These posts focus on the challenges societal leaders face as we transition into the age of disruption.
What can Cary Grant, LeBron James and Pythagoras teach us about organisational design? In this post, I make the case for a new type of organisational model that benefits the individual, the organisation and society. Let’s start at the start. There are two types of factory. Factory A: There is a visible conveyor belt along […]
Keep off the pavement Cities come and go. Pompeii, Thebes, Petra and Machu Picchu come to mind. Cities decline for many reasons including maladministration, natural disasters and an inability to adapt to increasingly volatile macro-environmental forces. Human settlements first appeared 50,000 years ago. We were all nomadic hunter gatherers up until 12,000 years ago. Movement […]
Humans are being put to the test. A test that goes much deeper than how do we cope in a world where access to hand sanitiser and toilet paper is not guaranteed. In this post, we explore the role citizens can play in ensuring our societies pass with flying colours. Firstly, some scene setting: […]
It’s not just businesses that face disruption as we leave the synthetic certainty of the industrial era. Societies too are having to adapt to the effects brought about by increased connectivity, mobility and global supply chains. In this post, I will explore what adaptations a society must make if it is to attract and retain […]
Society needs technology sales The IT value chain is broken in a number of places. This is a serious problem because modern societies depend on new technology. If value is being unnecessarily dissipated along the chain then both vendors and consumers lose out. Technology sales needs to evolve to meet the needs of the digital […]
Before we dive into the digital afterlife, it is worth pausing to reflect on the marvels of digital technology. What would our ancestors think of our ability to access the world’s knowledge from a handheld device? What would they think if they knew we used that device primarily for shopping and picking arguments with strangers? […]
So what is the digital age? For many, the digital age is simply the industrial era ‘amped up’ on tech steroids. Perhaps marked by the IT industry’s coming of age as new technology became as much part of the social fabric as it was in the world of business. But that doesn’t really cover it. […]
The future of the nation state is starting to come into question. Social contracts that justified citizen loyalty are fragmenting. It should be of no surprise to government leaders that people are not totally happy with the manner in which the world is carved up. Often the borders were created with a total disregard for […]
I recently took a mini-tour of Latin America, where I delivered a series of keynotes on how organisations are going to have to raise their service game in the post-industrial age. It is a peculiar feeling presenting to a gathering of leaders whose country is in economic freefall. And uplifting to speak to leaders who […]
To set the scene, let’s go back a century, or two. Back then, for many of us, the opportunity to become part of the emerging industrial era, and ‘share’ in its economic spoils was very attractive. Farming was a little too unpredictable (too many environmental and market variables), as was being an artisan (having to […]
