Strategic Decision Making

Product people in startups and big companies must understand that in practice there’s no such thing as “making time for strategic thinking”. In practice, every world-class product person thinks strategically through every decision, through all the ‘tactical work’ they need to do. It is embedded into every minute of every day. It is true that you need to make time to *clarify and write down your product strategy*. But even with that, the real work of yourself getting clarity on your product strategy happens organically, over time, as you’re doing your day to day work of talking to customers, doing sales calls, reviewing product artifacts from your team, hiring for key roles, prioritizing between customer demands, etc. That real thinking work cannot happen in a 2-day “strategy offsite” where you order high carb catered meals and do kumbaya exercises to boost x-fn morale in between BHAG sessions and colorful post it note sessions to cluster people’s random ideas. The proof this strategy theater doesn’t actually work is already in front of you: you’ve done countless such strategy offsites before, never once formulating a true product strategy that your team actually implements over the next year or two. So what makes you think this next post it note session of yours will be any different? For leaders willing to break from old habits, it is useful to differentiate between these: - Strategic thinking (continuous, embedded) - Strategic articulation (discrete, requires dedicated time, solo or a tiny tiny group) - Strategic theater (offsites that produce nothing except *fleeting* vibes)

As head of our product organization at Chase, I often think about how and what we’re delivering to customers, but I recently reflected on the vital role of product managers. While some may view it as merely administrative, in my opinion this couldn't be further from the truth. Product managers are the driving force behind strategy and exceptional experiences, whether for external customers or internal users. Our role demands a deep connection to both the product and its users. Three essential qualities we all have: Customer Obsession: Go beyond empathy by diving into data and insights to understand user behavior, pain points, and opportunities. Decisions should be data-driven, ensuring the product evolves with user needs. Strategic Leadership: Product managers must define and drive the product vision, setting strategies that align with company goals. This involves fostering alignment across cross-functional teams and building strong relationships with stakeholders to ensure everyone is working toward a shared vision. Accountability: Own the outcomes, whether good or bad. Exceptional product managers embrace challenges, learn from mistakes, and continuously iterate to improve. They step into gray areas, connecting the dots to drive cohesive and successful outcomes. This role is strategic and high-impact, requiring us to lead with intention, push boundaries, and always advocate for the user. #productmanagers #productdevelopment

Performance Management in the Age of AI: the new 3‑Dimensional Model For decades, the 9‑box grid shaped how organizations assessed talent—mapping individuals along two familiar axes: ✔ Business performance (“what”) ✔ Behaviors or potential (“how”) Over time, many companies moved away from this model, concluding it oversimplified the complexity of human performance and sometimes reinforced bias more than it reduced it. AI is fundamentally reshaping work, shortening the lifecycle of skills and creating new capability demands at a pace conventional frameworks were never designed to keep up with. As a result, a new paradigm for performance management is emerging. Organizations are starting to consider a three‑dimensional approach to performance—one that integrates not just what people deliver and how they behave, but also how they grow. The new 3D model consists of three axis: 1. Business Results: Measures impact, delivery, and contribution to outcomes. 2. Behaviors / Ways of Working: Captures collaboration, leadership etc. and.. 3. Skills Development: Assesses capability building, learning velocity, and readiness for future roles. The third axis reflects a simple reality: In an AI‑driven workforce, continuous skills development is no longer optional—it’s strategic. IBM has begun to formalize this multidimensional view in its talent and rewards model. Their approach includes: 1. Integrating skills into pay: Base pay and equity linked to skill progression. 2. Balancing objectives: Business and skills goals carry equal weight 3. Future skills visibility: Regular communication on evolving skill requirements see: https://lnkd.in/eTDE-XmE Not every organization can replicate this model at scale, but it illustrates where performance management is heading. The central questions are shifting. Not just: “Did someone deliver results?” But also: “Are they developing the skills the organization will need next?” and “Are they learning at the speed the environment requires?” The move from a 2D grid to a 3D, capability‑driven framework may become one of the most consequential shifts in performance management in the age of AI—signaling a future where growth, adaptability, and skill relevance stand on equal footing with results.

