About the power of compromise

Recently, I watched a news segment where two groups were locked in a heated debate - each so firmly anchored in their own principles that they couldn’t see how close they were to common ground. It made me reflect on how often (and maybe oftener) this happens in our communities and society at large: we become so focused on defending our idealized beliefs that we miss opportunities to build bridges and move forward together.

Compromise is sometimes seen as a sign of weakness or surrender, but I really believe it’s one of the greatest strengths we can show as individuals and as a society. True compromise isn’t about giving up on our values; it’s about recognizing our shared humanity and being willing to let go of smaller differences to achieve our overall objectives. When we approach disagreements with empathy and a willingness to listen, we open the door to understanding and lasting progress.

Throughout history, the most meaningful changes have come not from rigid standoffs, but from people finding ways to meet in the middle. By focusing on what unites us - rather than what divides us - we can create communities that are more inclusive, resilient, and hopeful. Compromise doesn’t mean everyone gets everything they want, but it does mean everyone has a voice and a stake in a shared future – and that is incredibly powerful by itself on the long run.

Progress is rarely made by building walls. It’s made by building bridges.

How AI Search Is Replacing Traditional SEO—And What Businesses Must Do to Stay Ahead

Welcome to 2025. The era of search is undergoing a seismic shift. Traditional SEO, long dominated by keyword optimization and link-building to climb Google’s “ten blue links,” is being rapidly overtaken by AI-powered search engines. Platforms like Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot now deliver direct, conversational answers, summarizing insights from across the web in seconds. For businesses, this means the old playbook is no longer enough — adapting to AI search is essential for staying visible and relevant in a landscape where users increasingly expect instant, authoritative answers.

Optimizing Your Website for AI Search

1. Focus on Search Intent and Direct Answers
AI search engines excel at understanding natural language and user intent. To stand out, your content must directly address the questions your audience is asking. Start articles with concise, well-structured answers, using clear headers like “What is…” or “How to…” to signal relevance. Incorporate FAQs, bulleted lists, and step-by-step guides to make it easy for AI models to extract and summarize your expertise.

2. Build Comprehensive, Authoritative Content
AI models prefer in-depth resources that cover topics from multiple angles. Develop long-form articles (2,000+ words) that include data-driven insights, case studies, and multiple perspectives. Cite reputable sources and link to original research to boost your authority and trustworthiness — key factors for AI-driven ranking.

3. Optimize Technical Infrastructure
Fast, mobile-friendly websites are a must. AI crawlers have strict timeouts, so compress images, streamline code, and use content delivery networks to ensure your site loads quickly. Implement structured data (schema markup) for FAQs, How-To guides, and articles to help AI interpret your content accurately.

4. Enhance Trust and Authority Signals with E-E-A-T
A central concept in both traditional and AI-driven SEO is E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

• Experience: Demonstrate first-hand, real-world knowledge of your subject through case studies, testimonials, or original research.
• Expertise: Highlight credentials, author bios, and subject-matter qualifications.
• Authoritativeness: Earn recognition in your field through citations, backlinks, and industry references.
• Trustworthiness: Ensure your content is accurate, transparent, and backed by reliable sources.
  AI search engines now heavily favor content and brands that embody these principles, often using E-E-A-T as a decisive factor in which sources are cited or summarized in answers.

5. Tailor Content for AI Models
Target long-tail, conversational keywords that mirror how users naturally ask questions. Add “Key Takeaways” or summary sections at the top of articles—AI engines often extract these for their overviews. Experiment with multimedia like videos and infographics, as AI search increasingly values diverse content formats.

 

Traditional SEO vs. AI Search Optimization

The Importance of Experimentation and Adaptation

AI search is evolving at breakneck speed, and what works today may not work tomorrow. Businesses must continuously monitor how their content is being surfaced in AI-powered results using tools like Andi or Firecrawl. Analyze which competitors are being cited by AI, test different content formats, and refresh your strategies regularly. The winners in this new era will be those who embrace experimentation, adapt quickly, and prioritize delivering clear, authoritative answers that AI — and users — can trust.

