A daily bite-size selection of top business content.

PM edition. Issue number 1006

Latest 10 stories. Click the button for more.

Quote: Andrew Ng - AI Guru

“For the majority of businesses, focus on building applications using agentic workflows rather than solely scaling traditional AI. That’s where the greatest opportunity lies.” - Andrew Ng - AI Guru

Andrew Ng is widely recognized as a pioneering figure in artificial intelligence, renowned for his roles as co-founder of Google Brain, former chief scientist at Baidu, and founder of DeepLearning.AI and Landing AI. His work has shaped the trajectory of modern AI, influencing its academic, industrial, and entrepreneurial development on a global scale.

The quote “For the majority of businesses, focus on building applications using agentic workflows rather than solely scaling traditional AI. That’s where the greatest opportunity lies.” captures a key transformation underway in how organizations approach AI adoption. Ng delivered this insight during a Luminary Talk at the Snowflake Summit in June 2024, in a discussion centered on the rise of agentic workflows within AI applications.

Historically, businesses have harnessed AI by leveraging static, rule-based automation or applying large language models to single-step tasks—prompting a system to generate a document or answer a question in one go. Ng argues this paradigm is now giving way to a new era driven by AI agents capable of multi-step reasoning, planning, tool use, and collaboration—what he terms “agentic workflows".

Agentic workflows differ from traditional approaches by allowing autonomous AI agents to adapt, break down complex projects, and iterate in real time, much as a human team might tackle a multifaceted problem. For example, instead of a single prompt generating a sales report, an AI agent in an agentic workflow could gather the relevant data, perform analysis, adjust its approach based on interim findings, and refine the output after successive rounds of review and self-critique. Ng has highlighted design patterns such as reflection, planning, multi-agent collaboration, and dynamic tool use as central to these workflows.

Ng’s perspective is that businesses stand to gain the most not merely from increasing the size or data intake of AI models, but from designing systems where AI agents can independently coordinate and accomplish sophisticated goals. He likens this shift to the leap from single-threaded to multi-threaded computing, opening up exponential gains in capability and value creation.

For business leaders, Andrew Ng’s vision offers a roadmap: the frontier of competitive advantage lies in reimagining how AI-powered agents are integrated into business processes, unlocking new possibilities for efficiency, innovation, and scalability that go beyond what traditional, “one-shot” AI can deliver.

Ng continues to lead at the intersection of AI innovation and practical business strategy, championing agentic AI as the next great leap for organizations seeking to realize the full promise of artificial intelligence.

Term: AI Agents

AI Agents are autonomous software systems that interact with their environment, perceive data, and independently make decisions and take actions to achieve specific, user-defined goals. Unlike traditional software, which follows static, explicit instructions, AI agents are guided by objective functions and have the ability to reason, learn, plan, adapt, and optimize responses based on real-time feedback and changing circumstances.

Key characteristics of AI agents include:

• Autonomy: They can initiate and execute actions without constant human direction, adapting as new data or situations arise.
• Rational decision-making: AI agents use data and perceptions of their environment to select actions that maximize predefined goals or rewards (their “objective function”), much like rational agents in economics.
• Learning and Adaptation: Through techniques like machine learning, agents improve their performance over time by learning from experience.
• Multimodal abilities: Advanced agents process various types of input/output—text, audio, video, code, and more—and often collaborate with humans or other agents to complete complex workflows or transactions.
• Versatility: They range from simple (like thermostats) to highly complex systems (like conversational AI assistants or autonomous vehicles).

Examples include virtual assistants that manage calendars or customer support, code-review bots in software development, self-driving cars navigating traffic, and collaborative agents that orchestrate business processes.

Related Strategy Theorist - Stuart Russell

As a renowned AI researcher and co-author of the seminal textbook "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach," Russell has shaped foundational thinking on agent-based systems and rational decision-making. He has also been at the forefront of advocating for the alignment of agent objectives with human values, providing strategic frameworks for deploying autonomous agents safely and effectively across industries.