The most dangerous career strategy in 2025: Following a path that worked for everyone before you. Over the last few weeks, my inbox has been flooded with messages of strife and anxiety from brilliant people blindsided by layoffs. To be honest, there is very little I can say to many. Most played the game of life perfectly. They went to great schools, got good grades, landed prestigious jobs, and worked hard. Their stories raises a critical question: What if it's not just specific jobs disappearing, but a fundamental flaw in how we've viewed careers and success? The linear world we've grown accustomed to is abruptly being disrupted. The ladders that guaranteed safety and success no longer hold their promise. For decades, we've operated under the belief that: → Business success comes from perfect execution → Career paths follow logical progression → Expertise can reliably predict the future My friend Gaetan recently said: "What if success was always more random than we wanted to believe? What if strategic planning was always more about the illusion of control than actual causality?" Navigating uncertainty now requires us to: → Judge the quality of our decisions not just results → Embrace uncertainty over false certainty → Recognize success as probabilistic For individuals navigating this shift: → Build skill portfolios, not linear paths → Combine skills uniquely; avoid single specialties → Design for uncertainty, not control → Test multiple career options → Adapt quickly; don’t chase perfection → Diversify income streams Following these principles won't just help you withstand career shocks, it makes you antifragile, allowing you to grow stronger from volatility and stress. The human cost of layoffs extends beyond financial insecurity; it's the painful realization that playing by the rules perfectly was never a guaranteed protection. Yet within this destabilizing reality lies a massive opportunity: to redefine success itself. Success shouldn't be a singular path to follow, but the freedom to create multiple paths of your own design. The true cost of clinging to old models isn't just stalling your career; it's missing the chance to discover who you might become when you stop following and start creating.

Climate Risk = Business Risk 🌍 As climate impacts intensify, the connection between environmental risk and business risk is becoming more direct and more difficult to ignore. These risks are no longer theoretical. They are affecting assets, operations, and financial planning across industries and regions. Severe weather events such as storms and floods are damaging infrastructure, halting operations, and increasing the costs of repair, insurance, and downtime. Heatwaves are lowering workforce productivity and raising the incidence of heat related health issues, particularly in sectors dependent on physical labor or lacking adequate climate control systems. Droughts are limiting access to essential inputs like water, disrupting industrial processes and increasing operational costs for water intensive sectors. Sea level rise is placing facilities, warehouses, and offices in coastal areas at risk of flooding, requiring significant investments in adaptation or relocation. Wildfires are interrupting transportation networks and regional supply chains, resulting in logistical delays, inventory disruptions, and increased delivery costs. Increased climate variability is making business planning more uncertain. Fluctuating weather patterns complicate forecasts, investment decisions, and long term strategy development. Energy infrastructure is also affected. Extreme temperatures and natural disasters are disrupting electricity and fuel supply, creating additional risks and increasing energy expenditures. Insurance markets are responding. Coverage in climate exposed areas is becoming more expensive or unavailable, leaving businesses with greater financial exposure and limited risk transfer options. These risks highlight the need for companies to integrate climate considerations into core decision making processes, from operations and procurement to finance and long term strategy. Addressing climate impacts is not a secondary issue. It is essential to maintaining competitiveness and resilience. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #risk

