Simon Maughan

Helping small and medium-sized businesses to grow by maximising existing resources | Step-by-step guides to building enduring commercial processes. Talks about startups, scaleups, people, revenue and culture.

People

Oct 6, 2026

AI Needs a Helping Hand

A major survey shows that staff need training, clean data and specialist help.

Simon Maughan

Technology

Sep 29, 2026

What Can’t Your Rivals Copy?

A 90-day test of the reasons customers choose your business.

Simon Maughan

People

Sep 22, 2026

Who Trains the Boss?

AI could change how future leaders learn to manage a business.

Simon Maughan

Technology

Sep 15, 2026

Beyond the Sample

Computer vision can check every site, product and shipment without frontier AI.

Simon Maughan

People

Sep 8, 2026

Prepare, Don’t Predict

Small, controlled experiments offer SMEs a safer route through AI uncertainty.

Simon Maughan

People

Sep 1, 2026

The Plan That Rewrites Itself

How management can free trapped capacity and raise profits.

Simon Maughan

Aug 25, 2026

400 Customers, 400 Services

AI makes it economical to design and manage a different service for every customer.

Simon Maughan

Aug 18, 2026

One Customer at a Time

AI could make individually designed services economical at scale.

Simon Maughan

Aug 11, 2026

Search at Scale

AI can search millions of opportunities, but that's only half the battle.

Simon Maughan

People

Aug 4, 2026

You Can’t Opt Out of AI

Every business must learn how to use AI while controlling what it can do.

Simon Maughan

People

Jul 28, 2026

The Intelligence Layer

Why competitive advantage will come from redesigning how businesses make decisions, not automating work.

Simon Maughan

Technology

Jul 21, 2026

Automation or Collaboration?

Every task falls into one of these two categories. Confusing them is why so many businesses are disappointed.

Simon Maughan

People

Jul 14, 2026

The Trust Premium

AI may commoditise products, but it does not commoditise trust, reputation or operational execution.

Simon Maughan

People

Jul 7, 2026

Ticking the Box

AI workshops satisfy compliance, but they rarely change how people work.

Simon Maughan

Technology

Jun 30, 2026

The AI Playbook

AI training should teach people how to design, test and govern systems, not just write better prompts.

Simon Maughan

Technology

Jun 23, 2026

The New Gatekeepers

The internet was supposed to remove intermediaries. AI may create new ones.

Simon Maughan

Technology

Jun 16, 2026

The Imagination Gap

Technology changes industries when people rethink how work gets done rather than doing the same work faster.

Simon Maughan

Technology

Jun 9, 2026

Own a Small Market

The fastest route to scale is to become indispensable to a specific group of customers.

Simon Maughan

Technology

Jun 2, 2026

The Manufactured Internet

Why the most popular information is often the most heavily promoted.

Simon Maughan

Technology

May 26, 2026

The Scale Advantage

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund shows how embedding AI into workflows reduces cost and expands capacity.

Simon Maughan

Technology

May 19, 2026

Intelligence Without the Wait

The shift from chatbot responses to fluid real-time interaction.

Simon Maughan

Technology

May 12, 2026

The Build vs Buy Shift Has Started

AI is changing the economics of software and what companies can do for themselves.

Simon Maughan

You’re Asking the Wrong Question About Strategy

Technology

May 5, 2026

You’re Asking the Wrong Question About Strategy

Most advice sounds right. That’s exactly why it’s dangerous.

Simon Maughan

Technology

Apr 28, 2026

Built to Adapt

How flexible systems and clear metrics beat rigid plans in business and war.

Simon Maughan

Technology

Apr 21, 2026

Unplanned Adoption

Most technology spreads without a plan, but this time is different.

Simon Maughan