Did you get the blue screen of death? CrowdStrike is having a very bad week. It’s early days on the details, and plenty of pundits have already weighed in on what happened and the potential cost. Because when you promise your product will protect computers and instead it shuts them down, your...
Values. Everyone has them, but not everyone knows what they are. The resulting gap can drive a wedge between what you say and do. Which matters. Because there are definite benefits in them becoming how you do things. One look at companies that stand alongside what they believe even when there’s...
After a door panel blew out mid-flight, an FAA audit gave Boeing until the end of May to sort out continuing problems with its planes. The deadline is fast approaching, and it’s still unclear if executive exits, reshuffles and statements about “building on the learnings” will be enough to satisfy...
Nearly every week I see yet another story about a company embarking on a 'rebrand'. Accompanying the hype is a rush to discard what got them here in an attempt to downplay or erase the past. Which is a common symptom of how people try to change a brand. It’s a...
Wading through Barbra Streisand’s exhaustive 900-plus page biography, My Name is Barbra, I didn’t expect to stumble upon a lesson in maturity that applies to organisations and how their brands store value. In chapter seven, Streisand recounts her audition for the movie Funny Girl. She was trying to convince the director that...
Before he was convicted to serve 25 years in prison for fraud last week, Sam Bankman-Fried aligned himself with a movement known as Effective Altruism. They welcomed him with open arms, happy for the boost in awareness he generated and a corresponding increase in those taking up the cause. Then Fried’s crypto-fund...
While enjoying a coffee with a friend, she shared a story about her workplace, which got me pondering the culture-process divide and the consequences for people’s endeavours. Culture is how people choose to do things repeatedly, and processes direct people on how to do it. And when those two things are...
From day one, Sue landed like a firecracker. After the grind of a tough few months, co-workers said they loved her enthusiasm and energy. Yet despite that promising start, excitement dissipated once the honeymoon period ended, and after a few more months, it was clear she wasn't going to work out. Like...
No board can make the right decision if they aren't considering how it adds or erodes value in the organisation's brand. A lesson trumpeted as the front page news this week, with the Board of OpenAI firing and now reinstating CEO Sam Altman.I won't go into chapter and verse of what feels...
When organisations think about capital, two dominate. Financial and human. Both are crucial, and abusing them will collapse value and drive you out of business. Yet, you accumulate value across more than those two. But don't necessarily consider those things as capitals when making decisions. As a result, choices erode rather...