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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.

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Thoughts

Global Advisors’ Thoughts: Leading a deliberate life

Global Advisors’ Thoughts: Leading a deliberate life

By Marc Wilson
Marc is a partner at Global Advisors and based in Johannesburg, South Africa

Download this article at https://globaladvisors.biz/blog/2018/06/26/leading-a-deliberate-life/.

Picket fences. Family of four. Management position.

Mid-life crisis. Meaning. Purpose.

Someone once said that, “At 18, I had all the answers. At 35, I realised I didn’t know the question.”

Serendipity has a lot going for it. Many people might sail through life taking what comes and enjoying the moment. Others might be open to chance and have nothing go right for them.

Some people might strive to achieve, realise rare successes and be bitterly unhappy. Others might be driven and enjoy incredible success and fulfilment.

Perhaps the majority of us become beholden to the momentum of our lives.

We might study, start a career, marry, buy a dream house, have children, send them to a top school. Those steps make up components of many of our dreams. They are steps that may define each subsequent choice. As I discussed this with a friend recently, he remarked that few of these steps had been subject of deliberations in his life – increasingly these steps were the outcome of momentum. Each will shape every step he takes for the rest of his life. He would not have things any other way, but if he knew what he knows now, he might have been more deliberate about choice and consequence…..

Read more at https://globaladvisors.biz/blog/2018/06/26/leading-a-deliberate-life/

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Strategy Tools

Strategy tools: Effective transfer pricing

Strategy tools: Effective transfer pricing

So much has been written about transfer pricing. Yet it remains a bone of contention in almost every organisation. Transfer pricing is not merely a rational challenge – it often raises the emotions of internal service users and providers who argue regarding scope, quality, price and value.

We have found that effective transfer pricing relies on some fairly simple best practices and critical success factors.

Many organisations recover costs as a regular ‘below-the-line’ deduction from operating division income statements. In our experience, charge out is almost always preferable. This results in internal value judgements and negotiation regarding delivery happening closer to time of use.

Internal prices / cost recovery plays a crucial role within an organisation: it ‘price signals’ to the buyer and the supplier of the service. Buyers make economic use decisions and suppliers make resource and capacity decisions. This fundamental function and consequence governs the optimal implementation of internal pricing / cost recovery.

We have typically seen that the realisation that internal pricing plays this role and the consequences of poor implementation are not well understood.

Results of poor transfer pricing implementation

Sub-optimal economic use decisions

Where costs / prices are higher than they should be, buyers pass this on as an inflated cost to their customers, experience margin squeeze, or utilise less of the service than they might have.
Strategically this can lead to incorrect decisions regarding the provision of services to the market and loss of market share.
Where costs / prices are lower than they should be, this can lead to overuse of a product or service and poor cost recovery from external customers.
Strategically this can result in the over promotion and sales of products and services that are achieving lower margins than thought, or that might even be making losses.

Sub-optimal investment and resourcing decisions

Incorrect pricing can lead to over- or under-investment in capacity and product or service quality. Further, the resourcing decisions will be incorrect should the price signal to the supplier be incorrect.

Political and emotional argument

Where buyers are unable to obtain assurance that an internal price is correct, there is typically resentment regarding the cost of the internal product and service and the sheltered position employees of the internal service provider occupy – in the buyer’s eyes free from commercial pressures.
Buyers and suppliers typically also argue regarding the quality of the service or product relative to the price paid.
Suppliers may react to criticism claiming their product or service is strategic in nature and refute its availability in the external markets.

Poor product / service quality

Poor price signals will result in lack of comparable product and service quality benchmarks. This can result in ‘gold-plating’ or poor-quality product and service provision.

Read more at https://globaladvisors.biz/2021/01/06/strategy-tools-effective-transfer-pricing/

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Fast Facts

Selected News

Quote: Jensen Huang – CEO, Nvidia

Quote: Jensen Huang – CEO, Nvidia

“The U.S. led the software era, but AI is software that you don’t ‘write’-you teach it. Europe can fuse its industrial capability with AI to lead in Physical AI and robotics. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.” – Jensen Huang – CEO, Nvidia

In a compelling dialogue at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos, Switzerland, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang articulated a transformative vision for artificial intelligence, distinguishing it from traditional software paradigms and spotlighting Europe’s unique position to lead in Physical AI and robotics.1,2,4 Speaking with World Economic Forum interim co-chair Larry Fink of BlackRock, Huang emphasised AI’s evolution into a foundational infrastructure, driving the largest build-out in human history across energy, chips, cloud, models, and applications.2,3,4 This session, themed around ‘The Spirit of Dialogue,’ addressed AI’s potential to reshape productivity, labour, and global economies while countering fears of job displacement with evidence of massive investments creating opportunities worldwide.2,3