Quote: Ilya Sutskever - Safe Superintelligence

"AI will do all the things that we can do. Not just some of them, but all of them. The big question is what happens then: Those are dramatic questions... the rate of progress will become really extremely fast for some time at least, resulting in unimaginable things. And in some sense, whether you like it or not, your life is going to be affected by AI to a great extent." -  Ilya Sutskever - Safe Superintelligence

Ilya Sutskever stands among the most influential figures shaping the modern landscape of artificial intelligence. Born in Russia and raised in Israel and Canada, Sutskever’s early fascination with mathematics and computer programming led him to the University of Toronto, where he studied under the legendary Geoffrey Hinton. His doctoral work broke new ground in deep learning, particularly in developing recurrent neural networks and sequence modeling—technologies that underpin much of today’s AI-driven language and translation systems.

Sutskever’s career is marked by a series of transformative achievements. He co-invented AlexNet, a neural network that revolutionized computer vision and triggered the deep learning renaissance. At Google Brain, he advanced sequence-to-sequence models, laying the foundation for breakthroughs in machine translation. As a co-founder and chief scientist at OpenAI, Sutskever played a pivotal role in developing the GPT series of language models, which have redefined what machines can achieve in natural language understanding and generation.

Beyond his technical contributions, Sutskever is recognized for his thought leadership on the societal implications of AI. He has consistently emphasized the unpredictable nature of advanced AI systems, particularly as they acquire reasoning capabilities that may outstrip human understanding. His recent work focuses on AI safety and alignment, co-founding Safe Superintelligence Inc. to ensure that future superintelligent systems act in ways beneficial to humanity.

The quote featured today encapsulates Sutskever’s vision: a world where AI’s capabilities will extend to all domains of human endeavor, bringing about rapid and profound change. For business leaders and strategists, his words are both a warning and a call to action—highlighting the necessity of anticipating technological disruption and embracing innovation at a pace that matches AI’s accelerating trajectory.

Term: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is defined as a form of artificial intelligence that can understand, learn, and apply knowledge across the full spectrum of human cognitive tasks—matching or even exceeding human capabilities in any intellectual endeavor. Unlike current artificial intelligence systems, which are typically specialized (known as narrow AI) and excel only in specific domains such as language translation or image recognition, AGI would possess the versatility and adaptability of the human mind.

AGI enables machines to perform essentially all human cognitive tasks at or above top human expert level, acquire new skills, and transfer its capabilities to entirely new domains, embodying a level of intelligence no single human possesses—rather, it would represent the combined expertise of top minds across all fields.

Alternative Name – Superintelligence:
The term superintelligence or Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) refers to an intelligence that not only matches but vastly surpasses human abilities in virtually every aspect. While AGI is about equaling human-level intelligence, superintelligence describes systems that can independently solve problems, create knowledge, and innovate far beyond even the best collective human intellect.

Key contrasts between AGI and (narrow) AI:

• Scope: AGI can generalize across different tasks and domains; narrow AI is limited to narrowly defined problems.
• Learning and Adaptation: AGI learns and adapts to new situations much as humans do, while narrow AI cannot easily transfer skills to new, unfamiliar domains.
• Cognitive Sophistication: AGI mimics the full range of human intelligence; narrow AI does not.

Strategy Theorist — Ilya Sutskever:
Ilya Sutskever is a leading figure in the pursuit of AGI, known for his foundational contributions to deep learning and as a co-founder of OpenAI. Sutskever’s work focuses on developing models that move beyond narrow applications toward truly general intelligence, shaping both the technical roadmap and ethical debate around AGI’s future.

Ilya Sutskever’s views on the impact of superintelligence are characterized by a blend of optimism for its transformative potential and deep caution regarding its unpredictability and risks. Sutskever believes superintelligence could revolutionize industries, particularly healthcare, and deliver unprecedented economic, social, and scientific breakthroughs within the next decade. He foresees AI as a force that can solve complex problems and dramatically extend human capabilities. For business, this implies radical shifts: automating sophisticated tasks, generating new industries, and redefining competitive advantages as organizations adapt to a new intelligence landscape.