By rethinking your approach and aligning your web presence with the demands of AI search — and by deeply embedding E-E-A-T principles into your content and brand — you can capture high-intent traffic and maintain a competitive edge as the digital landscape transforms. But remember that adaptation is the name of the game right now.

Portugal's Business Transformation

I’m not very sure if people understand the acceleration of the digitalization of the Portuguese business reality over the past five years. A few years ago, at a business conference, most of the corporate user cases’ examples revolved around savings from not printing on paper anymore (yes, I know…) - there were a few more powerful examples but mostly in specific industries (e.g. finance). Nowadays, you see some companies deploying predictive and gen AI tools at scale to automate customer flows, forecast industrial downtimes, prototype innovation and understand dynamic pricing effects. As this trend accelerates and expands, legacy structures and processes (and yes, talent) are stretching under increasing pressure - highlighting the need for adaptation to thrive in a world of new opportunities.

The rise and rise of digital coworkers and what it means for leadership

The concept of the “digital coworker” is rapidly gaining traction as artificial intelligence and automation technologies become embedded in the daily fabric of business. A digital coworker is an AI-powered system, bot, or virtual agent designed to work alongside humans, handling tasks that range from customer service and data analysis to workflow management and creative support (and remember a key word here is “alongside”). Unlike traditional automation, digital coworkers are adaptive, capable of learning from their environment and interactions, and can collaborate seamlessly with human teams. Their rise is driven by the accelerating pace of digital transformation, the need for greater efficiency and agility, and the growing complexity of business operations. As organizations face mounting pressure to innovate, reduce costs, and respond to shifting market demands, digital coworkers provide a scalable solution - freeing up human talent to focus on higher-value, strategic, and creative work.

 

The Rise of Digital Coworkers: Why Human Leadership Must Evolve

As digital coworkers become a staple of modern organizations (and adoption is on the rise and will keep on rising further), their impact is far more profound than simply boosting productivity. These intelligent systems are fundamentally changing how teams operate, how decisions are made, and what it means to lead.

Why Are Digital Coworkers on the Rise?

Several converging forces are fueling the adoption of digital coworkers:

• Technological Maturity: Advances in AI, machine learning, and cloud computing have made intelligent automation accessible and affordable for organizations of all sizes, especially with the sharp rise of gen AI over the last three years.
• Business Complexity: Companies operate in an environment marked by rapid change, global competition, and data overload (we are easily talking of dozens of millions of data points for a medium consumer business, as an example). Digital coworkers help manage this complexity by processing information at scale and providing actionable insights, in a flexible and adaptable way.
• Workforce Evolution: As routine tasks are automated, there is a growing demand for human skills such as creativity, empathy, and critical thinking. Digital coworkers handle repetitive work, allowing people to focus on what they do best.
• Consumer Expectations: Customers expect seamless, personalized experiences. Digital coworkers enable organizations to deliver 24/7 service, rapid response times, and tailored interactions. And even if they are still far from being perfect, they keep on learning and evolving constantly.

 

The New Demands on Leadership

The integration of digital coworkers into the workplace is redefining what effective leadership looks like. Traditional command-and-control models are giving way to a more adaptive, people-centric approach that recognizes the unique strengths of both humans and machines.

1.       From Efficiency to Empathy

While digital coworkers excel at processing data and executing tasks, they lack the emotional intelligence and nuanced understanding that humans bring – and these are dimensions that the human side of the teams will have to focus to unlock the true value of these mixed teams. But this also means leaders must now prioritize empathy, active listening, and team development - fostering environments where people feel valued and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives.

