Andrew Penny

Leadership & Management

Is Capitalism Broken?

Andrew Penny, February 17 2026

Who knows what GDP stands for? Gross Domestic Product. The number politicians point to when they want to prove things are going well. Up? We’re winning. Down? We’re in trouble. It’s the same with the stock market. Market up? Champagne. Market down? Panic. GDP measures the total monetary value of goods and services produced. It tells us how much...

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Market Strategy

5 Things to Know about Forecasting

Andrew Penny, February 3 2026

It’s that time of year again.Spreadsheets are open. Fingers are crossed. People are hard at work forecasting next year’s revenue. Too often, I see a number plucked from the air. "Let’s try and hit $10 million this year!" Unfortunately, that $10 million can look very different depending on how you measure

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Leadership & Management

Do Consultants use AI?

Andrew Penny, January 20 2026

Spoiler: It’s not about having all the answers. It’s about asking better questions. We started out by asking it simple stuff. “How many board feet of timber does Canada ship each year?” Not bad. Then we got more ambitious. “Who are the three main purchasing contacts at Caterpillar?” Bit of a swing and a miss. And eventually: “Design a...

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Market Strategy

2026: Shift Gears and Move Forward

Andrew Penny, January 6 2026

Back in December, I asked you to think about your big priorities for 2026 - the ones that matter, the ones that keep getting pushed down the list. Now here we are.  First full week of the year. Clean calendar. Blank page. Green light. For a lot of CEOs we work with, the answer isn’t new ideas.  It’s old ones - important initiatives that have been...

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Market Strategy

Big Ambitions for 2026? Let’s Make Them Real

Andrew Penny, December 23 2025

'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the land,CEOs were regrouping, strategy in hand.They'd dodged rising tariffs and tech that moved fast,Now wondering which plans would actually last… It’s that time of year! The pace slows. The calendar clears. And somewhere between the last meeting and the first glass of eggnog, your mind drifts...

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Leadership & Management

Judgement: The One Thing AI Can't Fake (Yet)

Andrew Penny, December 2 2025

Like many of you, we’ve been leaning into AI, using it to speed up research, simplify complex topics, and find tactical clarity. And most of the time, it’s very, very good. And therein lies the rub: most of the time. You see, we humans have spent thousands of years learning how to read our environments. In the old days, it was “is that a stick...

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Leadership & Management

How to Run an Advisory Board that Delivers Real Value

Andrew Penny, November 4 2025

By now, you’ve recognised the value of an advisory board — and maybe even started building one. But there’s a trap here. Plenty of boards are created with purpose… and then slowly drift into “interesting conversations” that never quite lead anywhere. Good people, good intentions — but no

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Leadership & Management

How to Build an Advisory Board that Actually Works

Andrew Penny, October 28 2025

I was speaking with a business owner a while back who told me he had set up an advisory board. “We got together twice,” he said. “It didn’t really go anywhere.” I asked a few questions: He’s not alone. A lot of advisory boards are built with good intentions but never deliver real value — mostly because they’re never built to deliver value....

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Leadership & Management

Advisory Boards: Important But Not Urgent… Until It Is

Andrew Penny, October 21 2025

A while ago, I was catching up with the CEO of a mid-sized business. His business was growing steadily but wrestling with some underlying challenges. As we talked through a few of the issues, I asked whether he had ever considered forming an advisory board. His response was familiar:  “Absolutely, it’s something I know I need to do. Just not...

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Market Strategy

Most Go To Market Problems Don’t Start in Sales and Marketing

Andrew Penny, October 7 2025

I taught skiing on weekends for almost 40 years and one of the most powerful skills I developed was what is called ‘Detection and Correction”.  It’s the skill of identifying the symptom and then determining the root cause. Inexperienced instructors can spot the symptom—but rarely identify the root cause. A student may be skiing without flexing...

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