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Weak Signals

How to see markets beyond the curve, catch weak signals, and anticipate turnarounds to leverage change and disruptions

Nicolas Cage and your swimming pool

Nicolas Cage and your swimming pool

In our age of data supposedly reigning supreme, our data culture is still very coarse. The two most simple issues we're still struggling with in my experience? How much of a sample size do you need to get to statistical relevance and correlation is not causation. Both of

The day I realized you couldn't be an innovation theorist 📺

The day I realized you couldn't be an innovation theorist 📺

In 2016, Clayton Christensen (father of the Innovator's Dilemma and professor extraordinaire at Harvard Business School) discovered that products didn't have intrinsic value and formatted the "job to be done" principle. In his own words: For me, this is a neat idea. When we

What is a platform? Map edition

What is a platform? Map edition

Last June, I was pointing out how being able to seamlessly use the iPhone as a Mac webcam was speaking volumes about how Apple is not a product company, but a fully integrated hardware and software platform. I didn't mean to make a recurring theme of this "

What is the age of the captain?

What is the age of the captain?

In 2018, a 5th grader mathematics problem given in a school in China took some part of the internet by storm. The problem was as follows: If a ship had 26 sheep and 10 goats onboard, how old is the ship's captain? You might want to pause on

🟢 [ Dutch week ] Technology and the 'doe normaal' mindset

🟢 [ Dutch week ] Technology and the 'doe normaal' mindset

The 'doe noormal' Dutch mindset has had a lot of impact on the way this culture deals with technology and innovation. In many cases, this can be an interesting point of view for you too...

Airports are morphing for a pandemic world

Airports are morphing for a pandemic world

Two years ago, while working with executives from one of the top luxury brands worldwide, we discussed how the world would adapt post-pandemic. The concern was mainly at the time for travel retail which accounts for quite a surprisingly high share of international luxury sales. Without anyone traveling anymore in

Who are your competitors?

Who are your competitors?

Imagine you're the Mars company, and your best-seller product is the iconic candy bar with nougat and caramel coated with milk chocolate. Now answer this question: Who are your most *direct* competitors? Can you list as quickly as possible five or six of them? I give you a