strategy Archives

Invisible Friction Is Slowing Your Strategy

Invisible Friction Is Slowing Your Strategy Issue 231, September 25, 2025 Earlier this year, the new CEO of a high-tech organization rushed to get an AI tool that promised to revolutionize customer onboarding into production. She was recognized as a “hot shot” talent who had staked her reputation on being a visionary and early mover. She was always several steps ahead of everyone else. She was also very persuasive and had convinced the board to invest in the tool, but…

Kevin Novak

September 24, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

The Costs of Driving Efficiency

The Costs of Driving Efficiency Organizational Transformations We Live Through But Don’t Notice Issue 221, July 17, 2025 What is the cost of driving efficiency? In the process of ensuring the sustainable profitability of an organization, the business model becomes subtly reshaped. It may not be obvious at the time, but short-term financial and structural decisions in the interests of long-term success remold the workforce, the organizational culture, and can trigger larger socio-cultural trends. Rewriting History Historically, organizations seek to…

Kevin Novak

July 17, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

The Temptation of Addition Bias

The Temptation of Addition Bias Issue 211, May 8, 2025 We are addressing a common strategy that many organizations use to solve an immediate problem. Addition bias is something we’re pretty sure you have encountered as a problem-solving strategy when dealing with business challenges. To set the scene, we offer you a case study. Trouble in Paradise This situation may sound familiar. Let’s say you are responsible for audience development for a media brand, association membership or event production. Your…

Kevin Novak

May 7, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Hope vs. Optimism: Leveraging Both for Strategic Success

Hope vs. Optimism: Leveraging Both for Strategic Success Issue 208, April 17, 2025 In today’s volatile, chaotic marketplace, organizations often fall back on hope as a default business strategy. When leaders feel overwhelmed by external, confusing, and contradictory factors, hope may seem like the last resort. Americans are naturally resilient problem-solvers, but when challenges shift daily, the stress triggered by uncertainty becomes debilitating. The instinct is to retreat, wait, and hope for the best. At 2040, we’re fascinated by these…

Kevin Novak

April 17, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Unlearning: The Hidden Key to Organizational Transformation

Unlearning: The Hidden Key to Organizational Transformation Issue 206, April 3, 2025 Let us count the number of times we have heard this: “But we’ve always done it this way,” Or this: “It’s always worked in the past.” And this: “Why would we change? We’re good at what we do.” These aren’t cliches, they are tried and true working operational strategies for many organizations. At 2040 we are dedicated to meaningful change and transformation and we know how hard this…

Kevin Novak

April 2, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

AI Mindshifts: The Death of Brands

AI Mindshifts: The Death of Brands Issue 192, December 26, 2024 Let’s take a moment over the holidays to fantasize about the future. It’s a future that is all about you – that is to say, your favorite future. We present a mash-up of several emerging, predictive threads that you might want to start thinking about before it’s too late. What we are suggesting today might be surprising considering how we have repeatedly focused on (more like beating the dead…

Kevin Novak

December 26, 2024

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Why Strategic Re-Think Is Today’s Prerequisite Strategy

Why Strategic Re-Think Is Today’s Prerequisite Strategy Issue 158, May 2, 2024 Although it seems counterintuitive in today’s dynamically changing marketplace, many organizations still live, breathe, and sometimes die by their static three- or five-year strategic plans. It takes so much work and time to develop these long-term plans, often structured more as a laundry list of aspirations, that they are hard to let go of. This multi-year term model is often disconnected from the actual capability or capacity of…

Kevin Novak

May 2, 2024

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

The Value and Challenge of Compromise

The Value and Challenge of Compromise Issue 148, February 22, 2024 How many times did your parents tell you to, “Pick your battle.” And then in the next breath say, “Never compromise your values.” That ambiguity could be confusing to a child, but is mind-bending to an adult navigating our complex, polarized society. Increasingly public opinion is becoming less compromising, leaving common ground hard to find. Compromise: Positive or Negative? In its most basic sense, a compromise can be understood…

Kevin Novak

February 20, 2024

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Do You Fall Prey to Oversimplification?

Do You Fall Prey to Oversimplification? Issue 147, February 15, 2024 We all do it. We oversimplify when it suits us or when we believe that is what our audience wants to hear. In business, we have been programmed not to share too many financial details and just report the high-level numbers. Or not get all techy; talk in plain English. Avoid all those legal terms that make heads spin. Can’t you just say that a different way? Add to…

Kevin Novak

February 14, 2024

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

When Your Reach Exceeds Your Grasp

When Your Reach Exceeds Your Grasp Issue 139, December 14, 2023 Here’s a question for you as we wrap up 2023: Why have so many organizations reset themselves by dramatically cutting back on their staff and operations? Why did their aspirations seem so out of line with their new reality? Whatever happened to foresight? This syndrome makes us think of two quotes from two distinctly different individuals. Poet Robert Browning said, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s…

Kevin Novak

December 12, 2023

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