109 essays
Executives say AI saves them hours a week; staff say it saves nothing. That gap measures how well bad news travels upward in a business, not the tool.
T-shaped hiring assumed humans did the work. Now that AI does the first pass, hire people who can frame problems, direct systems and judge the output.
OpenAI just signed McKinsey, BCG, Accenture and Capgemini to sell its agents. Most AI consulting is training in disguise. Here is what to buy instead.
Musk's five-step algorithm says automate last. With AI agents the first four steps matter even more: automation amplifies whatever process it's given.
AI startups are announcing ARR figures that just aren't revenue. How the metric got stretched, why it matters, and what to ask vendors before you buy.
I backed servant leadership in 2010 and I still do. But "How can I help?" needs a boundary, or helping ends up meaning you own someone else's problem.
Ten articles on Gerber's E-Myth, condensed into one practical read: capability maps, role specifications, governance, and why founders now stay close.
1,300 people found faults in a real Monet because they were asked to find them. Why asking for feedback often creates the problems it seems to reveal.
A court just ruled AI shopping agents are legally their users. Whether agents can buy from your site is now a product decision, so make it on purpose.
Most AI adoption just speeds up work that shouldn't exist. Drucker wrote the test for this back in 1963 — AI has finally made the answer cheap to get.
Execution discipline is just the order you do things in. Why most owner-operators lose the sequence, and three practical things worth doing this week.
Staying small used to mean staying limited. AI has broken that link. How the one-person enterprise competes with far bigger teams, and where it can't.
Consultants tell owners to delegate and step back. Chesky's hands-on Airbnb just posted 18% growth — the instinct to stay close to the work was right.
Growth spends money months before it pays you back. Five simple habits that keep the cash gap from closing a business that was doing everything right.
Bootstrapping is a stage, not a virtue. Here's how to spot when refusing outside capital stops protecting your growing business and starts capping it.
Growth doesn't kill small businesses on a bad idea. It exposes operational debt — and it breaks in a predictable order. Here's how to get ahead of it.
When owners feel overwhelmed, a senior hire looks like the fix. Usually it's a process failure in disguise, so diagnose the breakdown before you hire.
Deep work sprints make founders better at being indispensable. The discipline that matters makes you less essential — and that's the old E-Myth point.
GitLab's restructuring spends $35m turning a 2,500-person business into 60 small teams. Small firms already have that shape. Here's how to keep yours.
Being needed built the business. Around twenty people, it starts to cap growth. How to audit your week and choose what genuinely needs your judgement.
Gary Vee's 93% marketing waste figure is real, but the 20% reallocation fix won't happen — that wasted spend is funding the dashboard the board reads.
AI is reshaping marketing on two fronts: the tools your team uses and the audience you reach. Most teams watch just one and miss the one that matters.
Polling, focus groups and customer feedback have weakened just as the alternatives got cheap. Why opinions aren't data, and what to do about that now.
AI didn't break marketing. It exposed which content was built on substance and which was noise. A practical audit for business leaders, not just CMOs.
Nearly 80,000 tech jobs cut in Q1 2026, half blamed on AI. Even OpenAI's CEO calls it AI-washing. A simple test separates theatre from transformation.
Walmart's ChatGPT checkout converted three times worse than its own website. The Sparky pivot reveals a fundamental truth about who controls commerce.
Bezos is raising $100 billion to buy manufacturers and rebuild them with AI. Why industrial AI, not chatbots, is the smart money bet in 2026.
Corporate reskilling programmes have never worked at scale. The evidence is clear, the timelines impossible, and the honest conversation long overdue.
AI agents have rewritten the compute equation permanently. Ben Thompson argues this isn't a bubble — and your business strategy needs to catch up now.
By 2028, Gartner predicts 90% of B2B buying flows through AI agents. Your brand now needs a schema as much as a soul. Most marketers aren't ready yet.
Most businesses think their agentic AI is at level three. Most are at one. A five-level framework for honest self-assessment and practical next steps.
Forget workflows — AI agents run decision loops. Map where autonomous cycles belong inside your business, and you will outpace everyone else doing it.
85% of enterprises want agentic AI but 76% lack the operational foundation. Why process visibility matters more than model capability.
AI agents aren't replacing software. They're bypassing it entirely — and most organisations won't notice until the damage is done.