2.       From Control to Collaboration

The most successful organizations will be those that embrace a hybrid model, where digital coworkers and humans collaborate as partners. This requires leaders to cultivate psychological safety, encourage experimentation, and support continuous learning. The role of the leader shifts from directing work to orchestrating collaboration between diverse talents - both human and artificial – even more than today. Let’s also remember that decision-making, innovation and the bravery to pursue them will always be human dimensions – and in the end, it’s those that add the most value to any business.

3.       From Short-Term Gains to Ethical Stewardship

With the rise of digital coworkers comes a host of ethical considerations, from data privacy to the impact of automation on jobs. Leaders must act as ethical stewards, ensuring that technology is deployed responsibly and aligns with broader societal goals such as sustainability and inclusion. This means establishing clear guidelines for AI use, prioritizing transparency, and engaging stakeholders in open dialogue about the future of work.

 

Building the Leadership Playbook for an AI-Driven Future

To navigate this transformation, leaders must cultivate new competencies:

AI’s Strengths	Human Leadership Imperatives
Data analysis, automation	Strategic vision & ethical judgment
Process optimization	Emotional intelligence & mentorship
Scalability	Adaptability & resilience

• Hybrid Team Orchestration: Leaders must design workflows that leverage the strengths of both digital coworkers and human employees, ensuring that technology augments rather than replaces human creativity.
• Continuous Learning Culture: Investing in upskilling and reskilling is essential, enabling teams to adapt to new tools and ways of working. This collaboration is and will be new for all of us.
• Ethical Decision-Making: Establishing frameworks for responsible AI use, with a focus on transparency, fairness, and accountability.
• Adaptive Resilience: Embracing change and uncertainty, guiding teams through ambiguity, and maintaining a long-term vision.

 

Looking Ahead

The rise of digital coworkers is not a threat to human work, but an invitation to reimagine leadership for a new era. By aligning technology with empathy, ethics, and agility, leaders can unlock new sources of growth and innovation - creating organizations that are not just more efficient, but more human. And this should be the mantra to successfully play this major revolution.

 

#FutureOfWork #Leadership #AI #DigitalTransformation

Dystopia

 In big and small screens, books, conversations. We can see, watch, hear it, feel it everywhere.

“Dystopia used to be a fiction of resistance, it’s become a fiction of submission (…). It cannot imagine a better future, and it doesn’t ask anyone to bother to make one (…). It requires so little, asking only that you enjoy the company of people whose fear of the future aligns comfortably with your own.” – Jill Lepore.

But when we talk about the future and the massive challenges it entails, we should remember we can have fear but we shouldn't feel entitled to enjoy it – instead, we should embrace future and build a better one. Actively. Every day.

AI and Data

 Everyone’s asking: “Which Generative AI model should I use?” But here’s the real question-what’s the quality of your data?

We love talking about AI models, but the truth is: AI is only as good as the data you feed it. The output depends on the input-including the questions you ask.

If you want GenAI to deliver valuable, logical, and actionable insights, start by looking at your data:

• Is it well-organized and relevant?
• Do you know why you’re collecting it?
• Is it comprehensive and up-to-date?
• Are you structuring it for clarity and depth?

Take care of your data first. That’s the foundation. The AI model comes after.

Making Sustainability Reporting easier and simplier

 

Some people believe the EU is hitting “pause” on some of its most ambitious sustainability reporting rules, and the debate is heating up.

On April 16, the EU Council released a draft position to reduce and delay new sustainability reporting requirements for companies. The move follows the European Parliament’s recent approval to postpone the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) by up to two years for large companies and listed SMEs:

-            Large companies now have until 2028 to publish their first CSRD-aligned sustainability reports, while listed SMEs get an extra year.

-            The reporting scope is being narrowed, focusing on the biggest players and easing the burden on smaller firms.

-            Some disclosure obligations will only apply when companies make specific sustainability claims, raising concerns about “green hushing” and reduced transparency.

-            The CSDDD’s due diligence requirements are also being softened, with less responsibility for indirect business partners.

