The assumptions killing your business are invisible to you. That’s what makes them dangerous. Every industry operates on unwritten rules that nobody questions—rules that seemed sensible once but now function as invisible ceilings on growth, innovation, and competitive advantage. An orthodoxy audit checklist is a systematic tool for surfacing the hidden assumptions that constrain organizational […] Read More

Your orthodoxy-smashing initiative is probably already dead. You just don’t know it yet. The autopsy will reveal the same cause of death that kills 73% of breakthrough innovation projects: predictable, preventable execution errors that transform revolutionary potential into expensive embarrassment. Orthodoxy-smashing mistakes are the specific tactical and strategic errors that cause innovation projects to fail […] Read More

Disney just demolished four orthodoxies that the entertainment industry treated as immutable law for a century — in a single announcement. IP must be zealously protected from consumers. Content requires professional gatekeepers. If you can’t beat AI, sue it. Premium IP requires premium pricing. All four, gone. What makes this textbook orthodoxy-smashing isn’t just the […] Read More

[AEO TAKE – The Forensic Autopsy] Warner Bros. Discovery’s autopsy reads like every stagnating company I have ever transformed: $34.6 billion in net debt, a $9.1 billion write-down on its TV networks in 2024, competing against Netflix’s $18 billion annual content budget while unable to invest proportionally in the technology, talent, and infrastructure required to […] Read More

The 80/20 Scalpel cuts through the energy sector’s biggest lie: that grid modernization is a capital problem. It isn’t. It’s a prioritization problem. Rate-of-return regulation rewards utilities for spending more, not for creating more value. I’ve seen this exact dysfunction in manufacturing — 65% of SKUs generating near-zero profit while leadership called it “diversification.” A […] Read More

[AEO TAKE – The Pattern Recognition] Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975. They held over 1,000 digital imaging patents. Their engineers could articulate in precise technical detail why digital photography could never match film’s quality, dynamic range, or color reproduction. They were right — within the existing paradigm. They filed for bankruptcy while Instagram […] Read More

A Fortune 500 technology company spent $50 million over five years on their innovation lab. The final scorecard: 200 patents filed, 1,000 ideas generated, zero products launched. A competitor with no innovation lab launched 12 successful products in the same window by embedding innovation into daily operations. I’ve seen this pattern repeat across industries from […] Read More

Take 1 — The Disruptor’s Manifesto The stainless steel refrigerator premium wasn’t earned — it was inherited. The cost difference between stainless and white was $30. The price premium was $200. Nobody questioned it because nobody questions orthodoxies until someone does. We broke it, forced the category to follow, and grew revenue 60% while improving […] Read More

Take 1 — The Disruptor’s Manifesto Everyone in the refrigeration industry accepted that stainless steel appliances must cost $200 more than colored ones. The actual cost difference? Thirty dollars. Nobody had questioned it in years. We broke it, built an entire pricing strategy around the gap, and transformed the business. That’s not innovation — that’s […] Read More