However, Sutskever consistently stresses that the rise of superintelligent AI is “extremely unpredictable and unimaginable,” warning that its self-improving nature could quickly move beyond human comprehension and control. He argues that while the rewards are immense, the risks—including loss of human oversight and the potential for misuse or harm—demand proactive, ethical, and strategic guidance. Sutskever champions the need for holistic thinking and interdisciplinary engagement, urging leaders and society to prepare for AI’s integration not with fear, but with ethical foresight, adaptation, and resilience.

He has prioritized AI safety and “superalignment” as central to his strategies, both at OpenAI and through his new Safe Superintelligence venture, actively seeking mechanisms to ensure that the economic and societal gains from superintelligence do not come at unacceptable risks. Sutskever’s message for corporate leaders and policymakers is to engage deeply with AI’s trajectory, innovate responsibly, and remain vigilant about both its promise and its perils.

In summary, AGI is the milestone where machines achieve general, human-equivalent intelligence, while superintelligence describes a level of machine intelligence that greatly surpasses human performance. The pursuit of AGI, championed by theorists like Ilya Sutskever, represents a profound shift in both the potential and challenges of AI in society.

Quote: Alexander Osterwalder - Author

“The Value Proposition is the reason why customers turn to one company over another. It solves a customer problem or satisfies a customer need. Each Value Proposition consists of a selected bundle of products and/or services that caters to the requirements of a specific Customer Segment. In this sense, the Value Proposition is an aggregation, or bundle, of benefits that a company offers customers.”
- Alexander Osterwalder, Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers

Alexander Osterwalder is recognized as one of the most influential voices in modern business strategy and innovation. Born in Switzerland in 1974, Osterwalder began his academic journey with an MA in Political Science from the University of Lausanne and went on to earn a PhD in Management Information Systems. His doctoral thesis, “The Business Model Ontology,” laid the groundwork for what would become his most celebrated contribution: the Business Model Canvas—a visual framework now used worldwide to clarify, communicate, and innovate business models.

Osterwalder’s thinking centers on providing systematic, accessible tools for organizations to navigate increasingly complex markets. With the Business Model Canvas, co-created with Professor Yves Pigneur, Osterwalder offered a practical, visual language to identify key elements of any business—including the crucial “Value Proposition.” This component addresses the heart of why customers choose one company over another by aggregating products and services to solve specific customer problems or fulfill unique needs.

The quote featured in “Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers” encapsulates Osterwalder’s belief that a company’s success is rooted not just in what it sells, but in its ability to deliver real, distinctive value to a specific customer segment. This insight was formed through years of collaboration with hundreds of practitioners and scholars, resulting in a global bestseller that has shaped how industries—from startups to Fortune 500 giants—develop and articulate their strategies.

As founder and CEO of Strategyzer, Osterwalder continues to play a pivotal role in equipping businesses with methodologies and tools for growth and transformation. His influence extends through his writing, keynote addresses at global conferences, and as a visiting professor at IMD. Osterwalder’s work remains a north star for organizations seeking clarity and competitive advantage in a world defined by rapid change.

Term: Value Proposition

Value Proposition is a foundational concept in business strategy and marketing, defined as a clear, concise statement that explains how a product or service solves customers’ problems or improves their situation, highlights the specific benefits delivered, and articulates why customers should choose it over competitors’ offerings. It communicates the unique value a company promises to deliver to its target customer segment, combining both tangible and intangible benefits, and serves as a primary differentiator in the marketplace.

Related Strategy Theorist:
The most influential theorist associated with the value proposition is Alexander Osterwalder, co-author with Yves Pigneur of Business Model Generation and Value Proposition Design. Osterwalder’s Value Proposition Canvas is a globally adopted method for designing, testing, and refining value propositions and is a crucial component of the broader Business Model Canvas framework. His work provides widely used practical tools for aligning offerings with customer needs in both startups and established organizations.

A strong value proposition is:

• Easy to understand
• Specific to customer needs
• Focused on genuine benefits
• Differentiated from competitors

It typically answers four key questions:

• What do you offer?
• Who is it for?
• How does it help them?
• Why is it better than other options?

Developing a value proposition is central to a company’s overall business strategy, influencing marketing, product development, and customer experience. Unlike mere slogans or catchphrases, a true value proposition clearly delivers the company’s core offer and competitive advantage.