 

Now, this is a quite a moment for the European business landscape – and let me explain you why. If you look at most of the comments that are done regarding the EU (and Linkedin’s a good example), they tend to point out the heavy bureaucracy burden that is laid on companies – and all these burdens have costs, directly or indirectly that reduce our European ability to compete effectively in global markets.

The simplification that has just been announced has thus been very well welcomed – I understand when critics warn that delaying and diluting sustainability reporting risks undermining the EU’s Green Deal ambitions, but I personally don’t think it is the case. I think these changes, this simplification, make the legislation easier to adopt, be implemented and result in the desired outcomes. It lessens the bureaucratic unnecessary weight, adopting the measures to the realities of European companies – while clearly showing them the direction. This is still about sustainability and a better environment and future.

And as the regulatory landscape evolves, one thing is clear: transparency and accountability remain at the heart of sustainable business. Companies should use this time to strengthen their ESG strategies, not put them on hold.

So how is your organization preparing for these changes?

How to can we use Generative AI to foster a culture of growth and innovation

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, fostering a culture of growth and innovation is more crucial than ever. But let’s not get lost in easy assertions – this is a difficult task, and one that is depends a lot on the people driving that culture, and in the talent that must foster the mindset from every level of the organization. It is also a shared effort that takes time and is, more than directive, about setting up the right examples and turning them into habits. Generative AI is adding something to the mix as well, as it emerges as a powerful and transformative tool, helping organizations to collaborate, experiment, and unlock creative potential. Let me give you my view on three dimensions that forward-thinking companies can harness through generative AI to drive meaningful cultural change.

Breaking Down Silos and Enhancing Collaboration

One of the most powerful impacts of generative AI is its ability to break down traditional organizational silos. Now, these are easy words – let’s try to be a bit more concrete. Gen AI can help you to:

-            setup real-time translation, making easier for everyone to understand what is happening in their own languages;

-            automate meeting summaries, allowing you to, in seconds, send a concise list of what’s been discussed, next steps and actions, deadlines and communicating clear ownership;

-            democratize access to information, making it easier and faster to communicate across teams, departments, geographies and backgrounds.

This is a lot about automating agility of communication – you want to enable a seamless exchange of ideas and different perspectives that accelerates problem-solving and sparks innovation.

Creating a Culture of Experimentation

Innovation thrives in environments where experimentation is encouraged, and failure is seen as a learning opportunity. Earlier, I talked on how Generative AI dramatically lowers the barriers to experimentation by making rapid prototyping and iterative pilots faster and more affordable. This means teams can quickly test new ideas, gather feedback, and refine their approaches – and, if done right, this can have a very positive effect on culture. If you are able to improve ideas better and faster (and killing the bad ones the same way), you are making it cheaper, and lowering the cost of failure – and this setups it up to see failure as part of growth, creating a safe-to-fail environment where creativity flourishes. This shift not only reduces the risks traditionally associated with innovation but also empowers employees to take bold, imaginative steps. Let’s be clear on this, it depends a lot on how you ask the “why”. If after a failure you snarl “why?” you aren’t actually creating this safe-to-fail environment. You need to ask the “why?” in a positive tone, in a “what did we learn from this and how will we use it for better ideas?” way.

Accelerating Design and Optimizing Processes

Generative AI’s ability to automate routine tasks and optimize processes is a game-changer for organizations seeking to maximize their talent – because, let’s be clear, you don’t pay great talent to write reports. By handling repetitive or time-consuming work, AI frees up employees’ time and energy to focus on higher-value, imaginative tasks that drive growth – and that are inherently human. Whether it’s accelerating product design, streamlining workflows, or uncovering new business opportunities, AI enables teams to move faster and think bigger - amplifying both productivity and creativity. The key words here are automation, easier and faster, you want to enable processes at scale that foster your internal processes so your team can focus on higher-value tasks that can deliver differentiated output to the market. So… automate, as much as you can!

