Articles

Recommend a Friend Leadership

Recommend a Friend

Morning Folks, I hope you're in a good place this morning. I have a favour to ask. Two in fact - so I won't beat about the bush. Firstly, I'm growing the newsletter readership and I need your help. Would you mind recommending the Executive Summary to a few people? Two minutes. I'd really

Dan Ilett · 1 min read min read
Tech Debt to Tsunami from AI Fallout AI

Tech Debt to Tsunami from AI Fallout

The Executive Summary's latest pulse survey researched 150 global enterprise CEOs on their relationship with technology. Most studies focus on CIOs, but with the rise of AI, CEOs are pushing harder to drive the tech agenda themselves. Two Stats That Matter [more to be revealed]: * 68% of

Dan Ilett · 5 min read min read
Not Love Island. Not Fintech. Just £650 Billion of GDP Growth

Not Love Island. Not Fintech. Just £650 Billion of GDP

For those of you who never make it to page 19 of the newspaper, the Labour government launched its industrial strategy this week. This represents a long-overdue reset as a ten-year plan to focus government support on eight high-growth, high-productivity sectors: advanced manufacturing,

Dan Ilett · 3 min read min read
Supply Chains Are Breaking. Just-In-Time is Paused. Geopolitics

Supply Chains Are Breaking. Just-In-Time is Paused.

Ford has been forced to shut down production at its Louisville factory, with CEO Jim Farley calling it a “day-to-day struggle” to get hold of the right parts. This is not a one-off event. Farley cited global sourcing challenges and rare-earth shortages tied to geopolitical tensions as root

Dan Ilett · 1 min read min read
From Pilot to Pause: Why GenAI is Stalling AI

From Pilot to Pause: Why GenAI is Stalling

Gartner expects that 30 percent of GenAI projects will be abandoned by the end of this year. Why? Because the fundamentals don’t hold up. Poor data quality. Loose risk frameworks. Sky-high costs and unclear outcomes. Some companies are spending up to $20 million just to test something they

Dan Ilett · 1 min read min read
What CEOs Want: The 2025 Guide to the Great Unknown Leadership

What CEOs Want: The 2025 Guide to the Great Unknown

You’ve already seen the signs: * A record wave of CEO resignations in 2024 as leaders walk away from roles that no longer come with a playbook. * CEOs calling other CEOs for real-world answers - cutting past consultants and boards/ * The widespread rejection of default platforms and

Dan Ilett · 1 min read min read
The Carbon Sink Industry Geopolitics

The Carbon Sink Industry

America is facing a hard truth - it no longer leads in mining. China controls more than 70 percent of the world’s rare earth mineral production and the US imports nearly three-quarters of its supply from there. In response, President Trump’s March 2025 executive order aims to reshore

Dan Ilett · 1 min read min read
Your biggest writing challenge? Downtime

Your biggest writing challenge?

I have a colossal writing challenge in front of me like none I have seen. (Welcome back to the summer semester.) In 2014, I asked myself the question: "What's the most commercially valuable piece of writing you could put on one sheet of paper?" My answer was the executive summary for the

Dan Ilett · 1 min read min read
The Squid Games of Global Trade Geopolitics

The Squid Games of Global Trade

The global trade stage is now Global Squid Games. 'Red light to green light' as to who is friend or foe to the US - or how to grow a business - is flickering faster than a disco strobe. One day, we know there is a problem. The next it has disappeared. CEOs must play this game of musical

Dan Ilett · 3 min read min read
The Gen X Question for Gen Z Leadership

The Gen X Question for Gen Z

I posed a question on TikTok last week: If you were 18 today, with your current knowledge, what would you do? University? Travel? Something else? It sparked hundreds of responses. The aim was to help Gen Z make confident decisions in a world that’s nothing like the one we grew up in. Many

Dan Ilett · 2 min read min read
India's genius narrative flip Geopolitics

India's genius narrative flip

If you want a masterclass in the power of narrative, look to India. The country's rebrand of 'outsourcing' to 'capability centres' is winning jobs and business at an astounding rate. Multinationals like IBM, UBS, Lloyds Banking Group and Cargill are shifting thousands of roles to Global

Dan Ilett · 2 min read min read
The No-Grow-Zone Budget Geopolitics

The No-Grow-Zone Budget

Entrepreneurs and CEOs are wincing at the critical hacks the bludgeoner budget slasher took to the economy yesterday. Rather than show any adherence to a growth narrative on establishing trade and bolstering inward investment , Rachel Reeves kicked the can down the road and instead took

Dan Ilett · 3 min read min read