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.
Wellbeing
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
Growth
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
Growth
The Problem The buyer has begged you to send your proposal to them as fast as possible, hinting they can make the decision and walk you through all the sales hurdles in their company. They've got the power, they say. They're desperate, they say. This is a strategic priority, they add. You
Downtime
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.
Geopolitics
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
AI
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
Downtime
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
AI
The executive summary is the most important and valuable paragraph or one-pager you'll ever write in business. It's also the one most people catastrophically mess up. I've reviewed and written hundreds of executive summaries as a journalist and CEO advisor from and with the largest
Leadership
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
AI
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
Leadership
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
Leadership
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
