Dan Ilett is the founder and editor of The Executive Summary, the three-times-a-week CEO newsletter read by over 1,000 chief executives. He came up through journalism, writing for the Financial Times on technology and enterprise, and was founding editor of CoinDesk, the world's leading crypto news brand and host of the Consensus conference. He also founded Greenbang, which reached 50,000 readers and was quoted by the United Nations and European Commission. His advisory has shaped $1bn in closed deals, working with IBM, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Cognizant, Equinix, UK Government and SEB on AI, storytelling, commercial performance and organisational change. He chairs the City CIO Club and advises companies through The Proposition.
Growth
I surveyed our 66 webinar delegates on how to sell to the C-suite and asked them: What is the single biggest challenge you face when selling to the C-suite? The number one challenge, cited by 35% of respondents, was access and attention. There are good reasons for this. Channels
AI
Where is AI already making you money and where is it just making you feel modern? I gave a talk on this in Edinburgh the other day to a brilliant group of people at SMT Network. Fast forward to the end to find out which types of AI your organisation uses today and where you might be
AI
Would you rather have more hospital beds for people or the latest version of Windows? Ooh, tough one. As patients lie on trolleys in hospital corridors, teachers buy classroom supplies out of their own pockets and councils close libraries, the government is paying billions a year for
AI
Your People Are Already Using AI Microsoft research shows 52% of knowledge workers hide their use or AI from their managers. Data is flowing to external systems without governance. Contracts are being drafted, code is being written and emails are being sent through tools your IT department
Geopolitics
The British have a new hobby, which in cultural terms is right up there with conkers, bunting and Bake Off. Scalping prime ministers has become such a national pastime, it could get its own TV show. Working titles: "Don't lose your seat", or "One in, one out". The British have always been
Growth
Good morning On Thursday 26th February at 10am, I'm running a free webinar on selling to the C-suite. It's the course I have given to a number of Fortune tech companies to help them shift the narrative to get better engagement. Believe it or not, these companies face the same challenges as
Geopolitics
You have to ask, how can UK governments keep getting it so successfully wrong? With 13 major U-turns under its belt and counting, this government has realised its inexperience is costing it voters. The blame - at least a good portion - has landed on the record number of special advisors
Leadership
Over Christmas, I read The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. My friend Todd Wade, an excellent Chief Information Security Officer, gave it to me for my birthday. It's a warts-and-all account of how hard it is to be a CEO and the junk you have to deal with as part of the job.
Geopolitics
The World Economic Forum in Davos dominated international attention with a tense backdrop of US-Europe friction. President Trump launched a new Board of Peace initiative aimed at Middle East conflict resolution but did so without major allied support, raising questions about diplomatic
AI
We have entered what the industry is calling the "Agentic Wars." In December 2025, Meta paid over $2 billion to acquire Manus, a nine-month-old startup that had built something Silicon Valley now considers essential: an AI that doesn't just talk, but acts. ChatGPT and its peers answer
Wellbeing
Being a CEO is highly stressful and sometimes you have to wonder why you took it all on. Hiring the wrong people, not hitting the number, deploying the wrong project - and having to ask 'have you done it yet' about 100 times a day. If everything works, the team did it. If one thing goes
AI
I can't face another bar, restaurant or event. I don't know what it's like in your industry, but in mine, it's all about network. For the last three weeks, it's been black-tie dinners, pub meetups, parties, lunches and glaze-eyed breakfasts. I gave up drinking alcohol a couple of years ago