OK, I'll let you in on a little secret. The biggest risk in any executive job move isn't the compensation. It’s not the title. It’s not even the scope. It’s the team you’re walking into. The politics. The support you’ll get when the heat’s on. And the battles no one warns you about. And yet. Too many seasoned candidates ask questions like: “What’s the 90-day plan?” “What’s the company vision?” “What’s the culture like?” Nice. Polite. Useless. If you want the real story behind the role Ask better questions. Here are 15 questions for C-suite and top-flight talent to work with: 1. “What’s the real reason this role is open now?” Reveals: political landmines, failed predecessors, or strategic pivots. 2. “What will make this hire fail—regardless of their skill set?” Reveals: hidden risks, culture misalignment, power dynamics. 3. “What surprised the last person who took this role?” Reveals: unspoken expectations and reality-vs-pitch disconnects. 4. “Who stands to gain most if I succeed? Who might feel threatened?” Reveals: internal alliances and opposition—before you step in. 5. “What’s one tough call I’ll need to make in my first 90 days?” Reveals: real priorities and where the pressure lies. 6. “When the last crisis hit, what did this leadership team get right—and wrong?” Reveals: leadership resilience, transparency, and how they handle stress. 7. “What’s the most important thing I’ll need to protect?” Reveals: the company’s sacred cows—and potential no-go zones. 8. “What’s broken, but no one has had the courage to fix?” Reveals: where change is needed—but politically risky. 9. “Who has a strong voice in this company without a title?” Reveals: informal power structures that matter just as much as the org chart. 10. “When was the last time someone said no to the CEO—and what happened?” Reveals: the real openness to dissent and challenge. 11. “What’s a leadership behaviour you quietly reward here?” Reveals: values in action, not just on posters. 12. “Which functions are seen as profit drivers—and which are tolerated overhead?” Reveals: where influence lives—and where it doesn’t. 13. “What does success in this role not look like?” Reveals: the missteps others made, and how to avoid them. 14. “Who are the top 3 internal stakeholders I must win over early?” Reveals: where political capital must be built fast. 15. “What would make you say—12 months from now—‘Hiring you was the best move we made’?” Reveals: expectations, hopes, and how they’ll judge you when the honeymoon ends. These aren’t just “smart” questions. They’re strategy tools. Don’t just be impressive in interviews. Be informed. Be intentional. Be in control. Reshare to help others raise the bar too. ♻ #culturematters #leadership #aviation

What strikes me in reading the latest analyses on global catastrophic risks is how clearly they converge on the same diagnosis: 👉 we are facing systemic risks with governance structures designed for a far more stable world. On the Earth system side, science is unequivocal. Climate change, biodiversity loss, freshwater stress, nutrient overload and ocean acidification are no longer isolated problems. The Earth system moves as a whole: the loss of a rainforest or a coral reef sends ripples through climate, food, water and energy systems. Fragmented governance cannot manage cascading tipping points. On the global risk and security side :Technological acceleration, geopolitical tensions and institutional inertia are colliding. Risks are emerging faster, interacting more tightly and escalating across domains—from climate and ecosystems to AI, cyber and security—while decision-making remains siloed, reactive and slow. The risks are deeply interconnected and so must be governance. What is needed now is a shift: 1️⃣ From fragmentation to connection and anticipatory stewardship, embedding foresight, early warning and systemic risk management into decision-making. 2️⃣ From erosion to legitimacy, by strengthening international law, accountability and implementation, rules must matter, even when inconvenient. 3️⃣ From imbalance to inclusion, addressing structural power asymmetries so that those most exposed to risk have a real voice in shaping solutions. We cannot manage tomorrow’s risks with yesterday’s rules. https://lnkd.in/e2W_dNbv

On Sunday, I had an interactive session with Group Executives across Heirs Holdings and UBA Group to commend the team on the successes achieved in 2023 and set the agenda for 2024. Here are the 6 points I shared with leaders across our Groups to adopt for success: 1. Vision Alignment: Know your vision – keep that vision in mind, every day and every hour. Carry along your team, it is central to your role to be the lightning rod that conveys and executes that vision. 2. Execution – The Discipline and the Urgency: Execute with the discipline of focus. In managing, let us focus on leading indicators and not on lagging indicators. Identify those vital few areas that will ensure delivery for this year and deliver flawlessly. 3. People: Grow your own – be active in developing people, not always looking outside for hires. Leaders should communicate and give feedback to colleagues. The feedback needs to be prompt, relevant and actionable – stale feedback is wasted feedback. Celebrate the small wins, as well as the big - and tie this back to the vision. But be authentic, do not brag, encourage, and reward. 4. Show Your Sense of Responsibility: Responsibility begins with you. Tell yourself that if you do not act or correct a course that is going wrong, no one else will. 5. Marketing & Communication: Be strategic in your communication, reference your vision, highlight your processes, and honestly and fearlessly champion your success. 6. Rigour Of Decision-Making: Interrogate all aspects of strategy. Seek the wisdom of your peers, listen intently, hear others out, Interrogate orthodoxies and old ways. Once the decision is made, execute, review, learn and reinforce, drive that momentum and urgency. I wish you all a successful 2024. #Leadership #Entrepreneurship #TOEWay

