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John Kay
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…
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…
274: John Kay. Billie Jean King. John Milton.
Good morning, dear friends Summer has eventually arrived on Africa’s southern tip (although can Cape Town’s wind take a breath? Pretty please). One of my favourite distilleries, Pienaar and Son,…
256: John Kay’s The Corporation in the 21st Century
Good morning good friends /strategyLast week’s letter introduced you to John Kay’s The Corporation in the 21st Century. It’s a sprawl of a book collecting thoughts, analysis and occasional scathing asides…
255: Vivian Gornick and Louis Gerstner. Tim Ferriss and James Clear, John Kay on safari.
Dear friends /strategyVivian Gornick, in her acclaimed book on writing great non-fiction The Situation and the Story observes, “Every work of literature has both a situation and a story. The…
248: Oreos. Meera Sodha and Getting Started. RF Kuang and Making History.
Good morning dear friends I hope you’re well. It is book prize season. This week, the 2025 Orwell Prize for political writing announced their finalists. You can find them here.…