Term: Strategic Due Diligence

Strategic due diligence is the comprehensive investigation and analysis of a company or asset before engaging in a major business transaction, such as a merger, acquisition, investment, or partnership. Unlike financial or legal due diligence—which focus on verifying facts and liabilities—strategic due diligence evaluates whether the target is a good strategic fit and if the transaction will create sustainable value.

Key components of strategic due diligence include:

• Assessing strategic fit: Analysis of how well the target aligns with the acquirer’s long-term business strategy and objectives, including cultural and operational compatibility.
• Market and competitive analysis: Evaluation of the industry’s trends, the target’s position within the market, growth opportunities, and threats, as well as potential synergies and competitive advantages.
• Value creation and deal thesis validation: Examination of whether the underlying assumptions for the deal’s value are realistic and attainable, including whether the deal’s objectives can be met in practice.
• Risk identification: Uncovering potential risks, liabilities, and integration challenges that could impede the realization of expected benefits.

The process is critical for:

• Avoiding unforeseen risks and liabilities (such as undisclosed debts or contracts).
• Informing negotiation strategies and post-deal integration plans.
• Ensuring that the transaction enhances—not detracts from—the buyer’s strategic goals and competitive position.

In summary, strategic due diligence is an essential, holistic process that gives decision makers clarity on whether a business opportunity or transaction supports their overarching strategic ambitions, and what risks or synergies they must manage to achieve post-deal success.

Related Strategy Theorist: David Howson

A leading theorist associated with the concept of strategic due diligence is David Howson. He is frequently cited for his work on due diligence processes in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), particularly for emphasizing the multidisciplinary and strategic aspects of due diligence beyond just financials. However, it is important to note that the field draws from a broad base of strategic management literature, including concepts from Michael Porter (competitive advantage, industry analysis) and practitioners who bridge strategy with corporate finance in transactions.

Quote: Alexander Osterwalder - Author

“Companies should focus on one of three value disciplines: operational excellence, product leadership, or customer intimacy.”
- Alexander Osterwalder, Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers

The quote, “Companies should focus on one of three value disciplines: operational excellence, product leadership, or customer intimacy,” comes from Alexander Osterwalder’s influential work, Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. This book, co-authored with Yves Pigneur and supported by hundreds of business practitioners worldwide, fundamentally reshaped how organizations approach designing, innovating, and understanding their business models.

Backstory and Context of the Quote

Osterwalder draws on the concept of value disciplines to guide organizations in carving out a distinct market position. The three value disciplines—operational excellence, product leadership, and customer intimacy—were popularized in strategic management as core focuses that companies should excel in to achieve competitive advantage. In Business Model Generation, Osterwalder emphasizes that sustainable success often requires unwavering commitment to one of these disciplines, rather than trying to excel in all three simultaneously. This focus enables an organization to align internal processes, culture, and strategy, thereby delivering superior value to customers in a way that competitors find difficult to replicate.

When Osterwalder speaks about value disciplines, he situates them within the broader context of the Business Model Canvas—a visual framework he developed to help organizations systematically map out how they create, deliver, and capture value. By identifying a primary value discipline, companies can design their business model to deliver on what matters most to their chosen customer segments—whether that’s unbeatable efficiency and low cost (operational excellence), cutting-edge and innovative products (product leadership), or deep, personalized relationships (customer intimacy).

This principle has resonated with business leaders, startups, and innovators globally, highlighting the importance of clear strategic focus as a foundation for building compelling customer value propositions and robust business models.

About Alexander Osterwalder

Alexander Osterwalder is a Swiss business theorist, author, and entrepreneur best known for developing the Business Model Canvas, a strategic tool used by millions of organizations worldwide. With a background in management information systems and a PhD from the University of Lausanne, Osterwalder has dedicated his career to making strategy and innovation tangible, practical, and accessible.

He co-authored Business Model Generation with Professor Yves Pigneur, a book that has been translated into over 30 languages and used as a standard reference in business schools and boardrooms alike. Osterwalder’s follow-up frameworks—such as the Value Proposition Canvas—further help organizations deeply align their offerings with customer needs, focusing on “jobs, pains, and gains” to design products and services that truly resonate.

