Most people haven’t heard of Béla Barényi. I’m going to nerd out on his influential automotive safety innovation, why it matters for strategy development, and then why i’ve moved my newsletters to be substack-first.

How do you go about solving a problem? We're taught to first define the problem fully. But we should spend more time on how we are describing the problem in the first place - because the metaphor shapes our thinking, unconsciously. Framing matters.

You spend months crafting a 'Strategic Plan', and everyone works to it diligently. Yet in every Board meeting, questions pop up, like: But are we really focusing on the right things?, or How do we know our strategy is working?

At the weekend I experienced the sheer joy of a Flaming Lips performance. With a few days of distance from the exuberance, and a newsletter deadline approaching, I’ve been drawing strategy lessons.

What does a science fiction novel, the Tate, and a micro-community on TikTok all have in common?

Many strategy workshops hold an uncomfortable tension: some participants seek airtime for tough BAU and in-flight projects, and others want to generate and discuss novel ideas.

An academic at my uni, 30 years ago, was a former chess champion. He said there were two clusters of chess strategy.

Harry Beck's 1933 map of London's Underground is wildly inaccurate - it bears little relation to the geography of London. It is, genuinely, a lie.