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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

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Global Advisors: a consulting leader in defining quantified strategy, decreasing uncertainty, improving decisions, achieving measureable results.

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Quantified Strategy

Decreased uncertainty, improved decisions

Global Advisors is a leader in defining quantified strategies, decreasing uncertainty, improving decisions and achieving measureable results.

We specialise in providing highly-analytical data-driven recommendations in the face of significant uncertainty.

We utilise advanced predictive analytics to build robust strategies and enable our clients to make calculated decisions.

We support implementation of adaptive capability and capacity.

Our latest

Thoughts

Podcast – The Real AI Signal from Davos 2026

Podcast – The Real AI Signal from Davos 2026

While the headlines from Davos were dominated by geopolitical conflict and debates on AGI timelines and asset bubbles, a different signal emerged from the noise. It wasn’t about if AI works, but how it is being ruthlessly integrated into the real economy.

In our latest podcast, we break down the “Diffusion Strategy” defining 2026.

3 Key Takeaways:

  1. China and the “Global South” are trying to leapfrog: While the West debates regulation, emerging economies are treating AI as essential infrastructure.
    • China has set a goal for 70% AI diffusion by 2027.
    • The UAE has mandated AI literacy in public schools from K-12.
    • Rwanda is using AI to quadruple its healthcare workforce.
  2. The Rise of the “Agentic Self”: We aren’t just using chatbots anymore; we are employing agents. Entrepreneur Steven Bartlett revealed he has established a “Head of Experimentation and Failure” to use AI to disrupt his own business before competitors do. Musician will.i.am argued that in an age of predictive machines, humans must cultivate their “agentic self” to handle the predictable, while remaining unpredictable themselves.
  3. Rewiring the Core: Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi noted the difference between an “AI veneer” and a fundamental rewire. It’s no longer about summarising meetings; it’s about autonomous agents resolving customer issues without scripts.

The Global Advisors Perspective: Don’t wait for AGI. The current generation of models is sufficient to drive massive value today. The winners will be those who control their “sovereign capabilities” – embedding their tacit knowledge into models they own.

Read our original perspective here – https://with.ga/w1bd5

Listen to the full breakdown here – https://with.ga/2vg0z
While the headlines from Davos were dominated by geopolitical conflict and debates on AGI timelines and asset bubbles, a different signal emerged from the noise. It wasn't about if AI works, but how it is being ruthlessly integrated into the real economy.

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Strategy Tools

Fast Facts

Fast Fact: Great returns aren’t enough

Fast Fact: Great returns aren’t enough

Key insights

It’s not enough to just have great returns – top-line growth is just as critical.

In fact, S&P 500 investors rewarded high-growth companies more than high-ROIC companies over the past decade.

While the distinction was less clear on the JSE, what is clear is that getting a balance of growth and returns is critical.

Strong and consistent ROIC or RONA performers provide investors with a steady flow of discounted cash flows – without growth effectively a fixed-income instrument.

Improvements in ROIC through margin improvements, efficiencies and working-capital optimisation provide point-in-time uplifts to share price.

Top-line growth presents a compounding mechanism – ROIC (and improvements) are compounded each year leading to on-going increases in share price.

However, without acceptable levels of ROIC, the benefits of compounding will be subdued and share price appreciation will be depressed – and when ROIC is below WACC value will be destroyed.

Maintaining high levels of growth is not as sustainable as maintaining high levels of ROIC – while both typically decline as industries mature, growth is usually more affected.

Getting the right balance between ROIC and growth is critical to optimising shareholder value.

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Selected News

Quote: Bertrand Russell – Analytical philosopher

Quote: Bertrand Russell – Analytical philosopher

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” – Bertrand Russell – Analytical philosopher

Bertrand Russell’s exhortation captures the essence of intellectual progress, reminding us that groundbreaking ideas often begin as outliers dismissed by the mainstream. This perspective stems from his own revolutionary contributions to philosophy and mathematics, where he fearlessly challenged established doctrines to forge new paths in human thought1,4.

