Insights

Ideas Worth
Acting On

Strategy, AI, growth, and timing — from Shama's newsletter, Inc. column, and LinkedIn. Frameworks built for leaders who move.

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Newsletter2026-03-03

The Campfire Is Running Your Business

Why most organizations still make decisions around the campfire — oral-culture thinking at machine speed. The villain behind Strategic Urgency.

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Newsletter2026-01-21

The Year of the Great Fracture: What I'm Seeing for 2026

Every December, trend reports flood your inbox. By February, you've forgotten what you read. The problem isn't the predictions — it's that no one teaches you what to do with them.

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Newsletter2025-11-25

The Incumbent's Dilemma

Why the companies most capable of leading the next era are often the last ones to. The paradox of success as a strategic liability.

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Newsletter2025-11-06

Why the X Matters More Than Ever

When AI commoditizes optimization, meaning becomes the moat. The argument for investing in experience in a world where everything else can be automated.

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Newsletter2025-10-13

Intelligence Amplified

What it actually means to work with AI — not as a tool you use occasionally, but as a system woven into how you think, create, and decide.

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Newsletter2025-06-24

Unicorns and Horses

The obsession with unicorn outcomes is making leaders miss the horses that would actually build durable businesses.

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Newsletter2025-07-20

The Librarian's Paradox

The more information we have access to, the less we actually know. Why AI is making the curation problem worse — and what to do about it.

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Inc. Magazine2026-02-07

Innovation: Your Customers' Headache Is Your Competitive Edge

Most founders chase the next big thing while ignoring the 60-second headaches that quietly define their customers' lives.

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Inc. Magazine2025-11-20

The Anti-Venture Capital Playbook: How to Build a Brand Without Losing Your Soul

What three decades of bootstrapping teach about building brands that last — without handing your soul to investors.

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Inc. Magazine2025-04-11

AI's 'Theranos Moment'? What the 11x Scandal Reveals About Credibility

Another day, another high-growth AI startup under fire. What the 11x scandal reveals about the credibility crisis building in the AI industry.

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Inc. Magazine2024-05-09

The Future of Retail: 4 New Rules for DTC Brand Success

Generative AI and dark social are disrupting the marketing landscape everywhere. Here's what that means for direct-to-consumer retail.

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Inc. Magazine2023-10-03

Influencer Marketing Is Out. Creator Marketing Is In.

The shift from influence to trust. Why brands that build with creators (not through them) are winning the next decade.

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Inc. Magazine2023-06-01

3 Industries That Will Be Forever Changed by ChatGPT

For many executives, ChatGPT felt like a shiny new tool. Shama saw something different: a permanent shift in three industries that would never look the same.

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LinkedIn2026-03-06

The Women's AI Gap Is Getting Worse

LinkedIn data shows women's representation in AI-adjacent roles declining for the third consecutive year. What's behind it — and why it matters for every organization.

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LinkedIn2026-03-04

The $250 Billion AI Mistake

NBER's study of AI adoption found a surprise: companies deploying AI fastest aren't winning. The ones who paused to aim first are. The Solow Paradox returns.

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LinkedIn2026-02-15

Why Most AI Implementations Fail by Month 6

It's not the technology. It's the change management. What 15 years of helping enterprises adopt new technologies taught me about the real reason AI stalls.

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LinkedIn2026-01-28

The New Customer Loyalty

Loyalty isn't built through points programs anymore. In an AI-saturated market, the brands winning loyalty are the ones making customers feel genuinely known.

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LinkedIn2026-03-01

Applied AI Business Playbook

The field guide for leaders competing on timing, not resources. 15 years of in-the-trenches AI lessons — wins, missteps, and repeatable patterns — compressed into a manual you can keep on your desk.

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