AI lets small firms scale output without adding headcount. But scaling decisions without scaling governance creates drift. Here is the design problem.
Takeaways from The E-Myth: how to decide where judgement belongs in your business, clarify roles, and build systems that actually work.
Building was expensive; thinking was cheap. AI has flipped it. Why prototyping beats endless planning, and how working code becomes the best argument.
Job descriptions assume humans fill gaps. Bounded intelligence specifications don't. Here's the mechanics of delegation that works.
Your AI agent will ruthlessly optimise any metric you set — including the loopholes you didn't see. Goodhart's law and the AI governance trap most teams miss.
Procedures scale humans. Policies scale AI systems. The franchise model breaks when consistency comes from intent, not scripts.
Task-masking isn't laziness. It's rational behaviour in systems that reward activity over outcomes. AI removes the last places it hides.
Org charts show who reports to whom. Capability maps show where decisions actually happen. In AI-first businesses, only one reveals how work gets done
The businesses that will have AI-literate workforces aren't waiting for someone to train them. They're building the capability themselves.
Gerber's technician, manager, and entrepreneur personas hold up. But they no longer map to people — they map to capability layers in AI-first firms.
Gerber taught founders to replace themselves with systems and people. AI changes what that means. Here's where the original insight breaks.
iRobot’s bankruptcy reveals an uncomfortable truth: patent protection can become a sedative that dulls competitive instincts.
The Budget boosts infrastructure and R&D but ignores the deeper puzzle: UK firms underinvest because too many lack the management capability to deploy capital well.
Companies think they're using AI by prompting ChatGPT. They're wrong. The real transformation happens when AI stops waiting to be asked.
AI is absorbing the coordination half of management and leaving the leadership half. How companies are implementing that shift with today's tools.
The US is falling into the same trap that killed Kodak and Blockbuster — but this time it's happening at a national level with renewable energy.
Learn to distinguish AI capability from expensive theatre. Six practical skills every manager needs to make better AI decisions and avoid costly mistakes.
AI adoption isn't just technical—it's human. Learn how to support five distinct groups in your organisation's AI journey with practical, empathetic strategies.
A deeper dive into why modern business doesn’t just tolerate incompetence—it actively rewards it. How the “Business Idiot” has replaced the Peter Principle.
Marketing is stuck in a cycle of inexperience and self-indulgence. Can AI disrupt the industry's reliance on cheap talent and drive real results?
Explore the key differences between AI and algorithmic intelligence, and their impact on business today and tomorrow
Explore the essential role of a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) in differentiating SMEs in the market, offering customers compelling reasons to choose your business.
Explore the power of personifying company values for a robust culture with practical insights on implementing the 'GARTH' and 'CLARA' models
Explore the importance of honouring notice periods and the lasting impact of integrity in the workplace
Discover why rethinking is key for small business success. Embrace adaptability and innovation to stay competitive. Read more for practical tips.
Navigate the complexities of small business growth with the Ansoff Matrix. Learn to choose the right strategy for market penetration, product development, market expansion, and diversification. Make informed decisions aligned with your business goals
Unlock the potential of service innovation for your small business. Discover actionable strategies, the role of AI, and how to measure success effectively
Discover how curiosity fuels innovation in business. Learn practical steps to cultivate an innovative mindset for meaningful growth and success.
Explore the distinction between goals and tasks, and discover how the OKR framework can bridge this gap to boost personal and organisational productivity.
Explore the enduring relevance of Michael Gerber's "The E-Myth Revisited" for modern entrepreneurs while considering updates to adapt it for today's digital and socially-conscious business landscape.
Explore the nuanced role of customer feedback in business. Learn when to seek input for iterative improvements and when to lead with innovation.
Unlock the keys to business excellence with insights from 'Chasing Perfection.' Learn how its principles can transform your SME into a powerhouse
Explore how the Blue Ocean Strategy can revolutionise SMEs by creating new market spaces and unique value. Learn actionable steps to implement this framework for sustainable growth.
Explore the Innovator's Dilemma through the lens of SMEs. Learn why this concept is crucial for smaller firms and discover actionable strategies to navigate the complexities of business innovation
It's okay to shut down a business if it's no longer viable, you're no longer passionate about it, or you can't secure the funding needed to keep it running.
