Purpose sounds good in boardrooms. But when cascaded to factory floors and call centres, resonance is often muted. Then purpose stumbles into the slippery world of corporate snakeoil.

Chat GPT hallucinates. So do Claude, Perplexity, Bard now Gemini. And most of all, humans. We pick what we like from an endless buffet of facts, half truths, urban myths, opinion-leaders opinions, politicians’ promises, scare stories and lies.  

Some years back we were in the branch of a bank festooned with posters for different products, It was more bazaar than bank. We asked the manager why there are so many posters. He said it’s because so many divisions are having promotions.

You get to the 67th slide in a brand health presentation where you score 7,2 on yet one more essential aspect versus 7,3 a year ago. The tenacious presenter tells you why this matters; an assistant brand manager makes copious notes; you slide into oblivion.

All bow to Bot Almighty. Acquiesce to the omniscient algorithm. Be judged by Google, in virtual wig and gown. Instinct be damned. Originality is so over-rated. You can be bang […]

A cruise along the Zambezi, a few safe kilometres before a slow-flowing river becomes the smoke that thunders over Victoria Falls. ’This river is so wide, at least a kilometre’ […]

The purpose of business is not to produce profits. The purpose of business is to produce profitable solutions to the problems of people and planet. And in the process, it produces profits. Colin Mayer

It was the venue for celebs, signature dinners, and black tie events. Deals were sketched in the coffee shop, inked in an executive boardroom. That was then. Before the CBD […]

Change is messy. We cling onto our habits like those pants that are now too tight, or a favourite jersey still in the cupboard, enjoyed by moths.