Osterwalder’s work is characterized by its clarity, practicality, and visual approach to strategy. His tools bridge the gap between theoretical insight and hands-on application, enabling leaders to navigate business innovation with confidence and precision. Through his contributions, Osterwalder has empowered a new generation of visionaries and changemakers to reinvent how value is created in the modern economy

Quote: Warren Buffet - investor

“Investors should be skeptical of history-based models... Too often, though, investors forget to examine the assumptions behind the models. Beware of geeks bearing formulas.”
- Warren Buffet, Investor

The quote reflects Warren Buffett’s deeply pragmatic and experience-driven approach to investing. Buffett, widely regarded as one of the most successful investors of all time, has built his reputation on a disciplined method that values understanding businesses fundamentally over relying on complex quantitative models.

Buffett’s skepticism toward “history-based models” stems from his belief that numerical formulas—no matter how sophisticated—are only as good as the assumptions underlying them. These models often use statistical terms like beta, gamma, and sigma, which sound impressive but can obscure critical factors affecting a company’s future performance. He warns investors not to be seduced by formulas crafted by what he calls a “nerdy-sounding priesthood,” emphasizing the importance of knowing the meaning and context behind every symbol or number in an equation rather than blindly trusting them.

This perspective is rooted in Buffett’s longstanding investment philosophy: that success comes from investing in businesses with durable competitive advantages, competent management, and predictable long-term prospects—not from placing faith in past data or overengineered predictive tools. He advocates for disciplined fundamental analysis and warns against overreliance on models that assume the future will closely mirror the past—a dangerous assumption in markets characterized by uncertainty and change.

Buffett’s approach also embodies patience and common sense. His advice to “buy into a company because you want to own it, not because you want the stock to go up,” and to “draw a circle around businesses you understand,” reiterates his preference for simplicity and clarity over complexity and guesswork. By highlighting the risk of blindly trusting “geeks bearing formulas,” Buffett cautions investors to balance quantitative analysis with qualitative insight and critical thinking.

In essence, this quote is a timeless reminder that investing is as much an art as it is a science. While quantitative tools can provide useful information, they should never replace thorough, skeptical evaluation of a company’s true business fundamentals. Buffett’s wisdom encourages investors to question assumptions, understand what lies beneath the numbers, and prioritize sound judgment over flashy formulas.

Warren Buffett’s career and success amplify this message. As chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, he has famously rejected fads and complex financial engineering in favor of straightforward value investing principles. His practical, grounded approach has guided generations of investors to see beyond surface metrics and embrace a thoughtful, long-term view of investing.

Term: Business Model

A business model is a comprehensive framework that explains how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value within a market environment. It serves as the structural backbone for organizing the company’s relationships, resources, processes, and value propositions, tying together various elements such as:

• Target customer segments
• Value proposition (the unique value offered to these customers)
• Channels (how value is delivered)
• Customer relationships
• Revenue streams
• Key resources and activities
• Key partnerships
• Cost structure

Unlike a business strategy, which is a dynamic plan of action for achieving competitive objectives and responding to market conditions, the business model is more static and foundational: it is the platform on which strategies are executed. The business model articulates the logic of the business, while the strategy outlines how to compete and succeed using that model.

Related theorist: Alexander Osterwalder

Osterwalder is widely recognized for developing the Business Model Canvas, a strategic management tool that systematically lays out how a company creates, delivers, and captures value. His work, together with Yves Pigneur, has been foundational in both academic and practical discussions about business models, making him the leading authority in this area.

“A business model describes the coherence in the strategic choices which facilitates the handling of the processes and relations which create value on both the operational, tactical and strategic levels in the organization. The business model is therefore the platform which connects resources, processes and the supply of a service which results in the fact that the company is profitable in the long term.”

From a strategic perspective, the business model defines how the business system fits together—what markets to serve, what offerings to provide, and how to earn profits. Business models can evolve rapidly and require regular innovation to adapt to changing environments, emerging technologies, and shifting customer needs.

In summary, the business model is a structural representation of how a company operates profitably, sustains itself, and interacts within its ecosystem, enabling effective strategy execution.