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Global Advisors’ Thoughts: Business success. Get real.
By Marc Wilson
We all want success. And as we embark on a career, most of us want to be successful. But when I probe aspirations, “being successful” is usually a proxy for “I want the rewards / power /status of success.”
If you think that business success has different rules to success in sports, less reliance on discipline, more reliance on connections and things out of your control, reconsider or stop reading.
If your job is a ticket to a pay-cheque, is so-many-hours-per-day, stop reading.
Brutally, most of us will not be successful. We will not achieve stand-out performance. We will under-achieve our childish dreams. Choose:
- Continue to fantasize OR
- Get real and set your targets lower OR
- Confront the challenge and do what it takes to chase your dream.
Dreaming is important. It is the often the reason that we try at all. But the great achievers realise that a dream without a plan and action remains a fantasy.
“…in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.” — U.S. President Barack Obama
Obama was quoting “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
When I was younger and starting out, I think I marked a lot of my desires for success in positions or promotions I hoped to achieve. In the first draft of this article, someone remarked that I had not mentioned promotion once. That is quite a stunning reflection. I believe my experience and growing up helped me realise that promotion and position reflect a result of success rather than success in itself.
Many of us do fantasize. As adolescents, we dream of mansions and sports cars, of power and glory, of beautiful spouses and successful children. As we begin our career journey, these dreams inevitably meet reality. We may continue to deny reasons for the gap between dreams and reality, but many reach a realisation at some point that not everybody can be excellent – by definition. And that to be excellent, we need to be doing things better than those in our defined benchmark.
We fantasize for good reason. Life is hard. As we become more experienced, we discover that achieving success typically requires far more from us than we imagined, we are not all exceptional, success is often dependent on the support of others – and people and relationships are not predictable. Life throws curve balls – illness, family needs and financial constraints to name a few.
But if we are to undertake an adult approach to success, it becomes time to replace fantasy with a deliberate approach to achieving our dreams.
What is success? At its simplest, success is achieving a goal. Being successful is therefore achieving goals regularly. But to most of us, being successful is more than this. Being successful in many people’s minds equates to excellence. Excellence – exceeding standard performance, standing-out, being the best. And pointedly, the rewards most desire for being successful equate with those for excellence.
This is an important distinction. The definition of excellence seems to be far more closely aligned with the aspirations of those with the desire to be successful. The measures of excellence are far more objective and demanding than those of success.
We tend to apply different rules to business success. It must be balanced. It must be within its 9-to-5 box. Here is my challenge to you: if you desire super-achiever business status, why would the lessons learnt from Olympian sports success be different to achieving Olympian stand-out performance in business?
Olympic sports success is not balanced. It is not confined to a part of the day. Olympian sports success is obsessive. It is unbalanced. It is single-minded. It requires brutal sacrifice and pain (see the graphic to the left showing the cost and effort required to get into the Olympics – source: Voucherbox). Why would being the best in your business field require anything less?
I think we tend to create an artificial distinction because an Olympic goal might be confined to a target by the age of 30. Thereafter an athlete can retire to a “normal” life. Similarly, an overachieving student might single-mindedly pursue “top-of the-class” performance knowing that the pain and sacrifice will end with the award of a degree. A business career is part of most of our adult lives and sacrifice for that amount of time is untenable for most people. For this reason, careers like investment banking and management consulting tend to have short lifespans before achievers move on to a second phase. I believe that for this reason they tend to attract more employees seeking super-achievement before the “second-phase” – people will accept the discomfort for a short time horizon.
I believe that there are fifteen determinants to achieving business-career excellence.
1. Get real – look outwards
It is impossible for everybody to…. To read more click here.
Strategy Tools
Strategy Tools: The Growth-Share Matrix
The Growth-Share Matrix was introduced almost 50 years ago by Bruce Henderson and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). It is considered one of the most iconic strategic planning techniques.
The Growth-Share Matrix is a framework first developed in the 1960s to help companies think about the priority (and resources) that they should give to their different businesses. At the height of its success, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Growth-Share Matrix (or approaches based on it) was used by about half of all Fortune 500 companies, according to estimates.
