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#290: The Strategy Thinker You Haven’t Yet Read (but should)
Good morning, dear friends Today’s letter is more essay-like than letter-like, so pour the coffee or the tea (or the wine, if it is time) and settle in. A few…
289: Obliquity: Strategy is not a straight line
Good morning friends /strategyThe strategy industry and its remoras too often create caricatures of strategy. Strategy is not a list of goals. It is not how it is measured. Nor is…
288: Angel or Devil? We choose.
Good morning, dear friends You may find today’s letter a little heavy, so we’ll start with two babies to make you smile: a Cape leopard cub and a rescued orphan…
287: Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026
Dear friends The month’s writing break is done, and we are back. Apologies if you joined this community whilst I was away. I should have set up an “out-of-office doing…
286: The Gifts of Reading
Dear friends Before we get to this week’s letter, a quick reminder of last week’s announcement that for this year, we will have 8 weeks of letters, followed by a…
285: Hope and Freedom
Dear friends Yesterday, 21 March, was South Africa’s Human Rights Day. It commemorates the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, when armed apartheid police opened fire on an unarmed group of protestors. 1,300+…
284: Second-Order Problem Solving: Why Busy People Stay Stuck (And Four Questions to Break Free)
Dear friends On Friday night, in solidarity with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez we drank a rather delicious 2013 R. López de Heredia Rioja Reserva Viña Bosconia. We ended the…
283: Being good at being lost: Amity Gaige’s Heartwood
Dear friends My coaching work often integrates fiction. I do so because it allows us to see depth and nuance that non-fiction can’t. The non-fiction author can’t explore imagination or internal…
282: The Springboks and Strategy: Eben Etzebeth’s Unlocked
Good morning friends At the end of 2025, Eben Etzebeth released his biography, Unlocked. Etzebeth is South African rugby’s most capped player. In fact, he is one of the most…
281: Who is really in charge?
Dear friends I am revisiting Laozi’s Book of Dao, through a recent translation by one of my favourite authors, Ken Liu (a Christmas gift from my parents who have graciously…
280: Are you poisoned by power?
Dear friends Our last two letters, Self-Doubt and Success, and Excellence and Leadership, went longer than usual, so this week’s letter is briefer. /strategy Last week’s letter gave us four…
279: Nadia Davids, Jim Collins and Brian Lara: Excellence and Leadership
Dear friends Last week’s letter, Self-Doubt and Success: What J.M. Coetzee Teaches Us About Becoming, was a step outside our normal flow. I was, perhaps unsurprisingly, filled with doubt as…