Boards keep hiring the executive who says yes. An entire market—search, remuneration, coaching, consulting—now manufactures the corporate saviour and has no mechanism for telling the truth about what he can deliver. Part one of two on the fraud that begins at appointment.
Articles examining the distinction between leading and managing, the limits of managerialism, and the conditions under which authority, judgement, and responsibility can be exercised well.
All in Leadership & Management
Boards keep hiring the executive who says yes. An entire market—search, remuneration, coaching, consulting—now manufactures the corporate saviour and has no mechanism for telling the truth about what he can deliver. Part one of two on the fraud that begins at appointment.
Writing on boards, accountability, decision-making, and institutional design, with a focus on how governance either sustains or corrodes organisational legitimacy over time.
All in Governance
When the board itself becomes the obstacle to clear thinking, no governance code can save the company. On groupthink, pluralistic ignorance, and the difference between directors who serve the company and those who merely sit on its board.
Analysis of strategy, competition, and organisational coherence, drawing on classical strategy, contemporary practice, and scepticism toward fashionable frameworks.
All in Business & Strategy
Control and empowerment are often performed rather than designed. In this piece I examine how organisations drift into theatre—adding process or slogans instead of clarity—and argue for bounded empowerment: clear guardrails, explicit decision rights, and real autonomy within limits.
Reflections on power, institutions, and public life, exploring how political ideas shape—and are shaped by—social norms, incentives, and cultural assumptions.
All in Society & Politics
Margaret Mead argued for keeping Santa as myth, not deception—preserving wonder while nurturing critical thinking. Treating Santa as symbolic and drawing on diverse traditions fosters imagination, honesty, and cultural insight.
Essays on the intellectual currents that influence how we think and work: philosophy, culture, language, and the often-unexamined ideas that structure everyday decisions.
All in Ideas & Culture
Metacognition is the discipline of noticing—and revising—your thinking in real time. It sharpens judgement, steadies emotion, and turns debriefs and assumption checks into a practical system for better decisions.
Writing on technological change, scientific authority, and their organisational and social consequences—separating genuine progress from inflated promise.
All in Science & Technology
As Apple's privacy respecting posture gives way to the pull of marketing dollars through making user data the product, their third way begins to fall short.
Observations on writing, publishing, and the media ecosystem, including the economics of attention, the craft of authorship, and the changing conditions of public discourse.
All in Publishing & Media
The em-dash has fallen under suspicion—treated as a tell-tale sign of artificial writing rather than what it has always been: a mark of care, rhythm, and thought in motion. It should return to good standing so we can recover linguistic standards we seem oddly eager to abandon.
