by Guy | 24 Sep, 2026 | BusinessFitness, Scalable Margin, Value & Founder Independence, Strategic Value Direction
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” – Thomas Paine, Common Sense, Introduction (1776) Item seven on the monthly management agenda is an update on something launched about eighteen months...
by Guy | 17 Sep, 2026 | BusinessFitness, Scalable Margin, Value & Founder Independence, Strategic Value Direction
“What is settled by custom, though it be not good, yet at least it is fit.” – Francis Bacon, “Of Innovations”, Essays, 1625 A manager puts her head round the door on a Wednesday afternoon with a problem and a recommendation. She knows...
by Guy | 10 Sep, 2026 | BusinessFitness, Scalable Margin, Value & Founder Independence, Strategic Value Direction
“It is astonishing what foolish things one can temporarily believe if one thinks too long alone.” – John Maynard Keynes, preface to The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, 1936 It was a week into September, and the office had emptied...
by Guy | 3 Sep, 2026 | BusinessFitness, Strategic Value Direction, Structural Authority, Governance & Operating Design
“The era of procrastination, of half measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.” – Winston Churchill, House of Commons debate on the Address, 12 November 1936...
by Guy | 27 Aug, 2026 | BusinessFitness, Scalable Margin, Value & Founder Independence, Structural Authority, Governance & Operating Design
“Visibility is a trap.” – Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975) Two Businesses, One Set of Numbers Two businesses close the month with very similar results. Same margin, same customer retention, same average debtor days. On paper, comparable...
by Guy | 20 Aug, 2026 | BusinessFitness, Scalable Margin, Value & Founder Independence, Strategic Value Direction
“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” – George Orwell, from the essay In Front of Your Nose, published in Tribune, 22 March 1946. Across a boardroom table, an owner is talking a prospective buyer through the...
