Admitting you’re lost

My dad and I used to get spectacularly lost driving around Johannesburg. No GPS. Just a folded-up map and his determined conviction that the next turn would somehow be the right one. It rarely was. But here’s what I noticed: He’d get us lost, realize it,...

Maps beat momentum

You’re driving fast. You know the general direction. You feel productive. But do you actually know where you’re going? Most mid-market companies confuse motion with progress. They’re scaling—hiring, expanding, executing—without a map. They’ve...

The cost of shortcuts

We skip the strategy session because we’re “too busy growing.” We hire before we clarify the role because we need someone “now.” We chase the new opportunity before we’ve mastered the current one because this one “feels...

Speed vs. Velocity

Your competitor just launched three new products. You launched one. Who’s winning? The question itself reveals our obsession with speed. More launches. More meetings. More initiatives. We celebrate busyness and mistake motion for progress. But physics taught us...

Strategic plans become doorstops

Organizations spend months crafting elaborate strategic plans. Consultants get paid handsomely. PowerPoint slides multiply like rabbits. Everyone nods approvingly at the final presentation. Then what happens? The plan sits on a shelf. Markets shift. Competitors move....