Embracing the Future of Work

As generative AI continues to evolve, its potential to foster a culture of growth and innovation will only expand. Organizations that embrace AI not just as a tool, but as a catalyst for cultural transformation, will be best positioned to thrive. By breaking down silos, nurturing experimentation, and empowering talent, generative AI helps create workplaces where innovation is not just possible, but inevitable. But we should keep in mind that culture is not only about tools, but especially about mindsets – Gen AI can only bring transformation if everyone is committed to it, not through orders and speeches, but with actions, examples and incentives.

Future thinking

 I recently embarked on a journey of future thinking learning, understanding the models, techniques and frameworks that enable us to think 10 years into the future, but also on how to stretch creativity and imagination linked to the signals we already have on how that future might be. I believe the future is a great tool to build the present. Because we don’t necessarily want to understand how the future will be, we actually should want to think about the future in order to figure out how we want to make things different, how to innovate or change – and how we need to do that nowadays to impact the future.

 

“When it comes to thinking about the future, it’s far more important to be imaginative than to be right” – Alvin Toffler. Because the future is still probabilistic, and we want to influence it to become better.

Total Economic Value

 Warning, slightly technical post coming.

If you own rural property, especially if that is a forest, you should pay special care at its value – and remind it as the season to prevent forest fires is drawing to an end. And for that, the Total Economic Value (TEV) framework offers a comprehensive perspective for understanding the full suite of benefits forests provide - not just timber or land, but also carbon sequestration, water regulation, recreation, and cultural values. And it helps you to consider the aggregated value of each of these dimensions.

By incorporating TEV into their valuation considerations, forest owners can better capture the true worth of their land, making informed decisions that reflect both market and non-market benefits. This approach not only supports sustainable management but also strengthens the case for conservation investments and responsible stewardship, helping you to understand now the future of forests as a full asset – and, maybe even, to start generating part of that value in the present.

From a sustainability perspective, and as global attention shifts toward ecosystem services and natural capital, recognizing the total value of forests is essential for ensuring their protection and long-term prosperity – so, aligning sustainability to economic and financial values. If each forest landowner recognizes the broader perspective on forest value (now and potential), than it will be easier to ensure both economic returns for landowners and ecological resilience for future generations.

Renewables as the 21st century energy

As we navigate the energy transition, the economic advantages of renewable energies are becoming undeniable, especially when compared to fossil fuels – and I would (maybe boldly) say that this is like comparing 21^st and 19^th century-developed technologies. Both technology systems have very different economic and financial playbooks, with renewables typically requiring bigger capex, but then with considerable advantages when we look at operational costs at scale – I have seen figures that point out to less than half of fossil’s operational costs per MWh. It’s also worth noting that R&D focus on renewables has also been driving capex requirements down – and this is expected to keep on going for, at least, the next couple of decades. Renewables also offer long-term savings by eliminating fuel costs and reducing exposure to price volatility, while fostering energy independence.

 

Let’s not downplay fossil. Fossil fuels were instrumental in powering industrial growth during the 19th and 20^th centuries, and are a proven and tested technology, easy to implement and to run – and that probably plays a lot on the importance of coal on today’s energy grids (and, by the way, they are independent from the weather and day/night transitions). But their finite nature, higher operational costs, and reliance on volatile markets present significant challenges today (and I am leaving environmental external costs aside, on purpose). Renewables, on the other hand, are abundant (virtually infinite), with lower opex and aligned with modern economic priorities like energy security and electrification.

 

On the long-run, and at scale, it’s probable that fossil fuel-based economies will be facing a significant economic disadvantage when compared to the ones that combine renewable sources and smart-grids. What I am saying here is that it is foreseeable that products produced under fossil fuel-based systems will be naturally more expensive. And so, that economies that are not already transitioning to renewables (and that are trying to protect their fossil fuel systems through state sponsored initiatives) will probably be playing in an uneven (against them) field in the medium term.

