Leadership & Management

There's no Ghost in the Machine

Graham Birkenhead, March 25 2025

The 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...

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Market Strategy

SEO is OVER

Andrew Penny, March 18 2025

Buyers 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...

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Communication

Marketing without Trust is Just Noise

Graham Birkenhead, March 11 2025

For 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...

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Leadership & Management

Business as Usual???

Andrew Penny, February 25 2025

There 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.”

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Leadership & Management

The Fine Art of Not Saying Nothing

Graham Birkenhead, February 18 2025

Feedback 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...

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Market Strategy

Product Market Fit is fine, but what about Brand Market Fit?

Andrew Penny, February 11 2025

Some 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,

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Leadership & Management

Don't Panic

Graham Birkenhead, February 4 2025

Douglas 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...

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Leadership & Management

Trust under Pressure

Graham, January 28 2025

It's that time of year for the release of the latest version of one of the most insightful annual studies; a study that really helps make sense of what we see happening around the world, and which should be part of any company's PESTLE consideration. Each year, the Edelman Trust Barometer surveys thousands of people across the globe (this year,...

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Communication

Lead with your Inside Knee

Andrew Penny, January 21 2025

I spent a few days skiing at Mont Tremblant last week. The snow was perfect and the company excellent.  One of our group is a solid intermediate skier and always trying to improve. Unfortunately for him, the other three of us are all experienced ski instructors and only too keen to offer advice.  It seems that each of us had been quietly...

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Leadership & Management

Yesterday's Logic

Graham Birkenhead, January 14 2025

5 Common Practices you should definitely move on from Peter Drucker said: “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence—it is to act with yesterday’s logic”. Well, we are in a time of turbulence - as per normal - although this quote feels particularly poignant just now. We see so many companies trying to operate today with...

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