The Social Value Trap: How Portals and Calculators Miss the Point
The Social Value Trap: How Portals and Calculators Miss the Point Social value is meant to make public spending meaningful. The idea is simple; if you’re working with public money, you should improve the community while you’re at it. But the way we measure that improvement has started to distort what it means. The rise […]
How New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani Communicates Can Help Us All
How New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, communicates feels almost radical. He doesn’t shout, over-explain, or varnish his message. He just tells people the truth – plainly, rhythmically, and with purpose. When Mamdani stood before a crowd on election night and declared, “We have won because New Yorkers have stood up for a city they […]
The McKinsey Paradox: If your model can replace you, what are you selling?
Opinion, by Lewis English McKinsey and its peers love to sell “transformation”. The Bloomberg scoop on Project Argentum is a sharp mirror. According to Bloomberg, “close to 150 ex-consultants from firms including McKinsey, Bain and BCG were contracted to train artificial intelligence models on how to do the industry’s entry-level tasks. For me, that’s not […]
Small Business, Big Value: How SMEs Can Lead the Social Value Revolution
For a lot of small businesses, social value feels like another bureaucratic headache. It’s something you have to promise to win a tender, then scramble to deliver once the contract’s signed. But the truth is, social value isn’t a burden. It’s an opportunity hiding in plain sight. When smaller firms understand it properly, they can […]
The Missing Link: Why Social Value Isn’t Broken, Just Disconnected
Social value isn’t broken. It’s just waiting to be connected. That’s the simplest way to describe where we are right now. The policy is good. The intent is clear. The Procurement Act 2023 puts social value at the heart of every major public contract. But when that policy hits the reality of councils, contractors, and […]
Adapting to Different Styles of Working: What William Friedkin Taught Us About Management
When the legendary director, William Friedkin told the story of directing The Hunted, he wasn’t talking about leadership, but he might as well have been. He described working with three actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio del Toro, and Nick Nolte. Each with completely different approaches. Tommy Lee Jones wanted clarity and precision. Friedkin gave him […]
Never Break Trois: What Dropout’s Sam Reich Teaches Us About Simplicity, Ownership, and Creative Integrity
Based on “Dropout’s Sam Reich on business, comedy, and keeping the internet weird,” The Verge Decoder Podcast (Hank Green, 22 September 2025). Ownership is more than just shares. There’s a quiet lesson hidden inside Sam Reich’s story of buying CollegeHumor for zero dollars and rebuilding it as Dropout: simplicity wins when integrity drives the system. […]
A Personal Journey Down A River To A Lake
By Lewis English I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to fix what I thought was broken. Over the years, I’ve learned that my biggest skill is problem solving. I think ahead, plan, strategise, deliver. For business, that means I come in find the problem, solve the problem, leave. It works – but for […]
Lesson About Change from Brompton: Build the Machine that Builds the Work
World-class results come from world-class capability to change. Walking the the factory floor of Brompton, you see it everywhere. A flow of an assembly line instead of batch working. You see other things as well: Adjustable, ergonomic bays so a 4’10” operator and a 6’6″ operator can both work perfectly. Jigs and fixtures designed and […]
My thoughts on hustle are a bit much
There’s a unique rage within me that is reserved only for the word hustle. No matter what the context, whether it’s someone telling me to go quicker, or an exhausted business owner justifying to me why they get up at 4am or work late into the night. Worst of all is the side-hustle, I […]