Articles Tagged Management

Granddads’ hands are usually quite rough. Grandkids’ are mostly soft. And that’s the Buddenbrooks Effect. The label comes from Thomas Mann’s 1901 novel Buddenbrooks, which chronicled a merchant family’s decline across generations. Ever since, it has been shorthand for a familiar pattern in family enterprise: fortunes often thin out after about three generations. The founders […]

Everything crumbles, eventually. What we assemble comes apart again, sooner or later. The physical structures we put up will someday come down, however robust they look today. The institutions and businesses we design, build, and nurture may enjoy proud runs, then fade. Globe-spanning empires—Roman, British, American—end up buckling under their own weight. Even our best […]

I saw a big company saying recently that it was taking a balanced approach in navigating a dynamic operating environment. What the hell does that even mean? All operating environments are dynamic. And of course you’re taking a balanced approach. Why would you take an unbalanced one? That sentence is known as a nothing burger. […]

It was bound to happen. We were always going to use AI badly before finding its true value in human society. So yes, the junk is everywhere. Auto-written sludge. Copy-paste thought masquerading as insight. Deepfake giggles. Automated outrage on tap. That’s the obvious misuse: people using a powerful tool to do lazy things. The part […]

I visited a bank branch recently. That’s no longer a feature of my life; digital acceleration in banking has been real, and like most people I happily transact online and through mobile apps. Most of the time. Once in a while the need for an in-person visit to a physical location, after battling traffic and […]

A and I. Two letters that are on everyone’s lips these days. Artificial intelligence, we are told, is the greatest opportunity in the history of humankind. It will free us all from drudge work and lead to an unprecedented productivity boom. Artificial intelligence, we are also told, is the greatest threat to the future of […]

I track Gallup’s State of the Global Workforce report, every year. I don’t really know why. It’s the same depressing reading every damn time.  That’s not Gallup’s fault, but if you’re an employer, it might be yours. So what did the 2025 report, recently released, reconfirm? That the pattern remains clear. Here’s an excerpt, using […]

This actually happened. My wife received an online delivery order. She had paid for it. The items were correct. It had come to the right place. But the rider was unable to hand it over—and so the order went back. The absurd sequence began when Mrs B placed an online order at one of our […]

Do you know this word? ENSHITTIFICATION. It’s ugly and accurate. Cory Doctorow coined it. It describes what happens when tech platforms, once useful, go bad. Not all at once, but gradually—and then completely. The pattern is simple—and sadly predictable. When we start a great business, we try to be amazing for our customers. Then, we […]

Like many around the world, your business might be staring into a fog of extreme uncertainty. Perhaps your government keeps slapping on new taxes—suddenly, haphazardly. Maybe looming trade wars are giving you sleepless nights. Or it could be that new tech and fresh competition have arrived in tandem to feast on what used to be […]

I notice a disturbing trend in the favourite candies I have enjoyed since childhood. The quantities per piece or packet have been gradually shrinking. The packaging is often cheaper and more shoddy. And there is variation in quality depending on the target market: here in Africa, for example, there seems to be an assumption that […]

You reach for a tissue from a brand-new box, expecting a smooth, elegant pull. Instead, nothing budges. That first tissue is glued to the second like a child clinging to its mother’s leg on the first day of school. You poke, you pinch, you wiggle a corner free. Which then rips off in your hand. […]

I’m on a roll, ducking and weaving and landing punches, so I might as well continue! Last week I lamented the use of the terms “operational reasons” and “regret” that corporations use to justify endless service failures. This week let’s move on to another such term: “Relationship management.” Many years ago I wrote a piece […]

“Flight 123 to XYZ is delayed due to operational reasons. We regret any inconvenience caused.” How many times have you heard this? How many times have you sighed, rolled your eyes, or muttered in frustration? This phrase, uttered in monotonous tones over crackling airport speakers all over the world, is one of the great corporate […]

The year began for me with a series of setbacks. Life is often like that; the challenges come thick and fast. It has always been thus, and there is nothing to be done except deal with it. But when the season of setbacks is upon us, we need to step up, focus, stay calm, and […]

I often do walkabouts at interesting organizations when I want to know more about them. Far away from the boardroom and C-suite, down to where the action is. The aim is to look away from the corporate fru-fru and get to the heart of the matter: what’s the vibe here? Are people happy and engaged […]

When was it clear that BlackBerry was on its last legs? Around 2013, when its top line had already halved. Yet it had clocked its record revenues just two years earlier. When Apple launched its first iPhone in 2007, quickly followed by the first Android phone in 2008, BlackBerry still had reason to feel secure. […]

Why is innovation so difficult? Is it because coming up with brilliant new ideas is so hard? Not really. Innovation is a team sport. Put some talented folks together under the right conditions, and the ideas will flow. The real problem with innovation comes well before the team gathers to generate ideas. Lech Walesa once […]

Customer complaints are a modern phenomenon, right? Nope. They’ve been happening for as long as humans have traded with one another. The oldest known written complaint was sent nearly four millennia ago, from the southern Mesopotamian city of Ur, in what is now Iraq. The complaint is etched on a tablet now housed in the […]

Last week I highlighted the three waves of computing tech that we have gone through over the past four decades or so: the personal computer, the internet, and the cloud-connected, multi-featured smartphone. Wave four is now well and truly upon us. Artificial Intelligence. The world as we know it is being rewritten—not by quill and […]

As an educator focused on leadership, I am constantly searching for good metaphors. This is because leadership is one of the most misapplied concepts of our time. Those who are given the privilege and the honour to lead others mostly do it very, very badly. They lead through coercion, through inducement, and through a mistaken […]

As a teenager, I would be often found in what was Nairobi’s leading second-hand bookshop of the time, off Koinange Street. Booklovers thronged this shop, and the array of popular titles available was surprisingly good. I was there every week or so, trying to make my meagre pocket-money go further by buying used books rather […]

The croissant is a commonplace food these days, made all over the world. But a great croissant, it must be said, is difficult to find, even in the capitals of Europe. The best examples of the delicacy have a lightness in the hand, a fineness in the texture, a fluffiness in the mouth that only […]

Your big company is looking to fill a key position. Where do you look? Out in the job market, naturally! Put out an advert, talk to a headhunter, put the word around. It seems to be a natural instinct. But should it be? Looking externally is certainly the easier option. Surveys show that in-house recruiters […]

Picture this scenario: The board of directors of an iconic organisation decides to fire its well-known CEO, without warning, issuing a cryptic announcement to that effect and appointing an interim CEO from within the organisation to hold fort. That stuff happens often, so nothing too extraordinary thus far.  All hell breaks loose, however. It turns […]

I have been saying to businesses large and small for decades now: there’s an affection button that you must press. It’s the button that, once activated, creates the emotion: “I like these people.” That is one of the most potent feelings in business, yet it’s also the most ignored. Last week I showed how small, […]

I have a question for you: is your business liked by anyone? We don’t usually view businesses in that way, do we? It’s not one of the regular aims of a business, to be held in affection by any party. We are far more transactional than that. We provide a product or service, customers gain […]

A recent experience at a hotel made me pause and reflect. I had looked over the wide array of desserts available in the lunch buffet, and chosen a nice looking mousse in a long-stemmed glass. After carrying the sweet dish back to my table, I noticed that the dessert spoon already laid out there was […]