How pricing and perceived value drive buying decisions, why incentives matter, and ways to set prices that reflect true worth and encourage purchases.
This is a post about meetings - why you want them, how to deliver them better and how to get on top of your day .. meetings are what good leaders do.
There are only two ways new customers find you: search and discovery. Every form of marketing serves one or the other, and the balance keeps shifting.
We live in an instant-gratification world. Deliberate practice is the lost art, and the only reliable route to getting genuinely good at anything.
What was marketing called before 1900? Using Google's ngram.
Passion is a force-multiplier. It is the difference for World Cup teams like the USAMNT and passion can also make the difference for your business.
Data (Big Data) is raw but when structured and organised it becomes information - but our goal is to create competitive advantage by gaining insight.
Notes from Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier's book on big data: all the data not just a sample, correlation over causation, and a new term — datafication.
Why initiative is declining in business, how it affects performance and culture, and steps leaders can take to spark ownership and proactive action.
How to use the word 'meanwhile' to shift from planning into doing: a simple mental trick that keeps your momentum going and turns ideas into results.
Explore the concept of the non-customer in business — why they matter, how to understand their needs, and ways to unlock new opportunities.
Avoiding the Peter Principle in business: why promotions often lead to incompetence and how changing structure and roles can keep teams capable and effective.
Explore why being willing to rethink and refine your business idea is crucial to success — how passion and conviction must be balanced with flexibility to pivot when assumptions don’t hold
Why competition matters in business, how it shapes strategy and performance, and practical insights on competing smarter, not just harder.
Your competitors aren't the companies doing what you do. They're the ones solving the same problem differently. That distinction changes the strategy.
How “Generation F” – people raised with social networks – are reshaping work expectations, collaboration, hierarchy and leadership in modern businesses.
Aristotle's poiesis and praxis explain why working hard isn't the same as making progress. Define what each task produces, then check it delivers.
The Farmer's Creed highlights the importance of hard work, dedication and a love for the land in the farming industry; perhaps we all need one.
Why journaling helps business leaders and managers, with tips on reflection, clarity, decision-making, and improving how you lead and work.
Reflections on building a “100-year company”: long-term strategy, culture and values that help organisations endure and thrive over decades.
Why small business is like a Viking ship: everyone rows.
Why Google+ and LinkedIn beat Facebook for professional networking, how each platform serves different goals, and where to focus your time online.
What it means to represent in business: how authenticity, clarity and voice shape your work, brand perception and professional impact.
Clients or customers? The word you choose sets expectations on both sides and shapes the kind of business you build. Here's how to pick the right one.
Why recruitment agents frustrate many business owners — and how outdated fee structures haven’t adapted to the era of cheap online sourcing.
What servant leadership is, why it boosts team trust and performance, and how leading by serving transforms culture and long-term success.
B2B marketing and sales aren’t sequential. Why they must align, work together, and create seamless buyer experiences that drive growth and revenue.
The formula for trust in business: how consistency, honesty and clarity build confidence, stronger teams and more dependable outcomes.
Practical tips for hiring effective salespeople — what to look for, what to avoid, and how to improve your sales hiring process
What truly motivates employees — why purpose, autonomy and trust matter more than perks and incentives for lasting engagement
Management tip: “trust but verify.” How to build trust with your team while maintaining accountability and healthy performance checks.
Build a self-sufficient business: 1) Create a structured yet flexible system that empowers employees and maintains consistency. 2) Understand your role as an enabler, providing resources for success. #BusinessTips
Why being a “jack of all trades” can weaken your business strategy, and how focus and specialization drive clearer value and stronger results.
A review of Inbound Marketing: key lessons on attracting, engaging, and delighting customers with content that builds trust and drives growth.
Built to Sell by John Warrillow is a top-five business book. A review of its eight steps for building a company that can thrive without you.
Focus on real business value, not trivial tasks. Why big-picture priorities drive growth and how to stop getting lost in minutiae.
A curated business blog reading list — top resources, blogs and insights to help you learn strategy, leadership, marketing and better decision-making.
The best books for small business owners: five must-read titles I keep coming back to, with the one big idea you can use from each.
What workstreaming really is and how Twitter-style workflows can improve communication, focus and project clarity in teams
How to choose a business partner wisely, with practical criteria, pitfalls to avoid, and tips for shared vision, skills, and trust.