Listen : Watch : Read #20
Originally Posted: April 27, 2025 here
🎙️Listen 🎙️
This was a great listen from Ed Elson and Scott Galloway on ProfG Markets, an interview with Ryan Petersen , CEO and Founder of Flexport on whats going on with Shipping post the US Tariffs. Fascinating listen. Made me think of Andrew Yeoman and the great work Concirrus have been doing with Marine over the years and they even a mention of Pizza Ovens Tom Gozney Rory Yates!
📺 Watch 📺
A friend of mine set me this earlier this week, and honestly was a joy and fun to watch. Everything from: 01:50 – Why complacency, arrogance, bureaucracy and B.S. kill companies, 18:11 – You must kill bureaucracy all the time and relentlessly 26:36 – What the hell is culture? 29:43 – Leading the team 31:35 – Why it’s hard to achieve good growth and innovate and much more!. 35 mins spent wisely with Jamie Dimon of JPMorganChase [35 mins]
The BBC dropped one of my fav shows a while back, BBC Click with Spencer Kelly and Lara Lewington plus many others. It's been a staple weekly watch for what feels like 20 years. New in is Tech Now. Feels similar, but different. Great to see friendly faces in Paul Carter, Zoe Kleinman, Nick Kwek, Tom Gerken here too.
The last episode had me hooked - as an Aviation and EV geek, we had EV Planes to EV Boats and Bitcoin mining rural Zambia with excess hydro power from Gridless and much more. Tune in below, I'll 100% be adding to my regular list.
Great to see Amit Zavery, ServiceNow President, CPO and COO with Jeetu Patel, EVP & CPO Cisco talk about the real world impacts of AI - in What aren't we asking about AI! Beyond workflows and Agentic (which you would expect from us), my fav part was the importance of Partnerships and Ecosystems. You all know me #togetherwegofar! and I'm all in for being the AI operating system for the enterprise! (one for you Rob Simms)
📚 Read 📚
Mini rant ahead, warning! Is this just me, or is the Dress Code changing or difficult to gauge. This from Éanna Kelly at Sifted got me overthinking! Is this the debate my female colleagues have been wrangling for years? Having lived in NY and now back in Europe, I think it differs wildly. I think peoples expectations are different too, i.e. working at Deloitte vs Google or ServiceNow. What do your peers wear. NY felt way more casual. It would be rare to wear a Jacket. Dublin and London are much more formal, and a jacket is pretty much a staple again - it feels better, more comfortable. If you are seeing customers, partners, then you need to know where you are and who you are meeting. (ps - I don't know why its called a Sports Jacket - let's be honest, no one is running a marathon in one of these!)
I always remember a meeting at Google where we were seeing a CEO and his exec team fro the day and all told to wear suits. Of course, we all turned up in suits and formal shoes, while the client all turned up relaxed and in (very nice) trainers/sneakers. Or another meeting with a PE firm at Deloitte where all men turned up in Navy Suits and white shirts (apart from me!). Almost a (safe) uniform.
Also, while the article says Navy and Black are out, lets be honest, most mens clothes are relatively boring and are Navy, White, or Blue - stripes or plaid and theres not much choice. The Vest (Gillet to our Europeans), just a no! (I hear you Veronica!) and Leather jackets, just for Billionaires! We see you Jensen Huang!
Even the shoes photo here had me reminded of a photo Matthew Grant took at one of our InsTech Google events almost a year ago! Maybe I do need that Tailor after all (checks bio!)
After all that, I recall the CEO of General Motors Mary Barra nailed it almost a decade ago with just two words. Dress Appropriately, replacing a 10 page dress code!. Most importantly, don't take fashion advice from me!.
We have all heard the term 'Too Big to Fail?' - this an interesting one, specifically, has State Farm General justified it's request for a double-digit interim rate increase, with a promise to pay back any excess? The interesting point here is it focused more on the financial condition of the California affiliate of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, and less on the factors used to develop and trend catastrophe and non-catastrophe losses. Bottom line, SFG has paid more in claims than it has collected in premiums for many years. That’s basic math. I wonder if this tells us more about the approach to State Regulation in the USA and the ability to use more advance models to price based on insights here. Susanne Sclafane had a good summary here too.
This highlighted was by Sastry Durvasula at TIAA, featured in this great article from FAISAL HOQUE in MIT Sloan Management Review. The subheading had me hooked - Many CIOs lack the bandwidth and authority to solve the tough cultural and organizational change challenges that can block AI success. It’s time for an expanded leadership role.
It certainly reminds me of the many conversations with folks like Robert Pick. There's no point having responsibility without authority (or budget) to enable change!. I feel this is very similar to the early Chief Digital Officer roles, where it was thought more of technology implementation rather than a workforce and cultural transformation. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) talked about this in a report last year, GenAI Stairway to Success, where just 2 of the 6 success criteria were technology!
Don't even get me started on the lack of Chief Customer Officers in Insurance.. Maybe one for another day!
Watch your P's & Q's! Sam Altman, OpenAI spoke out this week on the cost of politeness!. It’s estimated that generating a single AI-written response, such as a short email or paragraph, can consume as much as 0.14 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy — comparable to keeping 14 LED bulbs lit for one hour, and as a result - costs tens of millions of dollars!
If wealth is your measure, Lucy Guo is one of just six self-made women billionaires on the planet under the age of 40. She’s also the only one who’s made the bulk of her fortune from a company she left years ago!, unseating Taylor Swift at just 30!.
I love this from Lauren Berkemeyer at YuLife on “How are you really doing?”. Lauren's four take aways are solid gold. The two that stood out to me 👇🏻 in her conversation with Bupa Business UK and BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) on burnout, leadership pressure, and the future of work.
Hybrid working is breaking more than it’s building,
Small acts of honesty create big cultural shifts.
Simon Taylor just posted on burn out too - along with a lovely pic of his girls, off to get some well earned R&R.
👀 Quick bites 👀
Pampered pets flying by private jet to avoid ‘cargo class’ travel - omg, I thought pet strollers were bad enough
Lucy Guo, co-founder of Scale AI - This AI Founder Has Unseated Taylor Swift As The World’s Youngest Self-Made Woman Billionaire - one of only six self-made women billionaires on the planet under the age of 40, (Lucy is 30, Taylor is 35! - wow!)
And thats It! See you next week!