Category: strategy
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How AI supercharges strategy and planning
I ran a session with a leadership team last week in which we were working through how AI could be a true partner throughout the strategy development and deployment process. One of the issues in discussing this subject is the sheer breadth of application. Similarly to the innovation process, there’s just so many ways in…
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Using AI for simulation and scenario planning in strategy
One of the most eye-opening ways in which AI engines have opened up new possibilities in my work has been through the ability to use them in simulation and scenario planning. It’s enabled me to do things that were previously not an option for me without using expensive systems or tools. As I’ve said before,…
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Transforming systems and thinking differently
I once did a fascinating project with the operations team of a big pharma business helping them to understand how they could combine agile ways of working with Lean manufacturing techniques. As part of the research for it I did a dive into the origins and principles of the Toyota Production System (TPS) from which…
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Separating fads from trends, and the second and third order effects of AI
‘Don’t be the dog that barks at every passing car’ Richard Wheldon How should we separate major underlying shifts in technology from the fads that come and go? How do we identify which trends will be long-lasting and high-impact, and which are over-hyped and will change little? The characteristics of a general purpose technology are that…
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Using synthetic personas and research to explore ideas
One of the areas of my work which has been truly eye opening recently is the application of synthetic research (using AI generated data and personas to simulate real-world research scenarios) to explore ideas and open up new thinking. Various pieces of research have shown how accurately AI engines can replicate the responses of human…
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Using AI as a thought partner
A lot of the focus on the benefits of AI are (perhaps naturally) focusing on efficiencies right now. But one of my favourite ways of using these tools is to challenge my own thinking, to open up new lines of exploration, and to originate new perspectives and ideas that I hadn’t even thought of. If…
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Gigantomania and why big projects go wrong
This weeks news about the further delays and overspend costs associated with the UK’s HS2 high-speed rail project had a distinct air of inevitability about it. Government infrastructure initiatives and large corporate projects that don’t overrun and exceed budget are a unique kind of rarity. Oxford academic Bent Flyvbjerg, who co-wrote the excellent ‘How Big Things…
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Superagency: Amplifying Human Capability with AI
There’s something very attractive about the idea of ‘superagency’, the emerging concept that sits at the intersection of AI, organisational design, and talent. It refers to the amplification of individual or team capability through AI, allowing people to operate with outsized influence, speed, and creativity. The idea is that we’re creating a compounding effect where…
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Integrating AI into the strategy workflow
I’m a big fan of the idea of AI amplifying human capability and have long been working to fully embed AI into my strategy work. For me it’s been a real game-changer. It’s not just about efficiency, although it is like having a mini-team of researchers always on hand which is amazing. It’s also that…
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Tar pit ideas
I liked the concept of ‘tar pit ideas’ that is talked about in this StartupMBA TikTok that I came across. These are common startup ideas that multiple entrepreneurs have come up with before, which continue to attract a lot of focus, but which end up going nowhere. Tar pit ideas form around a common problem…