AI. Africa. People. The questions rarely stay in their lanes.
Dario Amodei, the man who runs Anthropic, has asked the AI industry to slow down.It’s a really important piece that is bound to be pinned in history as the decision point on humanity’s future depending on what happens next. I think everyone…
Read the essayApple’s September event was not really a parade of new devices. It was an argument about where credible AI belongs: in silicon, cameras, sensors and interfaces that are useful before they are impressive.Apple’s autumn launch events have a p…
Read the essayDepending on how you’re calculating this, OpenAI’s Astra model has been hailed as the definitive step into ASI – Artificial Super Intelligence. And with it comes a warning for the importance of keeping humans in charge and the need to devel…
Read the essayI once had a conversation with the strategy boss of one of Ghana's leading telcos about his shock on realising - he was an expat - when he got here that his research team would sit at their desks and use Google for their mining of customer …
Read the essayYou ever see a post on Instagram pop up and wonder "who's this person again?" and proceed to hit the unfollow button while questioning why you followed them in the first place?Warren Buffett popularized the idea of a moat. A competitive adv…
Read the essayStrategy has become corporate wallpaper. It's become meaningless corporate slang. The first to really identify this was advertising practitioners who began to lament the proliferation of "strategists". It seemed like suddenly there was one …
Read the essayFor most of modern history, intelligence has been expensive. Depending where you grew up, you were either reviled or hailed for your smarts. You, your books and your glasses would grow up as a scarce, sought after resource that eventually m…
Read the essayI took a research/nomadic trip to what has been called the place of necessary pilgrimage for anyone who is serious about being relevant in technology. China.Honestly, the closest I thought I’d ever get to China was “Tintin in China” But oh …
Read the essayI’ve been thinking about something since reading a recent McKinsey piece on AI and marketing.Their central argument is that AI is moving marketing away from campaign execution and towards continuous, AI-enabled growth. It’s an interesting i…
Read the essayThe Framework Meets the Strategy. Here’s What the Next Twelve Months Need to Look Like.If you've kept up, I respect your diligence to the importance of this nationally relevant topic. If you haven’t, you may want to. Here it is. The final a…
Read the essayI hate the Blackstars of Ghana. I hate them more specifically every four years.I hate that I have dual citizenship.I hate the Super Eagles of Nigeria.I hate those talented green bastards even more specifically now than normalI hate their au…
Read the essayTo fully appreciate this, you need to read the piece that came before it of same title.Our conclusion was that the framework exists and the strategy exists.This week we close the gap.I want to do something that is apparently controversial i…
Read the essayWe keep imagining existential AI risk as a dystopian, agentic, future filled with killer robots. Skynet. Terminator. iRobot. Her. Definitely something escaping from Boston Dynamics.The cinematographic Hollywood apocalypse, basically.But, I’…
Read the essayAfter last week's post, I started getting many nostalgic remarks about longing for the days of great - daring even - work. And how a lot of that work was strictly exploratory. Which made me start reminiscing about some of my own favourite a…
Read the essayYou know how they say if something bothers you, it’s a problem waiting for you to solve? 12 months ago by this time, AI was bothering me. Not the field per se, but our continent’s seeming lack of preparation to embrace it. For the first tim…
Read the essayMarketing used to be more inspiring.You made ads. Some worked. Some didn’t. A few broke through and became something bigger than the brief. Nobody could fully explain why. Consequently, the brand reaped fame, the CMO reaped a bonus, and oth…
Read the essayDid you know that Henry Ford - in order to own all elements of his supply chain - had a rubber plantation in the Amazon called Fordlandia? Where alcohol was banned, workers were forced to keep working through the hottest hours of the day, a…
Read the essayIn spending time with my very quickly growing adolescent niece, she mentioned that she writes as an outlet but is unable to do it as often as she wants because she’s not motivated. Being the responsible uncle that I am, I made her the promi…
Read the essayWhy being in your 40s means you're in the most interesting generation alive."Life begins at 40" used to be an exceptionally controversial statement for me growing up because all the adults I was surrounded with, who seemed to be in their 40…
Read the essayBy now you know I usually reserve this particular Blog for my AI fuelled rants, and my Substack for the more philosophically sentimental stuff. But today I want to briefly touch on something that sort of lies between the two; and since I ha…
Read the essayA day comes when we each will close our eyes for a final time on this side of eternity. Non-negotiable.And then a new journey, a solo journey, begins as instantly as the old one ends.If you're lucky, it should be peaceful.If you're lucky, i…
Read the essayToday, finally fed up with Telecel's abusive behaviour despite my being their allegedly "Cherished customer" and racking up a ton of Red Loyalty Coins - of which I still have no idea of purpose, definition or redemption – does anyone? – I d…
Read the essayThere usually arrives a point in each life - sometimes quietly, and sometimes rather forcefully - where one must build up the courage to ask a question many will spend decades avoiding:“Is this really the life I chose… or just the life I ha…
Read the essayThe courage to make it structural is.When Ajay Banga decided Mastercard’s real rival wasn’t Visa, but it was cash instead, he changed everything. Because that one shift wasn’t about competition.It was about purpose.The genius of Mastercard …
Read the essayIf your [or your org's/team's] thinking tends to feel stuck and uninspired lately, here are two methods to shift things, for your consideration. The first is Divergent thinking. This is where imagination - yes you still have one, no it's no…
Read the essayIs AI incremental, or existential?Being privy to both a growing number of "AI Strategy" conversations, and a not insignificant period of study of AI disruption strategy, I've begun to question whether much of C-Suite leadership is asking th…
Read the essayIs AI Incremental or Existential?Is AI incremental, or existential?Being privy to both a growing number of “AI Strategy” conversations, and a not insignificant period of study of AI disruption strategy, I’ve begun to question whether much o…
Read the essayCuriosity With Consequences, by Obinna Chuku. Essays on strategy, creativity, AI, Africa and the human things in between. An email digest when there’s new writing.