Five threads that run through my work: rereading the masters, leading change, the energy transition, strategy, and notes from the field.
Organizational transformation from the inside: what makes change land across tens of thousands of people, and what quietly kills it.
When a striker steps up to take a penalty kick, the goalkeeper almost always dives - left or right, committed and airborne before the ball is struck. It looks like the only reasonable thing to
The metrics were up and to the right. The team presented to the steering committee. Someone said, "This is exactly what we needed - let's scale it." There was applause, or
You've built the network. You've identified the champions. You've run the kickoff. You've sent the comms. Six months in, your change agent network is meeting regularly,
Leo Tolstoy once wrote: "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." He wasn't writing about organizational transformation. But he could have been. Every year,
The transformation is complete. The consultants have submitted their final report. The executive sponsor presents the results at the board meeting: targets achieved, milestones delivered, adoption metrics green across the dashboard. Leadership celebrates. The
Your dashboard is green. Training completion: 95%. Adoption rate: 87%. Stakeholder satisfaction: 8.2 out of 10. The transformation steering committee nods approvingly. The CFO asks about ROI. You confidently point to the metrics.
Your CFO wouldn't dream of managing the company's investment portfolio by launching every promising opportunity simultaneously, ignoring capacity constraints, and hoping for the best. Yet that's exactly how
The executive team announces a major transformation. The vision is compelling, the strategy sound, the investment secured. Six months in, the CEO celebrates momentum. Consultants present positive metrics. Senior leaders nod approvingly. Meanwhile, in
The press release goes out. The town hall happens. The new organizational chart gets unveiled. Consultants present their frameworks. Leaders talk about "being on a transformation journey." Six months later, ask a
Your most talented engineer just pushed back on the new agile methodology. Your highest-performing sales leader is quietly sabotaging the CRM rollout. Your most experienced manager keeps "forgetting" to use the
The CEO gathers the executive team. They craft the vision. They approve the strategy. They launch the transformation with a company-wide email and a town hall. Six months later, nothing has fundamentally changed.
Your top performer just handed in her resignation. The one who championed your last transformation. The one who rallied the team through three reorganizations. The one you counted on to lead the next big
We're witnessing an unprecedented wave of AI adoption across enterprises. Two-thirds of global companies are now deploying generative AI. Yet despite massive investments and executive enthusiasm, most organizations are struggling to
The energy industry and the transition, read through strategy, capital and institutions rather than headlines.
In 2025, the United States became the first country in history to export more than 100 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas in a single year. With 111 million metric tons shipped - roughly
We spend enormous energy debating which technologies will power the future - solar versus nuclear, batteries versus hydrogen, natural gas as bridge fuel or permanent foundation. But while we argue about electrons and molecules, a
The 2026 oil market isn't facing a surplus problem - it's facing a consensus problem. When the International Energy Agency projects a surplus of 3.7 million barrels per day through
The energy transition has a secret that nobody wants to talk about: we can build solar farms in six months, but we can't connect them to the grid for three years. We
The global energy landscape is witnessing a fundamental shift in the definition of energy security. For decades, we have understood energy security through the lens of oil embargoes, pipeline politics, and the geopolitical clout
After decades in the wilderness of public opinion, nuclear energy is experiencing something remarkable: a genuine comeback. While renewable manufacturers grapple with profitability challenges and the energy transition confronts its complexity, nuclear power is
The renewable energy sector is experiencing something extraordinary - and deeply troubling. While global solar and wind installations shatter records year after year, the companies manufacturing this equipment are losing billions. This is a real
As we enter the last quarter of 2025, two landmark reports - BloombergNEF's New Energy Outlook 2025 and the World Economic Forum's Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2025 - paint a picture of
Revisiting the foundational thinkers of management and leadership for an AI-shaped, low-trust decade, beginning with an eight-part series on Peter Drucker. Each essay states one idea plainly, names what the present has broken, and works out what it now demands.
Trust now sits level with price and quality as a reason people buy, and the machines standing between companies and their customers are eroding it.
We have never managed more precisely, or been trusted less. That is not a coincidence.
Strategy synthesis: the best current thinking from research and practice, distilled into what a leader can use on Monday.
Somewhere in your industry right now, a company’s dashboards look healthy. Revenue is holding. Market share is stable. Customer retention is on plan. And its most profitable business is quietly being dismantled. This
Here's a question worth sitting with: How confident are you that your organization truly understands the source of its competitive advantage? If you're like most senior leaders, the answer is:
What happens when the three most powerful forces reshaping business converge at the same moment? Not sequentially. Not in isolation. But simultaneously - each amplifying the others in ways that make traditional strategic planning frameworks
Every year, thousands of executives gather their leadership teams, engage consultants, and craft strategic plans designed to unlock competitive advantage and drive transformational growth. The strategy documents are polished, the business cases compelling, the
Here’s a number that should stop every CEO mid-sentence the next time they announce an across-the-board cost reduction: 80%. That’s the failure rate. According to a recent BCG survey