The HUMAN EDGE

May 19, 2026 Last week I told a room full of wonderful and highly competent finance professionals something that no doubt gave many of them pause to think. - In the age of AI, competence is no longer going to be enough. Not because competence doesn't matter. It does — fundamentally. Competence is the foundation of trust and the baseline of professional credibility. Without it, nothing works. But here is the uncomfortable truth about the era we are entering: AI has more

🤩 You don't have to be a show-pony... The jacket and yellow shoes are mine. They are not a template. They are not a suggestion. 🕺 They are my deliberate, conscious expression of who I am — turned up loud. Yesterday, I shared this with a room full of accounting and finance professionals who had never been asked what their leadership brand actually was. The reaction was fascinating and thankfully positive! ☄️ Because the moment you reframe it — from what do you do; to who are

💥No trigger warning. Just the jacket. The yellow shoes. And a room full of fantastic accounting and finance professionals who hadn’t signed up for either. Today I asked them a question not enough leaders have been asked: 💫’What do people say about you as a leader when you’re not in the room?’ No one in the room put their hand up and said they knew. Not a bad thing - but we all should know. Because in the age of AI — where knowledge and competence are being commoditised fast

🤯 Ferrari is launching a silent electric car. And then — apparently realising what they'd done — announced they'd add fake engine noise. Yep. One of the world's most iconic identities. Built on sound. On fury. On the visceral, unmistakable roar that tells you exactly what you're in the presence of before you've even seen it. 👂 Going silent. Then artifically simulating what it's supposed to be. Sound familiar? Because we are already doing this to many of our organisations. ☄

May 5, 2026 Hi Humans. Let me start with numbers that should give all of us pause. Despite $30–40 billion in enterprise investment into GenAI, 95% of organisations are getting zero return. Just 5% of integrated AI pilots are extracting real value. The vast majority: no measurable P&L impact. This according to an MIT Media Labs report at the end of 2025. The National Bureau of Economic Research in March 2026, published a study of 6,000 executives from across markets, with 9-ou

⭐ I'm doing something a little different in May. I'm MC and facilitator for the 58th One Stop Update for the Accountant in Business — one of New Zealand's longest-running professional development conferences for finance and accounting professionals. 🎯 Wellington on 12–13 May and Auckland on 20–21 May. In 'that jacket', I'm clearly not an accounting or finance professional - so I jumped at the chance! I'm a 'Brand and Identity' guy yes, but also a senior commercial leader who

🤯 This last week Meta announced an AI version of Mark Zuckerberg to scale his presence across the organisation. I guess the metaverse went well, so that would make sense... Another major beauty brand announced it is replacing its human influencers with AI-generated avatars. And collectively, we barely blinked. Here's the reframe nobody in these boardrooms appears to be making: We're not supposed to be giving AI a human face. We should be using AI to make humans more human. �

Gradually, gradually. Then suddenly. That's how organisational cultures collapse. Not with a dramatic moment anyone can point to. Not with a memo, or a crappy meeting, or a specific event. Rather through the slow, quiet erosion of the thing that made an organisation worth working for in the first place. Its identity. Its humanity. The felt sense that each person, as a human, matters — not just as a unit of productivity whose worth is calculated economically against an output,

🎲 The world changed again this week... And somewhere in a boardroom, leaders are sitting around a table asking the same question they always ask in moments like this: ⛈️ What do we do? But if culture eats strategy for breakfast — and culture IS identity — here's the question you should be asking: 🤝 Who do we need to be? When trust is the scarcest resource in the room. When being human feels both threatened and more valuable than ever. The leaders, organisations and the cul

⭐ The 5 'I's of Identities that Stand The Test of Time As a 'brand guy' of more than 30 years, working with, on and for so many amazing brands and businesses. I became obsessed with makes great brands and identities tick and ultimately win. 🕺 In February on the @TedX stage, I shared what I believe are five key elements to great brands and identities that stand the test of time. 🎯 I've attached my 5 'I's of Identity for you to and review and ponder in the context of your own