 

Prioritizing renewable energy solutions is not only an environmental and quality of life imperative but a smarter economic choice for the future. The shift to 21st-century energy is here – so, let’s embrace it!

Professor Mark Fritz on Leadership

Today I was lucky enough to be at a conference listening to Mark Fritz about leadership (courtesy of IE Business School and PwC Portugal), and there were a couple of messages that came through as especially important:
- the importance of driving clarity of objective, target and purpose to the team, in order to empower them to own the outcomes;
- that leadership is a lot more about asking than telling
- and that as a leader, one of your roles is that "your how is who" - meaning, you know the objective, you need to find the right person to do the job.

But then, there was another snippet - a quick sentence Mark said, jokingly, but that, for me, is a true statement about companies social cultures:
- "Great leaders share their weaknesses because their people already know them".

Do you share your weaknesses - or do you let your teams find them out by themselves and own your narrative? 

On diversity and inclusion

I think there is a strong misconception going on in some circles. Diversity and inclusion in business is not about justice. Well, it actually is, but only partially. Diversity and inclusion is also about making sure we all have equal ground, the same opportunities, smoothing biases, to let the best talent come forward.

And the best talent is the one that will do a better job. Perform the best. Generate more value. Create more value for the company and shareholders. Make a business more successful.

So, what I am saying here is quite simple. If you let biases come in the way of your talent development and team building, your business won’t be as successful. Period.

Now, it’s your turn to choose what you want.

How to use Gen AI to get early feedback on prototypes

When developing an innovative product, getting early feedback from your target personas is critical to refining your prototype (whether physical, digital or even a communication asset). AI tools can help you with this, by giving you early and quick feedback at an early stage. They can help you simulate user interactions and identify usability issues before involving real users. This approach not only saves time but provides actionable insights to improve your design early on. How do you do it? Well, with “people” of course!

So, you start by creating detailed personas that reflect your target audience – and knowing your target is always the secret. With Gen AI, you can generate dynamic personas by feeding it demographic details, behaviors, goals and pain points. For example, you might ask ChatGPT to create a persona for a busy parent who struggles with meal-planning – be as detailed in the arguments you throw to the AI model as you can and demand it to generate a persona as complete as possible. These personas form the foundation for realistic simulations that mimic how users might interact with your prototype.

Then, input your prototype directly into the AI model by uploading screenshots, wireframes, or even interactive mockups (alternatively, if your model can’t analyze visuals directly, describe them in words). The model can analyze these visuals and simulate interactions step-by-step. For instance, if you’re testing an e-commerce site, upload images of the homepage, product pages, and checkout flow. Assign a goal - like purchasing shoes - and let the AI simulate how different personas navigate through the process. Its recognition capabilities allow it to identify usability issues such as unclear buttons or confusing layouts.

Don’t’ stop there. To uncover friction points, introduce challenges or ambiguities in the prototype and ask the AI to respond as the persona would. For example, you might upload a product page with a poorly placed “Add to Cart” button and ask how this affects the persona’s experience. The AI can then analyze spatial relationships within the image and provide feedback like: “The button is too small and located far from the product description - it’s easy to miss.” This level of detail helps pinpoint design flaws early, so you can correct them fast.

Finally, use these insights to iterate on your design and test again with refined visuals. And do it over and over again, always changing your prototype, accommodating feedback, testing different solutions or dimensions. Because this is the point – Gen AI’s ability to analyze updated prototypes ensures you’re continuously improving usability based on actionable feedback. Of course, it is not perfect, but this process allows you to give an efficient first step in identifying issues before real testing begins. The goal of this early loop is not to get it right, but to get it better before you start testing with real people, accelerating the process and making it cheaper.

