Archive - Thought Sparks

The Great Productivity Paradox: Why We Measure Everything Except What Makes Life Worth Living

Since the days of Adam Smith, we have credited rising living standards with an improvement in productivity, typically manufacturing productivity.

Jul 8 •

June 2025

Why you would have a strategic edge if you’d attended “Leading Strategic Growth and Change” in the 90’s

It’s fun to reflect on how my course “Leading Strategic Growth and Change” has evolved over the years.

Jun 24 •

The Merger Mirage: The Triumph of Hope over Experience

Synergy. Market expansion. Gaining share. Cost savings. Diversification. Talent acquisition. Owning a unique asset. Moving into a high-growth sector…

Jun 10 •

May 2025

High-quality service jobs and the advent of a new golden age?

As MIT’s Zeynep Ton has pointed out, the U.S.

May 13 •

April 2025

The Digital Deception Economy: How Bot Farms Distort Social Signals

In a digital environment, sentiment has become currency.

Apr 29 •

March 2025

Have business books jumped the shark? The “peak book” hypothesis

Publishing a book used to be a rite of passage for would-be pundits, experts, speakers and more.

Mar 25 •

Interns! We have interns! Welcome to the tribe

As Garry Ridge, the former CEO of WD-40 says, in his wonderful book Any Dumb-Ass Can Do It, citing Sebastian Junger, “The earliest and most basic…

Mar 11 •

February 2025

The Benefits of Bureaucracy: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Red Tape

Throughout much of human history, power was exercised through a system of patrimonialism, as the great sociologist Max Weber coined the term.

Feb 25 •

Boggled by radically increased uncertainty? You are not alone

January 2025 Monthly Wrap Up

Feb 6 •

Is AI coming for your job? Depends on who you ask

Astonishingly, the age of AI introduced by the November, 2022 release of ChatGPT has been around long enough that we’re starting to build up what you…

Feb 4 •

January 2025

Why the party’s over at Party City, but Build-A-Bear Workshop is Thriving

We’ve been talking about the retail apocalypse for quite some time now.

Jan 21 •

Join me at the Conference Forbes declared one of the top 5 to attend this year- April 29-30 in Dublin

We’ve all been to conferences that are either a bunch of talking heads or even worse, panel after panel after panel without a lot of new insights or…

Jan 14 •

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