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Connecting the dots between Big Tobacco and Big Oil
From the Financial Times this week, following a negative trading update from tobacco behemoth British American Tobacco: “BAT, which makes Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarettes, said competition from illicitly sold disposable vapes and smokers switching to cheaper cigarette brands or quitting altogether had dragged down US combustible sales.” Put more simply: “Damn it! We have…
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One of the biggest minds in money has died
Batman had Robin, Fred Astaire had Ginger Rogers, John Lennon had Paul McCartney, Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak (but both needed the design brilliance of Jonny Ive) and Warren Buffett had Charlie Munger. Sure, there are mavericks who appear to be quite capable of succeeding on their own. The likes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos,…
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There are years where nothing happens, and weeks where decades happen
Last week was chaotically busy, and fun! In addition to in depth discussions with deep thinkers from the worlds of business, AI, accounting and leadership, I interviewed a sweet rapper, a very different experience from dealing with a sweet wrapper. I poked and prodded the global phenomenon that is Steven Bartlett, told one of the…
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How to destroy a business in one weekend
The OpenAI board would have had its reasons for sacking founder Sam Altman – but as my late grandfather would often say: “There’s nothing common about common sense.” The decision to fire arguably the world’s hottest AI talent in the worlds’ most competitive and fast evolving industries smacks of an epic failure of strategic thinking.…
