The pace and depth of change will never be this slow again.

Across most categories, disciplines and markets, that is now simply a fact of life. It brings remarkable opportunity, alongside real, sometimes existential threat.

I have been doing this strategy thing for more than thirty years, and also studying and teaching it at Oxford for most of the last ten. The contexts have changed beyond recognition, yet one thing has remained remarkably constant:

The businesses that succeed, and then keep succeeding, are the ones that see better than everyone else.

They notice what others miss, they question assumptions that others treat as fixed (including their own), they understand where value is moving before it becomes obvious, they keep updating their view of the world as it inevitably changes and, for a precious few, they in turn change the world around them.

That ability matters even more now.

The mass adoption of generative AI has made information, analytical capability and the ability to test or prototype ideas dramatically more accessible. As these tools become even more widely available, the competitive advantage, increasingly, lies in what people choose to see with them.

Successful businesses will be those able to keep seeing what others cannot, and then be able to turn that sight into value that others don’t.

Every week I explore how we might do this better, as companies, as leaders and as individuals.