The need which prompted The Growth-Share idea was, indeed, that of managing cash-flow. It was reasoned that one of the main indicators of cash generation was relative market share, and one which pointed to cash usage was that of market growth rate:
“To be successful, a company should have a portfolio of products with different growth rates and different market shares. The portfolio composition is a function of the balance between cash flows. High growth products require cash inputs to grow. Low growth products should generate excess cash. Both kinds are needed simultaneously.”—Bruce Henderson.
The two axes of the matrix are relative market share (or the ability to generate cash) and growth (or the need for cash).
For each product or service, the “area” of the circle represents the value of its sales. The growth–share matrix thus offers a “map” of the organization’s product (or service) strengths and weaknesses, at least in terms of current profitability, as well as the likely cashflows.
The matrix puts each of a firm’s businesses into one of four categories. The categories were all given memorable names – cash cow, star, dog and question mark – which helped to push them into the collective consciousness of managers all over the world.
Fast Facts
Going niche is not always a viable strategy for South African manufacturers
- Niche food markets are relatively small in South Africa when craft beer, pure-ground coffee, Fairtrade coffee and organic foods are used as proxies.
- According to Global Advisors analysis, niche products account for between 0,38% and 19,60% of total market volumes and have a potential consumer size of just over 900 000 adults if Gauteng, Kwazulu-Natal and the Western Cape are targeted.
- Companies within the niche market space must therefore carefully consider the size of their particular niche market, in terms of the potential volumes that they should produce, the number of potential consumers, in terms of the targeted LSM group, and where these consumers are located.
- For companies already producing mass market products, niche products might require a different business model and could become a distraction to their core product offerings.
- The size of these niche sectors are expected to increase in South Africa in the near future due to the rise of the middle-class.
Selected News
Quote: David Solomon – Goldman Sachs CEO
“Generally speaking people hate change. It’s human nature. But change is super important. It’s inevitable. In fact, on my desk in my office I have a little plaque that says ‘Change or die.’ As a business leader, one of the perspectives you have to have is that you’ve got to constantly evolve and change.” – David Solomon – Goldman Sachs CEO
The quoted insight comes from David M. Solomon, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Goldman Sachs, a role he has held since 2018. It was delivered during a high-profile interview at The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., 30 October 2025, as Solomon reflected on the necessity of adaptability both personally and as a leader within a globally significant financial institution.
“We have very smart people, and we can put these [AI] tools in their hands to make them more productive… By using AI to reimagine processes, we can create operating efficiencies that give us a scaled opportunity to reinvest in growth.” – David Solomon – Goldman Sachs CEO
David Solomon, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, delivered the quoted remarks during an interview at the HKMA Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit on 4 November 2025, articulating Goldman’s strategic approach to integrating artificial intelligence across its global franchise. His comments reflect both personal experience and institutional direction: leveraging new technology to drive productivity, reimagine workflows, and reinvest operational gains in sustainable growth, rather than pursuing simplistic headcount reductions or technological novelty for its own sake.
Backstory and Context of the Quote
David Solomon’s statement arises from Goldman Sachs’ current transformation—“Goldman Sachs 3.0”—centred on AI-driven process re-engineering. Rather than employing AI simply as a cost-cutting device, Solomon underscores its strategic role as an enabler for “very smart people” to magnify their productivity and impact. This perspective draws on his forty-year career in finance, where successive waves of technological disruption (from Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets to cloud computing) have consistently shifted how talent is leveraged, but have not diminished its central value.
The immediate business context is one of intense change: regulatory uncertainty in cross-border transactions, rebounding capital flows into China post-geopolitical tension, and a high backlog of M&A activity, particularly for large-cap US transactions. In this environment, efficiency gains from AI allow frontline teams to refocus on advisory, origination, and growth while adjusting operational models at a rapid pace. Solomon’s leadership style—pragmatic, unsentimental, and data-driven—favours process optimisation, open collaboration, and the breakdown of legacy silos.