Investment in Sustainability is still seen as a competitive advantage

Business leaders have been navigating a very uncertain policy context – just think on the impact of the tariffs wars, regulatory rollbacks and an overall pushback against climate progress in the US. Still, what we are seeing is also a strong momentum that drives Sustainability practices and innovation through that uncertainty. And that is because… it’s the right thing to do from an economic and business perspective:

1)     - Let’s think about energy generation. “Clean energies have already reached a tipping point that drives innovation costs down and performance upward”, and that means solar and wind are now the cheapest energy sources in most markets. https://fortune.com/2025/03/18/clean-technology-climate-policy-environment/

2)      - A recent survey of CFOs, conducted by BDO, highlighted that over 75% of them are increasing maintaining sustainability investments, as they look at its innovation and new business opportunities as primary and strategic benefits.

3)      - 85% of supply chain executives (on a Prologis study) reported they looked at Sustainability as a core objective, mainly because of its importance on efficiency, energy usage and cost reliability, waste management and access to circular economy benefits (I suspect this is about raw materials’ availability). This reflects the urgent need for future-proof strategies that align environmental goals with operational resilience.

 

So, the momentum around sustainability continues to grow, even amidst policy uncertainty. And that is because it's becoming increasingly clear that sustainability (especially when mixed with innovation) is not just a trend—it’s a strategic advantage.

Get there early!

"Get there early"! Sometimes it is a simple recommendation - "get there early so you can get the best seats in the house", "get there early so you adapt yourself to the context", "get there early so you can have great conversations". We all play this logic in our heads.

But "Get there early!" is also a business statement. "Get there" means an action, a direction, somewhere you want to be, actually a vision or a goal. "Early" means in the right timing, probably before the masses arrive, so you can carve an advantage. So, for businesses, it is a strategy - it is about finding new markets, new products, new customers, ahead of the competition.

When I look at the next ten years, I see the future being driven by technology, sustainability (oh yes, unfortunately, we will be talking a lot about this) and people. For any business, my recommendation would be to start working in that future - "Get there early!" so you can play from a vantage point.

The hour seems dark

The hour seems dark for many. All across the last few weeks, I heard similar questions on the Sustainability meetings I attended. “Is organization X still committed to its ESG targets?”; “How will the Board react to the investors increasing pressure to deliver immediate results vs the longer-term sustainability commitments?”. I read a similar tone in the Women’s Day posts of the past weekend. Good people (some of them the most competent, professional, intelligent I ever met) expressed their concerns, said they feel the world is moving backwards on Women’ Rights. I read all of these, and I nod, I understand.

But I then have a “but”. “But…”. But… these were never short-term fights. But… we always knew these changes take time. But… we need to recognize that progress is made of backs and fore’s. But… we should remind ourselves that we are not alone, we are millions, we are committed.

But… We are not doing it only for ourselves. We are doing it for the ones who depend on our will, on us. The ones who don’t have a voice that is strong enough, that are invisible to the masses, that feel they don’t have any power (but should have). The ones who are balancing between what is right or immediate. The ones… well, the ones that we are raising, that we commit to with everything we have.

But… as Victor Hugo once said “You can’t stop an idea whose time has come”. And these ideas, a better planet for all of us, freedom, the right to be different and voice a different opinion, a different way of doing things, globally. Well, they just sound like, you know, “the future”. That we are all shaping.

P.S- And yes, there is an incredible and proven business value in all I have written. Maybe one just needs the right attitude to unlock it, now and for the future. And shape and grab the opportunities on days to come (and that might be tomorrow, really).

AI Military to Civilian

 From a pacifist, this is a hard thing to say. But the biggest challenge from AI government side investment for the next 10 years is, probably, how to establish partnerships that will allow to generate civil business value from a tsunami investment in the military.

For context, think on how WWII transformed aerial transportation or the space-race shaped computing. That’s probably the way to think on this.

Trust

"Trust". "Trust" is the most important asset in a negotiation. It is the foundation in which any deal is based. If a party doesn't trust the other one, the deal won't happen - it will fall apart and crumble.

Any good salesperson (or any good business person) will tell you this. Yet, sometimes, and nowadays especifically, it seems to be forgotten.