Articles

Winter Mindset: Why The Season Tests Us Wellbeing

Winter Mindset: Why The Season Tests Us

Not everyone is okay this time of year. The pressure is intense: family, money and reviewing success or failure can be very hard. And if you’ve lost someone - even harder. One in five adults in England now lives with a common mental health problem, according to the 2025 Big Mental Health

Dan Ilett · 4 min read min read
The Work Myth: The 127 Days to Make Sales Happen Growth

The Work Myth: The 127 Days to Make Sales Happen

In the UK, things are winding down for Christmas. If you're in retail or hospitality, t'is the season to be jolly. But for business owners in other sectors, it can be extremely stressful. How many times in November did you hear: "Let's do it in the New Year." The impact of Christmas being

Dan Ilett · 4 min read min read
Moses Itauma: The Heavyweight's Executive Summary on Life Downtime

Moses Itauma: The Heavyweight's Executive Summary on Life

Moses Itauma is undefeated at 20 and already thinking like a CEO. He's deleted Instagram, reads business books and lets his brothers handle the arguments while he handles the ring. The knockouts get the headlines. His mindset and his family strength is the real story.

Dan Ilett · 8 min read min read
Can Business Grow in a Budget That Doesn’t Like Business? Geopolitics

Can Business Grow in a Budget That Doesn’t Like Business?

After all the rumours and leaks, the business community listened with its head in hands yesterday braced for what was due to be another pickaxe to its aspiration. The expectation was that Rachel Reeve’s budget would tax air, breathing, hands, moving and looking at things. Dogs and cats

Dan Ilett · 4 min read min read
I Am Scared of This And Need Your Help AI

I Am Scared of This And Need Your Help

Before we get into this, these are the pieces I am working on over the next few weeks. * A breakdown of the UK budget (Thursday/Friday) * The Executive Summary Awards 2025 (December) * Board dynamics: the paradox of talent vs teamwork * Opex crisis: the invisible costs your CFO can't find

Dan Ilett · 3 min read min read
Is this Britain's Most Famous Cat? Downtime

Is this Britain's Most Famous Cat?

This is Stella. She might look like an ordinary cat, but don't be fooled. She is living proof that reincarnation works. Stella lives in Beckenham, a Southeast London town that was invisible to muggles until ten years ago when Kirsty and Phil made TV shows about what good value it is. The

Dan Ilett · 6 min read min read
Christmas Drinks: You're Invited Growth

Christmas Drinks: You're Invited

To say a massive thank you for your readership and support this year... We've held events at some of the best venues in London this year: The Goring, The Ned, Mr Porter, but for Christmas we're putting on an old-school party in an even older pub. Our venue this year is the kind of pub your

Dan Ilett · 2 min read min read
Overwoke and Underpaid: Can the BBC Recover (Again)? Leadership

Overwoke and Underpaid: Can the BBC Recover (Again)?

Hello Children Today, the squirrels are in the boardroom doing their: Libel Badge. "Everyone," winks Baldrick. "I've got a cunning plan. We'll splice different parts of the US president's speech to make it look like he meant something else." Daddy Pig is taking notes. "Isn't he one of the

Dan Ilett · 4 min read min read
School Fees, Flatlining and Farcical PR Events AI

School Fees, Flatlining and Farcical PR Events

My Executive Summary for this week: stop relying on someone else's platform, someone else's recruiters or someone else's sales process. Build what you own - the audience, the expertise and the narrative. The builders today are the ones who control their own distribution. Use social media

Dan Ilett · 6 min read min read
What You're Missing: Attention Flywheels & Trust Engines Leadership

What You're Missing: Attention Flywheels & Trust Engines

Facebook company pages now reach just 1.37% of their followers organically. That is not a typo. It is however - awful. That means if you build a page of 10,000 followers and only 137 people see each post you publish. Instagram is barely better at 7.6% and LinkedIn company pages make up

Dan Ilett · 4 min read min read
Change Bullies: Using AI to Extract Gatekeepers to Progress Leadership

Change Bullies: Using AI to Extract Gatekeepers to Progress

Let's say one exec stakes their career on building the company's future on one tech vendor. Massive budgets are spent. Three years later, it's obviously wrong. But that person can't allow change because it means admitting failure. So the entire organisation slows down. Months are lost in

Dan Ilett · 4 min read min read
The Prophet of the Stateless Age: What Ian Angell Saw Coming Geopolitics

The Prophet of the Stateless Age: What Ian Angell Saw Coming

A friend of mine runs a boutique consultancy. Recently he told me he's moving to Dubai from the UK. Not for the zero income tax, he said, but he's fed up of taking scrappy projects and being ghosted while his industry suffers and government looks on. In 2000, Professor Ian Angell published

Dan Ilett · 3 min read min read