ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
An AI-native strategy firmGlobal Advisors: a consulting leader in defining quantified strategy, decreasing uncertainty, improving decisions, achieving measureable results.
A Different Kind of Partner in an AI World
AI-native strategy
consulting
Experienced hires
We are hiring experienced top-tier strategy consultants
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
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
PODCAST: Strategy Tools: Growth, Profit or Returns?
Our Spotify podcast explores the relationship between Return on Net Assets (RONA) and growth, arguing that both are essential for shareholder value creation. The hosts contend that focusing solely on one metric can be detrimental, and propose a framework for evaluating business portfolios based on their RONA and growth profiles. This approach involves plotting business units on a “market-cap curve” to identify value-accretive and value-destructive segments.
The podcast also addresses the impact of economic downturns on portfolio management, suggesting strategies for both offensive and defensive approaches. The core argument is that companies should aim to achieve a balance between RONA and growth, acknowledging that both are essential for long-term shareholder value creation.
Read more from the original article – https://globaladvisors.biz/2020/08/04/strategy-tools-growth-profit-or-returns/

Fast Facts
Fast Fact: The rate of technology adoption exploded in the 1990s
The 1990s were an inflection point in the adoption of new technologies. While radio showed fast adoption in the 1920s, new technologies introduced post 2010 had reached penetrations of more than 30% of the United States population within 3 years from launch. PCs...
Selected News
Quote: Clayton Christensen
“Culture is a way of working together toward common goals that have been followed so frequently and so successfully that people don’t even think about trying to do things another way. If a culture has formed, people will autonomously do what they need to do to be successful.” – Clayton Christensen – Author
Clayton M. Christensen, the renowned Harvard Business School professor and author, offers a piercing definition of culture that underscores its invisible yet commanding influence on human behaviour. Drawn from his seminal 2010 book How Will You Measure Your Life?, this observation emerges from Christensen’s broader exploration of how personal and professional success hinges on aligning daily actions with enduring principles.1,2 The book, blending business acumen with life lessons, distils decades of research into practical wisdom for leaders, managers, and individuals navigating career and family demands.1,3
Christensen’s Life and Intellectual Journey
Born in 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Christensen rose from humble roots to become one of the most influential thinkers in business strategy. A devout Mormon, he integrated faith with rigorous analysis, viewing truth in science and religion as harmonious.2,4 Educated at Brigham Young University, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and Harvard Business School, he joined Harvard’s faculty in 1989. His breakthrough came with The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997), introducing disruptive innovation – the theory explaining how market-leading firms falter by ignoring low-end or new-market disruptions.5 This framework, applied across industries from steel to smartphones, earned him global acclaim and advisory roles with Intel, Kodak, and others.
Christensen’s later works, including How Will You Measure Your Life?, shift from corporate strategy to personal integrity. Co-authored with Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen, it warns against marginal compromises – ‘just this once’ temptations – that erode character over time.3 He argued management is ‘the most noble of professions’ when it fosters growth, motivation, and ethical behaviour.2,3 Stricken with leukemia in 2017 and passing in 2020, Christensen left a legacy of over 150,000 citations and millions of books sold, emphasising that true metrics of life lie in helping others become better people.2,4
The Context of the Quote in Christensen’s Philosophy
In How Will You Measure Your Life?, the quote illuminates how organisations – and lives – succeed through ingrained habits. Christensen posits that culture forms when proven paths to common goals become automatic, enabling autonomous action without constant oversight.1 This ties to his ‘resources, processes, priorities’ (RPP) framework: resources fuel action, processes habitualise it, and priorities direct it.2,4 A strong culture aligns these, creating ‘seamless webs of deserved trust’ that propel success, echoing his warnings against short-termism where leaders chase loud demands over lasting value.3
He contrasts virtuous cultures fostering positive-sum interactions and lucky breaks with toxic ones breeding zero-sum games and isolation.3 For leaders, cultivating culture means framing work to motivators – purpose, progress, relationships – so employees end days fulfilled, much like Christensen’s own ‘good day’ model.2
Leading Theorists on Organisational Culture
Christensen’s views build on foundational theorists who dissected culture’s role in management and leadership.
- Edgar Schein (1935-2023): In Organizational Culture and Leadership (1985), Schein defined culture as ‘a pattern of shared basic assumptions’ learned through success, mirroring Christensen’s ‘frequently and successfully followed’ paths. Schein’s levels – artefacts, espoused values, basic assumptions – explain why entrenched cultures resist change, much like Christensen’s processes becoming ‘crushing liabilities’.5
- Charles Handy (1932-2024): The Irish management guru’s Understanding Organizations (1976) classified cultures (power, role, task, person), influencing Christensen’s emphasis on autonomous success. Handy’s gods of management archetype underscores culture’s ritualistic hold.
- Stephen Covey (1932-2012): In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989), Covey urged ‘keeping the main thing the main thing’ via principle-centred leadership, aligning with Christensen’s priorities and family-career balance.3
- Peter Drucker (1909-2005): The ‘father of modern management’ declared ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’, a maxim Christensen echoed by prioritising cultural processes over mere resources.5
- Charles Munger (1924-2023): Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chairman complemented Christensen, praising ‘the right culture’ as a ‘seamless web of deserved trust’ enabling weak ties and serendipity.3
These thinkers collectively affirm culture as the bedrock of sustained performance, where unconscious alignment trumps enforced compliance. Christensen’s insight, rooted in their legacy, equips leaders to build environments where success feels inevitable.
References
1. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7256080-culture-is-a-way-of-working-together-toward-common-goals
2. https://www.toolshero.com/toolsheroes/clayton-christensen/
3. https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2020/02/16/clayton-christensen-on-how-will-you-measure-your-life/
4. https://quotefancy.com/clayton-m-christensen-quotes/page/2
5. https://www.azquotes.com/author/2851-Clayton_Christensen
6. https://memories.lifeweb360.com/clayton-christensen/a0d52888-de6d-4246-bce9-26d9aaee0aac

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