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Executive Summary

A sharp, candid weekly executive summary covering growth strategy, leadership, board dynamics, market signals and the conversations shaping modern business.

Unmeasured Productivity: AI Investments are Flying Blind AI

Unmeasured Productivity: AI Investments are Flying Blind

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

Dan Ilett · 6 min read min read
How to Fire Someone Leadership

How to Fire Someone

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.

Dan Ilett · 3 min read min read
That's a Wrap for '25 Downtime

That's a Wrap for '25

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

Dan Ilett · 4 min read min read
How to Write an Executive Summary: Examples, Template and Checker Leadership

How to Write an Executive Summary: Examples, Template and Checker

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

Dan Ilett · 20 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 Growth

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