tell me a little about the company and what prompted you to reach out. I read these myself and I will respond personally.
Or email me directly simeon.margolis@gmail.com