At CEO Summit 2026 in Sydney, three world-class speakers delivered a single unified message: the companies that win in the age of AI won't win because they have better tools. They'll win because they learn faster. Verne Harnish, Shuya Gong and Craig Scroggie each approached the challenge differently — but arrived at the same conclusion. AI adoption is not a technology initiative. It's a people and leadership initiative. And it may be the CEO's most important responsibility ri

How does innovation change as businesses scale? Claire Mula sits down with UTS Business School experts to unpack the shift from instinct to systems, and what it means for growth, scalability and performance.

Most scaling businesses are run by a handful of core processes, and most of their valuation hides inside them. The Process Accountability Chart, or PACe, makes those processes visible. One page, three steps, three outcomes: productivity, efficiency, and a quiet but real lift in valuation. The next step in 2026 isn't to document your processes. It's to rethink them for an AI-enabled future.

Today, uncertainty feels everywhere. Fuel costs rise. Supply chains tighten. Customers hesitate. AI reshapes roles faster than we can redefine them. It's tempting to respond by changing everything. But uncertainty has a way of exposing how well you understand what actually works in your business. Companies that scale despite uncertainty and chaos—the 10xers—know what works (their “recipe”). T

Building your company such that if and when an opportunity arises to exit, you are more likelt to finish strong on your own terms is not luck. It is intentional preparation. Here's how.

Every January, we confuse ambition with progress. Most resolutions fail not because we lack discipline, but because heroic effort doesn’t scale. Sustainable change works the same way great businesses do: clear long-term direction, fewer priorities, and disciplined routines that compound over time. High performers don’t rely on motivation. They design rhythms that protect energy, sharpen judgement and make progress inevitable.

Using AI as a thought partner can sharpen how leaders reflect, prioritise and plan. This guide shows how to use structured prompts to clarify long-term direction, choose one life area and key relationship to focus on, and translate insight into simple, sustainable routines. Designed for busy founders and CEOs, the prompts turn thinking into action without over-engineering or overthinking the process.

Great companies don’t hide from hard truths. They build systems, rhythms and cultures that drag reality into the light early and often. This article breaks down how leaders can confront the brutal facts with clarity, discipline and confidence, and use them to build a stronger, more resilient organisation.

If you’re familiar with the Flywheel concept from Turning the Flywheel, you’ll remember when author Jim Collins sat down with Jeff Bezos and the Amazon team. It was the early 2000s, before Amazon Web Services existed, when Amazon was purely a product and e-commerce business.

NSW’s Innovation & Productivity Council (IPC) has released a timely blueprint on how to move from supporting startups to enabling true scale ups. In the "Scaling Ambition: Enabling the next generation of globally competitive scaleups" report, IPC identifies three levers — fund-the-funder, capability development, and structured internationalisation — as practical tools to help more hardware based startups to scaleup and reach global relevance.

Scaling is harder than starting. That may sound strange if you’ve already battled through the chaos of building your first product, finding customers, raising funding. But the crunch comes later. Research shows 97% of new firms never make it past $5M in revenue. Only 3% keep scaling . Why? Because growth always hits a constraint.

Monthly team meetings, when done well, are vital for aligning leadership, fostering collaboration, and driving progress toward goals.

Scaling climate tech in Australia requires addressing vulnerabilities at five different stages - referred to as the 5 valleys of death.

Get your organisation "match fit" using Scaling Up Tools One of the best things about the Scaling Up are the Tools. Practical exercises built on the past 60 years of leadership and management science. Best of all, managing scaling is easy to get started and quick to implement with these step by step exercises. My mission is that no entrepreneurial founder or leader fails to scale through lack of "how to" knowledge about scaling. So I have provided some of the Scaling Up Too

As the End of Financial Year looms in Australia, we get ready to begin the whole cycle again. What will be different about your business in FY2025? As our Aussie End of Financial Year (EOFY) looms closer, finishing 2024 strong is a weight on many founders and leadership teams I speak with this month. Head down and racing towards revenue or earnings goals. It’s been another challenging year to say the least. Belt-tightening and caution being the key phrase for many. Whil

During scaling, founders/CEOs often face trade-offs as they balance becoming more efficient with the increasing pressures of a larger organisation and rapid customer growth. So how can founders and leaders reduce the downside of this tension during scaling? Based on our recently published research: From digitalized start-up to scale-up: Opening the black box of scaling in digitalized firms towards a scaling process framework, Scaling digitalised start-ups is a balancing act f

Opening the black box of scaling in digitalized firms towards a scaling process framework. After three years of effort, we are delighted that our research into how digitalized start-ups transform as they scale has been published by Technology Forecasting & Social Change journal! The full article is available in Technology Forecasting & Social Change vol 202, May 2024. Download the full article here The authors are extremely grateful to the anonymous reviewers and special iss

The Hedgehog Concept: Connecting Strategy and Execution for Business Growth In the pursuit of business growth, execution plays a pivotal role. While topics like strategy, innovation, and capital often dominate strategic planning discussions, execution is sometimes overlooked. Yet, flawless execution can be just as powerful as exceptional strategy. You need both to drive scale or rather, high and efficient business growth. Like a swimming pool without water—strategy without ex

This week I have used some downtime to review both my personal and business aspirations, outcomes and plans for this calendar year. Every year, fresh with post-break energy and clarity I take out a few days for Personal Planning. This is a good time in the year to reflect. To think deeply about how I want to lead my work-life in the coming year and what changes or improvements I would like to see on the previous. Many people are surprised when I share my method of Personal Pl

Smart plays to ignite your team, scale your business and finish the year stronger. Many start a race fast out of the gates. But as the saying goes "starting strong is great, but finishing strong is epic." As the winter thaws here in Australia, and the sun warms up our beautiful spring days, it's easy for that Coke Summer Feeling to enter our sub-conscious. Lulling our people into a sense that the year is almost over. The year is definitely far from over! With at least 12 to