About 2500 years ago, 100km west of Shanghai, a young military scholar developed some unconventional ideas about strategy. He took the surprising step of documenting them in a book he called “The Art of War”. Importantly for our SMB clients, his approach was very much that of the
Read MoreI know, everyone is talking about uncertainty right now - again. And that’s understandable as there is plenty of it about: tariffs, shifting trade dynamics, economic turbulence, not to mention the various conflicts and environmental issues that have briefly moved out of the immediate media spotlight but haven't gone
Read MoreBack in high-school, one of the many books we had to read and discuss was 1984. Two of the questions we were posed concerned: 'what would have to happen for the world described in that book to come about', and 'what would have to be true for people in that world to not realise what was happening to them'; remember those 2 questions as you read...
Read MoreThe phrase 'the Ghost in the Machine' has long fascinated me, and occasionally has me exploring philosophical rabbit holes as I try to make sense of it - and test it against real world situations. In short, the phrase ‘ghost in the machine’ was coined by Gilbert Ryle - a British philosopher - in 1949. He was responding to the ideas of René...
Read MoreBuyers are increasingly using AI to solve problems such as ‘How do I manage a sales funnel? How do I seal glass to aluminum? Where should I stay in Atlanta? They do this because they will get answers rather than a list of ‘sponsored’ web pages they could visit. And they typically get a prompt asking if they would like to know where they can buy...
Read MoreFor as long as humans have been around, the ability to decide who to trust - and who not to trust - has been a crucial part of our survival tool box. Individually, we human beings are relatively weak creatures, but our strength comes from forming social groups, to work, problem solve, and live together. And that requires communication and the...
Read MoreThere is absolutely no doubt that it won’t be Business as Usual for the next few years. And that could be a good thing! Why? As the late great Montrealer Leonard Cohn famously said: “Forget your perfect offering, There is a crack in everything,That's how the light gets in.”
Read MoreFeedback is a crucial element in engineering and science, ensuring that systems function optimally within known boundaries. Thermostats regulate temperature by adjusting heating output. Vehicle cruise control maintains speed but adapts to other traffic. Biological feedback loops—such as homeostasis and insulin regulation—help the body stay in...
Read MoreSome companies spend way too much time developing insignificant incremental features for their products. Nobody buys a product, or service for that matter, based on how long the feature list is. Once it can get the job done, the product capabilities become irrelevant. What becomes more important, as Pete Townshend might ask,
Read MoreDouglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy starts with very simple advice – “Don’t Panic!” This is great advice anytime but is particularly relevant today. A single individual has been given the controls to much of the world’s economy and, without the dampening effects of consensus thinking, we are in for a rough time. It reminds me a bit...
Read More/kcl-goes-green/HeaderLogo-60x300-ID-e065fb7a-094d-4fc6-d8c1-f4f88e7523f5.png)