⭐ What is your 'Doorman Value'? A question inspired by the the 'Doorman Fallacy' A term coined by legendary advertising executive Rory Sutherland. If you are in the C-Suite; a leader with a functional budget; any individual in an organisation in fact. Know it. It talks to the binary and misguided approach to cost cutting and undervaluing the value delivered by the human touch. Something most businesses and AI companies are obsessed with currently. If you assess the pure over

🙄 What if they think I'm an idiot? What if I am an idiot...? I stood in front of the men’s restroom mirror before walking onto the TEDx stage in February and asked myself both questions. It was Friday the 13th - what could go wrong…? I put the jacket on anyway. 🎵 The first album I ever bought was True Colours by Split Enz. Bold. Original. Fun - unashamedly themselves. I've loved everything they represent since I was a teenager. They just headlined New Zealand's biggest musi

I watched a great interview on the weekend that was incredibly sobering - as a human. Tristan Harris — co-founder of The Centre for Humane Technology - said to Bill Maher. In reference to the real economic incentive of AI, given the levels of investment and debt. "...To be crystal clear on where this is heading - to an anti-human future…’ Yep that’s us… The very business model is to make us humans less necessary. We already have the data on what lack of human engagement and d

Everyone's racing to upskill on AI - you know the 'insane new updates'. 🤯 That tool you learned yesterday, now 'killed' by a new one today.... We absolutely should be - I know I am. But here's what not enough HUMANS are talking about: The other side of the equation. In all the breathless scramble to automate our way to 'productivity' and get an ROI on the AI ‘transformation’. We're forgetting the thing that makes we HUMANS in the equation irreplaceable. With circa 80%+ of AI

💡 6 Types of HUMAN Identity Assets - Understanding, defining, curating and bringing to life your unique, distinctive and authentic HUMAN Identity is a key skill in helping you be your most Human self. 😊 Being MORE HUMAN will be a THE competitive advantage in this new era. Do an audit of yours Start experimenting Be conscious and deliberate Be the best version of HUMAN YOU!

“All white-collar work will be automated within 18 months.” So said Microsoft’s Chief of AI recently. All the tech 'overlords' say the same thing... Inspiring and visionary, right? Methinks not.... Here’s the uncomfortable truth... You need to leverage your unique and unfair HUMAN advantage - fast! For decades, “white collar” has been the ultimate industrialised identity: Predictable. Interchangeable. Polished and Professional. Homogenised A reliable cog in a very efficient m

No one was buying me for 18 months. Not just left on the shelf. Out the back. In the storeroom. Hoping not to be written off as old stock. Let's be honest — "early-old" bald men aren't exactly flavour of the decade. Post-Covid, I was made redundant from my dream role and disestablished a further two times in the following three years. My script had been torn up. For a long stretch, I felt my identity, my relevance, and a chunk of my self-worth quietly slipping away. Here's wh

Imagine yourself as a product on a supermarket shelf. Go on. Humour me. 🌶️ Maybe you're a hot sauce. 🍺 A craft beer. A body wash (no LI emoji for that...). 🍨 A luxury ice cream. 👉 Now ask yourself honestly… Is your identity on the product distinctive enough to be picked up off the shelf? Or are you blending into the shelf- waiting to be passed over? It sounds transactional. Maybe even a little brutal. But here’s the truth. Life is full of these moments: • Job interviews •

⭐ What are your Yellow Shoes? Three weeks ago I asked this question from the TEDx stage. The response was super positive and fun. So I ask you - What are the things, items, rituals or environments that when you wear, use or experience them, shift you into the most confident, most alive, most valuable version of you? Not a substance. Not a shortcut. A genuine, conscious cue that says to you — and to everyone around you — "This is me. Turned up to full noise." Mine started in J