The Man Behind the Quote: Bertrand Russell’s Extraordinary Life

Born on 18 May 1872 at Ravenscroft, a countryside estate in Trellech, Monmouthshire, Bertrand Arthur William Russell hailed from an aristocratic British family renowned for its progressive values and political involvement. Despite his privileged origins, his childhood was shadowed by profound emotional isolation following the early deaths of his parents. Raised by stern grandparents, young Bertrand grappled with loneliness and even contemplated suicide during his teenage years. Mathematics and the natural world became his refuge, providing solace and direction amid personal turmoil4.

Russell’s academic brilliance secured him a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1890, where he studied the Mathematical Tripos under Robert Rumsey Webb. This period honed his analytical prowess and ignited his lifelong quest to unify mathematics with logic. His career spanned authorship, activism, and academia, marked by bold stances on pacifism during the First World War – which cost him his Trinity fellowship – and later campaigns against nuclear weapons. In 1950, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his defence of humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought. Russell died on 2 February 1970 at age 97, his ashes scattered in the Welsh mountains per his secular wishes4.

Context of the Quote: A Liberal Decalogue for Free Thinkers

The quote originates from Russell’s A Liberal Decalogue, a set of ten commandments for liberals published in 1951. It encapsulates his belief in the value of independent thought, urging readers not to shy away from unconventional views. In an era of ideological conformity, Russell drew from his experiences rejecting idealism and embracing logical rigour. The full decalogue promotes virtues like originality and scepticism, reflecting his view that societal advancement hinges on tolerating – and encouraging – eccentricity5.

Russell embodied this principle: his work On Denoting (1905) revolutionised philosophical analysis, while his pacifism and critiques of totalitarianism often positioned him as an intellectual maverick. The quote underscores a historical truth – from heliocentrism to evolution, paradigm shifts begin with ‘eccentric’ ideas that gain acceptance through evidence and debate2,3.

Leading Theorists and the Rise of Analytic Philosophy

Russell was a founding architect of **analytic philosophy**, a tradition emphasising clarity, logic, and language analysis over metaphysics. This movement transformed Western philosophy in the early twentieth century, rejecting vague idealism for precision4.

Key figures include:

  • Gottlob Frege (1848-1925): German logician and mathematician whose Begriffsschrift (1879) invented modern predicate logic, providing tools Russell used to dissect meaning and reference.
  • G. E. Moore (1873-1958): Russell’s Cambridge contemporary who, alongside him, led the revolt against British idealism. Moore’s Principia Ethica (1903) prioritised common-sense realism and ethical non-naturalism.
  • Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947): Russell’s collaborator on Principia Mathematica (1910-1913), a Herculean effort to derive all mathematics from logical axioms, influencing foundational studies despite Godel’s later incompleteness theorems.
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951): Russell’s student whose Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) built on Russell’s ideas, shifting focus to language’s limits, though he later critiqued early analytic positivism.

These thinkers formed an intellectual lineage that prioritised verifiable truth over speculation, aligning with Russell’s quote by validating once-eccentric notions like logical atomism through rigorous scrutiny4.

Enduring Relevance: Eccentricity as the Engine of Progress

Russell’s words resonate in fields from science to social reform, where dissent drives innovation. His legacy – over 40 books, Nobel acclaim, and activism – affirms that fearing eccentricity stifles discovery. As he navigated personal and political storms, Russell proved that accepted truths emerge from bold, once-marginalised opinions1,3,4.

References

1. https://www.quotationspage.com/quote/32865.html

2. https://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/quotes/bertrand-russell-do-not-fear-to-be

3. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/367-do-not-fear-to-be-eccentric-in-opinion-for-every

4. https://economictimes.com/magazines/panache/quote-of-the-day-by-bertrand-russell-do-not-fear-to-be-eccentric-in-opinion-for-every-opinion-now-accepted-was-once-eccentric/articleshow/127252875.cms

5. https://yahooeysblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/18/quote-of-the-day-1274/bertrand-russell-eccentricity/

6. http://dev1a.dailysource.org/daily_quotes/show/788

7. https://simanaitissays.com/tag/do-not-fear-to-be-eccentric-bertrand-russell/

"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric." - Quote: Bertrand Russell

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