The "party" of brute-force scaling is winding down, and the industry is finally starting to sober up. For the past few years, the dominant narrative for CEOs and Product Leaders was simply "bigger is …
Hortal.com Blog
The Invisible Web: Why Distinctiveness is the Only Antidote to the AI Squeeze
For more than twenty-five years, I’ve watched technology cycles move from the "magic" phase to the "utility" phase, and finally, to what Cory Doctorow famously termed "enshittification." We saw it …
The Observer Effect Breaks Lean: Leaders can Inadvertently Turn Gemba Walks into Theatre
Why do carefully planned Gemba walks sometimes produce silence, posture-perfect rituals and a performance designed to impress rather than improve? Because presence matters — but not always in the way …
The Agentic Era: Why Your Product Strategy Must Move Beyond the Chatbox
For more than twenty-five years, I’ve watched technology cycles move from the "magic" phase to the "utility" phase. I remember the early days at Nokia when we thought the mobile phone was just a …
Continue Reading about The Agentic Era: Why Your Product Strategy Must Move Beyond the Chatbox →
Kodak’s Lost Moment: What Product Leaders Must Learn from the First Digital Camera
What separates an invention from an industry transformation? The story of the first handheld digital camera is a useful lens. It’s not just a tale about pixels replacing film — it’s about incentives, …
The Brittleness Paradox: Why Efficiency Kills Innovation—and What Leaders Must Do About It
Organisations spend decades chasing efficiency: fewer handoffs, standardised processes, central governance. And yet the same measures that squeeze waste out of operations can also remove the very …