Invisible Dynamics

Another meeting. Another approval. Another decision waiting for the CEO to become available. A crowded calendar can look like evidence of importance. The organisation needs your experience, your judgement, your ability to connect the dots. Yet it also raises a question: How much of that demand reflects your unique contribution... and how much reflects an organisation that has learned to depend on your presence? A CEO’s calendar tells us something about how the business works.

Nike is leaving the S&P 100 after almost eighteen years. Since its 2021 peak, the company has lost more than $220 billion in market value. Its shares have fallen to levels not seen in more than a decade, while younger competitors such as Hoka and On have gained ground among runners, athletes and consumers. It would be easy to tell this story as a familiar corporate tragedy: an iconic brand made the wrong strategic bet and paid the price. But that explanation is too simple

In 1974, cognitive psychologists Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer conducted an experiment that became one of the most influential demonstrations of how reconstructive human memory can be. Participants watched footage of a car accident. Then they were asked to estimate how fast the cars had been travelling. But the researchers changed one word in the question. How fast were the cars going when they hit each other? How fast were they going when they smashed into each other? Sam