Author: Phil Le-Brun

Your next million customers might never walk into a store, never scroll a product page, and never click “Add to Cart.” They are AI agents, software that shops on behalf of humans, and they are already on your site. Retailers are moving from competing for human attention to competing for algorithmic inclusion. Every decade or […]

Organizations can bridge the widening gap between exponential technological advancement and slower organizational change by implementing three key practices: elevating operations through simplification and autonomy, energizing employees through curiosity and education, and envisioning clear business goals that connect technology initiatives to meaningful outcomes.

Traditional feedback methods, like the sandwich approach or harsh criticism, are being replaced by more effective feedback strategies that focus on excellence, real-time reactions, and coaching-style interactions to build organizational learning and intelligence.

Harvard Business Review Analytic Services has conducted sponsored research to gain insight into how organizations are currently using data, with a particular focus on its application to generative AI. The resulting report, titled “Scaling Generative AI for Value: Data Leader Agenda for 2025,” examines trends across various industries and companies worldwide. Prior sponsored research with […]

The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice. —Brian Herbert, Author When I was 10, my parents bought me a Sinclair ZX81. The slim plastic-encased computer had a stick-on keyboard and a precariously attached memory pack. Programs were saved on cassette tapes. […]

“Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.” —anon With generative AI grabbing almost every organisation’s attention, watching how they use the technology is interesting. Today most AWS customers are focused on achieving productivity gains (e.g., making information easier to acquire and digest for customer service staff). A […]

All organisations are perfectly aligned to get the results they get. —Stephen R. Covey, Educator and Author My first blog post on untangling your organisational hairball describes six focus areas to increase organisational agility. The first is to be highly aligned. As the Cheshire Cat remarked in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, “If you don’t know […]

You show me a successful complex system, and I will show you a system that has evolved through trial and error. —Tim Harford, Economist Read any contemporary article on organisations and within the first few sentences the word, “agile” appears at least once. Some articles suggest achieving agility with a new target operating model (TOM), […]

Transformation is not a destination; it’s a journey of continuous growth and self-discovery. —Tony Robbins I used to run regularly until life got in the way. I now intend to spend a boatload of money on fitness gear and fit running around all my other activities, probably starting in the new year. I anticipate being […]

One year ago we published our first research report on the role of Chief Data Officers (CDOs). The renowned Tom Davenport, in partnership with MIT Chief Data Officer and Information Quality Symposium (CDOIQ), was commissioned to conduct a global study of CDOs across industries, tenures, and stages of the data journey. At the time I […]