The coming year promises to be one in which long-held assumptions about how business works are going to be thoroughly upended. While this might seem threatening, historically, periods of uncertainty create unprecedented opportunities for those… Read more »
Insights and ideas
2024 Year in Review: Surprising ways human ingenuity thrives through inflections
There is no shortage of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) to go around. As Futurist Amy Webb points out in her 2024 SXSW talk, we’re in the midst of a “supercycle” – one of those… Read more »
Escaping the outrage machine – Is Bluesky becoming a thing?
As my Thought Sparks guest Steven Brill points out, absence of accountability for content posted on social media sites, plus algorithms that favor content likely to attract eyeballs have led to an often-toxic mix of… Read more »
“It’s as though the Albanian army was going to take over the world”
Where better to learn about the potential and the pitfalls of AI than at MIT! I was thrilled to join the program as part of the opening panel, “GenAI: Disruptive Innovation or Paradigm Change?” This… Read more »
How powerful women outsmart conventional fashion design
When women first started flooding into professional workplaces in the 80’s, they faced a dilemma – what to wear? High fashion didn’t look professional. Female versions of men’s suits just seemed silly. Dresses could be… Read more »
Are you a hammer or a nail? Insights from Princeton’s Keller Center Innovation Day
Princeton is discovering its entrepreneurial mojo, and part of that is integrating the traditional concerns of entrepreneurs – can we make something new that someone will buy – with the concerns of the humanities. The… Read more »
A bright spot on the leadership development horizon
Field notes from the final installment of my time delivering a custom executive education program for Genentech. What if we invest in developing our people and they leave? What if we don’t and they… Read more »
We say we want adaptive behavior but we reward other things…
As part of my research for my new book, I’ve been revisiting many management classics, including Arie de Geus’ book “The Living Company.” It’s a gem, and reveals what can happen when we don’t treat… Read more »
Transient advantage isn’t going away – how AI can help with inevitable inflection points
The field of strategy has long been anchored to the idea that industries exist and that the normal state of things is in equilibrium. Maybe that was the way things were, but it certainly isn’t… Read more »
The Perils of Great Success
Most of the time, bringing an innovation to life doesn’t work out. But sometimes, in a magical moment, product-market fit is achieved, the market responds and there is a glorious period of success. But the… Read more »
Choice architecture makes its way into anti-trust: Google Ruling
The theory of monopoly has to date been firmly rooted in the analog world. Traditionally, a monopoly occurred when there was a single seller or producer and no close substitutes. With the Justice Department’s ruling… Read more »
Maybe Brat Summer is what a lot of us need right now
Wasn’t it amazing that Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” was able to put a feminist spin on aggressive pink? Well here we are in the summer of 2024 and slime green has taken its place. Brat summer… Read more »