Insights that drive leadership

Software stocks have been in freefall, and a new word has entered the business lexicon: "SaaSpocalypse." The thesis is that AI is poised to undermine the business model that made enterprise software one of the most profitable industries on the planet, built on high margins, recurring revenues and customers locked in by painful switching costs. Drawing on roundtables with senior business leaders in San Francisco and New York, this Fortune piece identifies three structural forc

We are living through the biggest freemium product demo in history, and it cannot last. AI capability is advancing at breakneck speed, but the capital being committed vastly outweighs the value being realised, and aspirations are not cashflows. This Sifted piece argues that 2026 marks the end of AI's era of innocence, as Big AI is forced to monetise harder and the question of who pays, how much and for what can no longer be deferred. The piece examines how monetisation will l

Nearly nine out of ten S&P 500 companies that mentioned AI on earnings calls last year described it in glowing terms, yet most leaders fell back on vague promises of unrealised productivity gains when pressed for specifics. AI pilots are not guaranteed to deliver, employees remain fearful of the technology, and AI projects frequently fail to address how organisations actually work and create value. This HBR article argues that success in the age of generative AI hinges less o

In this piece published in Management Today, our Lead Advisor Michael G. Jacobides, drawing on a workshop co-sponsored by Evolution Ltd at London Business School, finds that while GenAI is not about to replace professional services firms or knowledge work, it is set to profoundly redefine them. Rather than displacing all roles, GenAI reshapes what adds value—prompting firms to rethink how they price, staff, train, and deliver. To stay relevant, PSFs must move beyond task auto

Large companies currently dominate GenAI adoption, with 46% reporting mid-to-high levels of maturity compared to just 28% of mid-sized firms. But that advantage may be fading. This Fortune piece argues that as GenAI evolves, mid-sized companies are increasingly well placed to catch up and even pull ahead, because the very scale that gave large firms an edge is now working against them. Extensive management layers, entrenched processes and siloed operations cause large enterpr

The supremacy of Big Tech increasingly rests on their ability to build and manage digital ecosystems, but power does not always translate into profit. Meta's costly metaverse experience offers a cautionary tale: by the time Horizon Worlds had been live for two years, fewer than 200,000 people used it monthly, and content creators were paying fees of up to 47.5% on virtual goods sales, draining the incentive for complementors to participate. Apple is now making a strikingly si

Web3 is not dead, but it is different. The grand metaverse dream may have faded, but beneath the disillusionment a quieter, more purposeful shift is underway: stablecoins now top $130 billion in global circulation, blockchain is tracking diamonds, carbon credits and airplane parts across complex supply chains, and Citi estimates that $5 trillion in central bank digital currencies could be circulating by 2030. This Fortune piece argues that companies need to update their think

Making sense of GenAI and preparing for the future GenAI may contribute to corporate inequality, though it holds potential to narrow...

Generative AI is advancing at an unprecedented pace, and the excitement is justified. When consultants used AI tools, one study showed quality improvements of up to 42%, a figure that rivals the long-term productivity gains from steam and electricity. Yet the same research revealed a striking blind spot: GenAI performed worse than humans at solving specific business problems with right and wrong answers, and training people in AI tools actually made their outputs worse, not

Tourism is booming, but the accounting is off. Mass tourism is damaging the planet through CO2 emissions and resource depletion, diluting local cultural identities and concentrating economic benefits among large investors rather than host communities. Drawing on research and advisory work, including the pioneering case of Valencia's collaborative tourism model, this Forbes piece argues that business ecosystems offer a path toward a more sustainable tourism paradigm. It ident

Ecosystems open the door to new customers, broader value propositions and greater innovation, yet many companies still stumble over a fundamental question: what role should they actually play? Too often, firms assume they should be the orchestrator, underestimating the time, resources and capabilities that role demands, and end up confusing ecosystems with "egosystems." This strategy+business article offers a practical framework for deciding where to focus, which role to adop

2022 was not a year of black swans but of "grey rhinos": large, slow-moving threats hiding in plain sight. In this wide-ranging annual outlook published on LBS Think, the piece surveys the landscape at the intersection of strategy, technology, disruption and ecosystems. It examines the end of the era of cheap capital and naive platform thinking, the structural dominance of Big Tech despite market corrections, the evolving nature of competition under what is called a "Mark III

From Black Swans to Grey Rhinos Last year certainly had its fair share of dramatic news, from the war in Ukraine and rocketing inflation...

For two decades, abundant capital and low interest rates let companies chase growth at almost any cost, with investors willing to fund promise over profitability. That era is over. In this HBR article, Michael Jacobides argues that as inflation rises and capital becomes scarcer, growth can no longer be the overriding priority, yet innovation remains essential. Companies must develop more rigorous, cost-conscious strategies while simultaneously rethinking their business models

From a strategy vantage point, 2021 saw consumers increasing their shift to digital distribution channels. As habits provoked by COVID...

Despite the overwhelming importance of digital platforms, and the chatter around their recent rise, our understanding of digital...

How should you go about setting your ecosystem Strategy? In this interview for an event organized by HBR in Turkey, our Lead Advisor, M G Jacobides offers a quick overview of our seven step ecosystem development framework.

On 15 December, the EU unveiled the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Acts (DMA/DSA), the most thorough reworking of the...

During a crisis, the immediate reaction is often to default to old habits. That may work for a while – as it did in the financial crash...

It will be quite some time before we understand the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the history of such shocks tells us two things. First, even in severe economic downturns and recessions, some companies are able to gain advantage. Among large firms doing business during the past four downturns, 14% increased both sales growth rate and EBIT margin. Read more here.