Going public has warped how we talk about growth. And that’s a problem. When brands like Peloton hit a ceiling, shareholders get pissed. The assumption is that growth should ALWAYS continue, that demand can be endlessly expanded by adding buyers, spinoffs, or complexity. That assumption is wrong for most physical products. I have a client called Earth Apples. They sell colourful, truly amazing seed potatoes. The parent company does well in the ag market, selling its many varieties to...
2 days ago • 1 min read
Most new offerings don’t fail because they’re bad, but because they’re nowhere near good enough. In I Need That, I talk about the 10X Revelation: the jarring truth that an innovative product or service must be at least ten times better than whatever buyers are already using. Not “noticeably better.” Not 20% better or twice as good. Ten times. It sounds extreme until you look at the psychology. Harvard Business School professor John Gourville showed that consumers overvalue what they already...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Some part shortages fly under the radar. This one doesn’t. Over the last year or so, computer memory stopped behaving like a boring tech commodity. Prices spiked and lead times stretched, sometimes ridiculously for both. Consumers started noticing which devices suddenly jumped price tiers, or didn’t. The 2024–2026 global memory shortage is not a factory fire or a shipping hiccup. Capacity has been structurally reallocated toward high-margin AI and data-center use. At the same time, many...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Yesterday Amazon confirmed what buyers have been showing us for years: screens didn’t replace stores, but exposed what stores still do best. For a decade, “digital-first” was treated like destiny. Online was destined to win. Physical would fade. Stores would either become showrooms or disappear. Then yesterday Amazon announced its largest retail store ever: a 230,000-square-foot big-box location outside Chicago. Half retail, half fulfillment. Two separate entrances, two separate jobs. Why a...
5 days ago • 1 min read
This is the flip side of the volatility I wrote about the other day. In that note, I talked about how retail demand no longer moves in seasons. It moves in moments. Hours, not months. This is why I have long told clients that a truly successful campaign is nearly impossible to replicate. Not only can you not copy what worked for another brand, chances are that same brand cannot replicate it either. That used to sound like hard-headed cynicism. In 2026, it is plain mechanics. New retail data...
6 days ago • 1 min read
This year’s show wasn’t focused on better screens or smarter apps. It was more about machines doing real work in human spaces. CES 2026 made something unmistakable: AI is stepping out of the screen and entering the physical world. On the floor, robotics and physical AI systems have stopped being framed as futuristic demos or curiosities. They folded laundry. Prepared breakfast. Navigated kitchens. And negotiated stairs. Ordinary tasks (for you and me), performed competently, without a hidden...
7 days ago • 1 min read
If you’re scratching your head about why “Canada just made an EV deal with China,” you’re not alone. Last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a landmark trade agreement with China that reduces tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles from a near-ban to a quota system with a much lower duty — allowing roughly 49,000 Chinese EVs annually at a 6.1 % tariff instead of the previous 100 % barrier. In return, China is cutting devastating tariffs on Canadian farm exports like canola and other...
8 days ago • 2 min read
Vision needs oxygen, but it also needs gravity. Reader Terry from New York wrote me after my recent post Every Inventor Needs a Trusted Skeptic, and his question is a good one. “I can see how innovators can fool themselves about an inflated Total Addressable Market,” he wrote. “You always want to project everyone who might buy the product. Investors need to share the fullest vision, stakeholders and team members have to see all the potential, and can’t be expected to on their own. How do you...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Uncertainty talks. Behavior decides. Lately, I keep hearing the same refrain, especially from Millennials. Cutting back. Tightening budgets. Buying less. Then I looked at the numbers. Planned holiday spending among Millennials jumped 30 percent year over year, hitting $896, the highest of ANY generation. The talk is cautious. The behavior, not so much. This gap matters. Public sentiment reflects uncertainty: emotional, social, defensive. Real purchasing decisions are quieter and more honest....
10 days ago • 1 min read