About David Solomon
Background:
- Born in Hartsdale, New York, in 1962; educated at Hamilton College with a BA in political science, then entered banking.
- Career progression: Held senior roles at Irving Trust, Drexel Burnham, Bear Stearns; joined Goldman Sachs in 1999 as partner, eventually leading the Financing Group and serving as co-head of the Investment Banking Division for a decade.
- Appointed President and COO in 2017, then CEO in October 2018 and Chairman in January 2019, succeeding Lloyd Blankfein.
- Brought a reputation for transformative leadership, advocating modernisation, flattening hierarchies, and integrating technology across every aspect of the firm’s operations.
Leadership and Culture:
- Solomon is credited with pushing through “One Goldman Sachs,” breaking down internal silos and incentivising cross-disciplinary collaboration.
- He has modernised core HR and management practices: implemented real-time performance reviews, loosened dress codes, and raised compensation for programmers.
- Personal interests—such as his sideline as DJ D-Sol—underscore his willingness to defy convention and challenge the insularity of Wall Street leadership.
Institutional Impact:
- Under his stewardship, Goldman has accelerated its pivot to technology—automating trading operations, consolidating platforms, and committing substantial resources to digital transformation.
- Notably, the current “GS 3.0” agenda focuses on automating six major workflows to direct freed capacity into growth, consistent with a multi-decade productivity trend.
Leading Theorists and Intellectual Lineage of AI-Driven Productivity in Business
Solomon’s vision is shaped and echoed by several foundational theorists in economics, management science, and artificial intelligence:
1. Clayton Christensen
- Theory: Disruptive Innovation—frames how technological change transforms industries not through substitution but by enabling new business models and process efficiencies.
- Relevance: Goldman Sachs’ approach to using AI to reimagine workflows and create new capabilities closely mirrors Christensen’s insights on sustaining versus disruptive innovation.
2. Erik Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee
- Theory: Race Against the Machine, The Second Machine Age—chronicled how digital automation augments human productivity and reconfigures the labour market, not just replacing jobs but reshaping roles and enhancing output.
- Relevance: Solomon’s argument for enabling smart people with better tools directly draws on Brynjolfsson’s proposition that the best organisational outcomes occur when firms successfully combine human and machine intelligence.
3. Michael Porter
- Theory: Competitive Advantage—emphasised how operational efficiency and information advantage underpin sustained industry leadership.
- Relevance: Porter’s ideas connect to Goldman’s agenda by showing that AI integration is not just about cost, but about improving information processing, strategic agility, and client service.
4. Herbert Simon
- Theory: Bounded Rationality and Decision Support Systems—pioneered the concept that decision-making can be dramatically improved by systems that extend the cognitive capabilities of professionals.
- Relevance: Solomon’s claim that AI puts better tools in the hands of talented staff traces its lineage to Simon’s vision of computers as skilled assistants, vital to complex modern organisations.
5. Geoffrey Hinton, Yann LeCun, Yoshua Bengio
- Theory: Deep Learning—established the contemporary AI revolution underpinning business process automation, language models, and data analysis at enterprise scale.
- Relevance: Without the breakthroughs made by these theorists, AI’s current generation—capable of augmenting financial analysis, risk modelling, and operational management—could not be applied as Solomon describes.
Synthesis and Strategic Implications
Solomon’s quote epitomises the intersection of pragmatic executive leadership and theoretical insight. His advocacy for AI-integrated productivity reinforces a management consensus: sustainable competitive advantage hinges not just on technology, but on empowering skilled individuals to unlock new modes of value creation. This approach is echoed by leading researchers who situate automation as a catalyst for role evolution, scalable efficiency, and the ability to redeploy resources into higher-value growth opportunities.
Goldman Sachs’ specific AI play is therefore neither a defensive move against headcount nor a speculative technological bet, but a calculated strategy rooted in both practical business history and contemporary academic theory—a paradigm for how large organisations can adapt, thrive, and lead in the face of continual disruption.
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