‘Change is the process by which the future invades our lives’
Alvin Toffler
Only Dead Fish is a consultancy focused on AI strategy, transformation and leadership, run by Neil Perkin. Neil is the author of three best-selling books on the intersection of business transformation, organisational agility and leadership: Building the Agile Business, Agile Transformation, and Agile Marketing (all through Kogan Page). He curates the Google Firestarters thought leadership series and designs and delivers AI programmes for the IPA.
Neil works with organisations navigating the strategic, cultural and leadership challenges of AI adoption, through keynotes, workshops, training programmes and strategic consultancy. Clients include Google, AstraZeneca, Lloyds Banking Group, Diageo, BBC, the NHS, Imperial College London, and agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi and Omnicom.
Latest Posts
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The age of the expert generalist
In 1936 a 20 year-old Claude Shannon came to MIT from the University of Michigan to work with Vannevar Bush on his differential analyser, an early, room-sized mechanical computer. This analog computing machine could solve differential equations through a series of rotating discs and shafts whose operations were governed by a bank of around a…
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Why AI fluency doesn’t scale
By the early 1980s the General Motors assembly plant in Fremont California was widely regarded to be the worst performing car manufacturing site in the U.S. The company had a huge employee engagement problem with absenteeism regularly running at over 20%, and sometimes approaching 50% on a Monday. When managers had too few people turn…
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Why AI shifts bottlenecks rather than remove them
In 1793 Eli Whitney invented a machine that could separate cotton fibers from their sticky seeds. The ‘Cotton Gin’ (short for ‘Cotton Engine’) mechanised what was previously a hugely laborious and inefficient manual process and it transformed the textile industry almost overnight. Suddenly mass-scale cotton production became not only more possible, but vastly more profitable.…
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The Great Unbundling of Work
On 4 May 1948, the US Supreme Court ruled in a landmark antitrust case that would change the way that Hollywood studios worked forever. Until that point the studios had owned everything, from the production lots, through to the cinemas that the films played in. Actors, Directors and writers were tied in to long-term, exclusive…
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Technology, inflection points and cascading impacts
In the late 19th Century sharpshooter Annie Oakley was one of the most popular acts within Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Annie would demonstrate her skills performing tricks like shooting the flames off candles and her grand finale, shooting the end off a lit cigarette held in the mouth of a brave volunteer from the…
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On Getting Older, and Building Meaning
Every so often an essay or post comes along that when you read it, your only wish is that it had come from your brain and your keyboard. Packy McCormick’s Riding the Leopard was one such post for me. If you missed last week’s edition, this account of a talk which Packy gave at The Mountain event in…
My books
Agile Transformation
Now on its second edition, Agile Transformation sets out a blueprint for a different type of organisation which is characterised by continuous change and adaptability. Covering approaches to organisational design, operations and culture, this book reveals how leaders can catalyse far greater responsiveness and apply agile principles at scale.
Agile Marketing
Published in 2022, Agile Marketing is the definitive guide to redesigning marketing structures, processes and culture for the digital age. It covers how to put data at the heart of agility and performance, how to empower fast-moving teams and decisions, and how to catalyse a culture of collaboration and learning in marketing strategy and execution.
Building the Agile Business through Digital Transformation
Also on its second edition, Building the Agile Business is designed to be a comprehensive guide to transforming organisations to be fit-for-purpose for the digital-enabled world. This book defines a roadmap for digital transformation setting out the key principles, strategies and tools that leaders can use to create lasting change.