🚨 Microsoft commits $8 billion to the UAE through 2029, and the financing story is just as interesting as the headline 🚨 Microsoft has confirmed an $8 billion investment into the United Arab Emirates, spanning AI chips, cloud infrastructure, and regional data centers. But beneath the surface, this is a financing strategy that tells us a lot about how hyperscalers are approaching global infrastructure build-outs. 💰 The capital structure behind the investment While not all details are public, deals of this scale typically blend several layers of financing: ✅ Direct equity investment from Microsoft into local entities to establish long-term control and operational presence. ✅ Project finance and structured credit for the data center campuses themselves, often syndicated through regional banks, sovereign wealth funds, and private lenders. ✅ Vendor and partner financing for the chip supply chain and hardware build, including long-term purchase commitments tied to export licenses. ✅ Local joint ventures or PPP-style models that align with UAE policy on digital infrastructure ownership and energy usage. This mix spreads risk, optimizes capital efficiency, and aligns incentives between governments, utilities, and global tech investors. 🏗️ Why it matters 📈 Private capital is now critical to hyperscale expansion. With AI infrastructure costs running into tens of billions per region, even trillion-dollar companies are partnering with private credit, infrastructure funds, and sovereign capital. 🏦 Regional lenders and funds like Mubadala, ADIA, and First Abu Dhabi Bank are becoming central players in the financing stack, providing liquidity and co-investment that keeps projects moving despite global rate volatility. 🔋 Energy-linked financing is another layer. Many of these facilities are powered by low-cost renewable or nuclear energy, unlocking green financing lines and sustainability-linked bonds. 🧠 Talent implications: Expect strong demand for professionals in structured finance, project modeling, and data center credit underwriting, alongside the usual engineering and construction hires. In short: the AI arms race isn’t just fought in code and silicon. It’s financed like infrastructure, structured like energy, and built like real estate. #Microsoft #DataCenters #InfrastructureFinance #PrivateCredit #AIInfrastructure

‼️ Everyone Wants SAF. No One Wants to Pay for It ‼️ So — How Do You Finance a £500M+ Clean Fuels Project⁉️ Let’s be blunt: SAF plants are not being built because of financing. High-CAPEX projects like SAF, e-fuels, methanol or hydrogen rarely die in the lab — They die in Pre-FEED, FEED or just before FID when the money actually needs to move. So let’s simplify the landscape. If you’re building a plant, here’s what your financing journey really looks like: 1. Pre-FEED / Pre-Development Stage Goal: Prove you’re credible enough to justify deeper due diligence. ✅ Typical funding sources: • Founder equity / angel capital — painful but essential skin in the game • Innovation grants (e.g. UK AFF, EU Innovation Fund, DOE in the US) • Strategic partnerships with tech licensors or feedstock suppliers (often in-kind support rather than cash) What works best? ➡️ Grants + early offtake LOIs — your only real credibility anchor at this stage. ⸻ 2. FEED / Advanced Development Stage Goal: Turn assumptions into engineering-grade numbers. ✅ Typical funding sources: • Blended public-private grant structures (e.g. matched funding) • Corporate venture capital (CVC) — but only if you’re aligned with their supply chain needs • Convertible debt from strategic partners (airlines, fuel suppliers) What works best? ➡️ Grants + CVC + strategic equity, but only if you can prove future revenue. ⸻ 3. FID / Construction Stage – The Real Cliff Edge Goal: Secure bankable contracts so lenders stop seeing you as “experimental.” ✅ Funding instruments that actually close deals: • Project finance (with senior debt + mezzanine) — only unlocked after offtake contracts & feedstock secured • Revenue Certainty Mechanisms (e.g. UK GSP, US 45Z, EU FEETS allowances) • Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) — massively underrated, especially for equipment-heavy builds • Loan guarantees from governments (e.g. US DOE LPO model) What works best? ➡️ Long-term offtake + GSP/45Z or similar policy-backed price floor. TL;DR — Here’s the Brutal Truth Technology without bankability is just a science project. Policy gives confidence. Offtakes give leverage. Guarantees unlock capital. If you’re stuck between FEED and FID and don’t know which lever to pull first — you’re not alone. That’s exactly the gap we help close at StratX: bridging strategy, partners and financing pathways so real plants actually get built. Let’s talk!