• The Slums of Tomorrow, Sold Today

     

    I love Europe. Maybe it’s my Eastern European roots, but having clocked up a huge number of air miles over the past 20 or so years, my favourite trips were always the ones where I winged my way to…

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  • The business result that means more than profit

     

    The other day I was enjoying my usual morning coffee with the regular C4 brains trust. Old mate Noel was yarning about a recent experience he’d had where he’d gone into a shop wearing his favourite Cactus pants, only…

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  • An Open Letter to Xero…

     

    Dear Xero, I got your email. Let’s talk about it. It landed in my inbox with the usual cheerful corporate energy: “We wanted to share information about an increase in the price of your Xero plans.” Ledger up 7.7%.…

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  • Winter, Work and the Tyranny of Small Discomforts

     

    There comes a point every New Zealand winter where I realise I’ve somehow become shaped like a prawn. Maybe the last few days’ sub-zero runs at 5am have something to do with it. Either way, it’s not an overnight…

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  • Records Fade. Character Doesn’t.

     

    I was never good at sports. In fact, my claim to fame was always having an excuse to miss PE lessons at high school. It wasn’t until I discovered cycling after I left school, and running in my 30s,…

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  • Red Dresses and Emily Bronte

     

    Indulge me for a moment while I wander off on a self-absorbed literary detour. Those who know me will recognise this as not entirely out of character. My working life has zigzagged between trades, technology, business, governance and the…

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  • The AI Honeymoon Is Over. Now Comes the Hard Part.

     

    Enterprise AI has reached an interesting point in its evolution. For the past couple of years organisations have largely been experimenting. They’ve rolled out copilots, deployed chatbots, automated meeting notes and helped employees draft emails they probably didn’t want…

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  • The Single Pane of Glass Problem, AI Edition. Except Now It Can Actually Hurt You.

     

    Almost 20 years ago, in the early years of cloud computing, the handful of us analysts who covered the space started talking about “single panes of glass.” The idea being that in a world typified by multiple platforms, infrastructure…

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  • What Councils Are Throwing Away (and Shouldn’t Be)

     

    I’m not a patient person. While I could wax poetic about the reason for my impatience being an awareness of how short life is and a desire to move the needle, the reality is that taking time to be…

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  • The Lawn That Launched a Thousand Thoughts

     

    It was past midnight when I found myself standing at the lounge window, watching a small machine quietly navigate the far corner of my orchard. I hadn’t asked it to do this. It had simply decided the grass needed…

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