The mud hut
A refugee camp in northern Uganda, a question I could not put down, and the day I stopped believing strategy alone was enough.
Writing
Counsel, not content.
Essays for the leader who has to decide. Each one comes from a real room, a real number, and something that was hard. I write in pencil, so expect a few of these to be revised as the scar tissue accumulates.
Essays
Quicksand at $30M
Fast-growing enterprises hit quicksand around thirty million in revenue and live there until sixty. The way out is not harder work.
You are the outstanding player and the greatest bottleneck
A direct word to the founder who holds everything together, on the 12 to 18 months you have before you become the ceiling.
The Formation Arc
Growth past a certain point is a change of identity, not headcount, and the Exodus story maps the crossings better than any org chart.
When God moves, sprint
I resigned from a dream job and offered to stay three months. The CEO's answer changed how I lead.
Stupid God wishes
On the difference between a dream from God and the wisdom to be ready for it, and why faith and planning were never on opposite sides of the table.
Every hire is a plus-one or a minus-one
What the CEO of Coca-Cola Consolidated taught me about hiring, and why churches keep promoting the wrong people for the right reasons.
Capital is a promise
A campaign raises about one year of giving over two years, and the promise attached to that money is the part most leaders skip.
Interchangeable or irreplaceable
Four field notes on what happens to service firms when technology and private equity arrive, and the only exit I have found.
Elsewhere
The long-form work lives at Novum.
The practitioner articles, the ones with the checklists, the thresholds, and the compliance detail, are published under Novum Partners as Novum Insights. Start with these.