The Context of the Quote

Huang’s statement emerged amid discussions on AI as a platform shift akin to the internet and mobile cloud, but uniquely capable of processing unstructured data in real time.2 He described AI not as code to be written, but as intelligence to be taught, leveraging local language and culture as a ‘fundamental natural resource.’2,4 Turning to Europe, Huang highlighted its enduring industrial and manufacturing prowess – from skilled trades to advanced production – as a counterbalance to the US’s dominance in the software era.4 By integrating AI with physical systems, Europe could pioneer ‘Physical AI,’ where machines learn to interact with the real world through robotics, automation, and embodied intelligence, presenting a rare strategic opening.4,1

This perspective aligns with Huang’s broader advocacy for nations to develop sovereign AI ecosystems, treating it as critical infrastructure like electricity or roads.4 He noted record venture capital inflows – over $100 billion in 2025 alone – into AI-native startups in manufacturing, healthcare, and finance, underscoring the urgency for industrial regions like Europe to invest in this infrastructure to capture economic benefits and avoid being sidelined.2,4

Jensen Huang: Architect of the AI Revolution

Born in Taiwan in 1963, Jensen Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 with a vision to revolutionise graphics processing, initially targeting gaming and visualisation.4 Under his leadership, Nvidia pivoted decisively to AI and accelerated computing, with its GPUs becoming indispensable for training large language models and deep learning.1,2 Today, as president and CEO, Huang oversees a company valued in trillions, powering the AI boom through innovations like the Blackwell architecture and CUDA software ecosystem. His prescient bets – from CUDA’s democratisation of GPU programming to Omniverse for digital twins – have positioned Nvidia at the heart of Physical AI, robotics, and industrial applications.4 Huang’s philosophy, blending engineering rigour with geopolitical insight, has made him a sought-after voice at forums like Davos, where he champions inclusive AI growth.2,3

Leading Theorists in Physical AI and Robotics

The concepts underpinning Huang’s vision trace to pioneering theorists who bridged AI with physical embodiment. Norbert Wiener, father of cybernetics in the 1940s, laid foundational ideas on feedback loops and control systems essential for robotic autonomy, influencing early industrial automation.4 Rodney Brooks, co-founder of iRobot and Rethink Robotics, advanced ’embodied AI’ in the 1980s-90s through subsumption architecture, arguing intelligence emerges from sensorimotor interactions rather than abstract reasoning – a direct precursor to Physical AI.4

  • Yann LeCun (Meta AI chief) and Andrew Ng (Landing AI founder) extended deep learning to vision and robotics; LeCun’s convolutional networks enable machines to ‘see’ and manipulate objects, while Ng’s work on industrial AI democratises teaching via demonstration.4
  • Pieter Abbeel (Covariant) and Sergey Levine (UC Berkeley) lead in reinforcement learning for robotics, developing algorithms where AI learns dexterous tasks like grasping through trial-and-error, fusing software ‘teaching’ with hardware execution.4
  • In Europe, Wolfram Burgard (EU AI pioneer) and teams at Bosch/ Siemens advance probabilistic robotics, integrating AI with manufacturing for predictive maintenance and adaptive assembly lines.4

Huang synthesises these threads, amplified by Nvidia’s platforms like Isaac for robot simulation and Jetson for edge AI, enabling scalable Physical AI deployment.4 Europe’s theorists and firms, from DeepMind’s reinforcement learning to Germany’s Industry 4.0 initiatives, are well-placed to lead by combining theoretical depth with industrial scale.

Implications for Industrial Strategy

Huang’s call resonates with Europe’s strengths: a €2.5 trillion manufacturing sector, leadership in automotive robotics (e.g., Volkswagen, ABB), and regulatory frameworks like the EU AI Act fostering trustworthy AI.4 By prioritising Physical AI – robots that learn from human demonstration, adapt to factories, and optimise supply chains – Europe can reclaim technological sovereignty, boost productivity, and generate high-skill jobs amid the AI infrastructure surge.2,3,4

References

1. https://singjupost.com/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huangs-interview-wef-davos-2026-transcript/

2. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/01/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-on-the-future-of-ai/

3. https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/conversation-with-jensen-huang-president-and-ceo-of-nvidia-5dd06ee82e/

4. https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/davos-wef-blackrock-ceo-larry-fink-jensen-huang/

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__IaQ-d7nFk

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvjRuiTLAM8

7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoDYYCyxMuE

8. https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/conversation-with-jensen-huang-president-and-ceo-of-nvidia/

9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzC55pN9c1g

"The U.S. led the software era, but AI is software that you don't 'write'—you teach it. Europe can fuse its industrial capability with AI to lead in Physical AI and robotics. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity." - Quote: Jensen Huang - CEO, Nvidia

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