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Andrew McGurk, shared thisThere's a pattern I keep seeing in UK operational leadership: sophisticated reporting infrastructure built on top of processes nobody has looked at critically in years or operational teams are simply ignoring. The data arrives on time. The dashboard is clean. The leadership team gets a green status. And somewhere in the business, the same inefficiencies from 7 Days, twelve months or 10 years ago are still running — just better documented (maybe). That's not an operational review. It's a retrospective. And in 2026, there's a meaningful difference between the two. The organisations pulling away from the pack aren't the ones with the most automation. They're the ones that have stopped asking "where was the waste?" and started asking "what is drifting right now, before it becomes a problem?" That shift — from post-mortem to prediction — is where competitive advantage lives. But it doesn't start with AI. It starts with something most firms skip: the cultural and philosophical foundation that determines whether any improvement actually sticks. The Shingo Model calls this the difference between "doing Lean" and becoming an excellent organisation. Without it, automation gets bolted onto the same dysfunctional processes, just at higher speed and cost. Get the foundation right, and the path to predictive operations becomes far more straightforward — the right diagnostic tools for the right constraints, intelligent systems built on trustworthy data, and leadership capacity freed up for decisions that actually require human judgement. I've written about how that sequencing works in practice — including where most AI pilots fail and why — in our latest piece (and FREE Slides to download) https://lnkd.in/eJUZZPFw
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Andrew McGurk, shared thisWe’ve all been there: a calendar so full of "Strategic Meetings and Updates" that you don't have a spare second to actually execute anything! The biggest mistake I see? Inviting everyone to every meeting in an attempt to be "inclusive." All it really does is kill momentum and turn decision-making into a crawl. Check out the latest AMVEN post. It’s a punchy look at the four rhythms every leader needs to master to move from friction to fulfilment. 👇Andrew McGurk, shared thisIs your business always meeting, but never moving? We often confuse "breaking down silos" with "leading by total consensus." The result? Calendars full of meetings that lack outcomes, and a leadership team that has zero time to actually "do the doing." At AMVEN, we believe change management isn't a soft skill—it’s a systematic rhythm. Our latest blog post breaks down the four essential components of leadership: * Strategic: Annual Roadmaps and Quarterly Pivots. * Tactical: Monthly Accountability and Daily Pulse Checks. We explore why following these "rules" is the only way to escape decision paralysis and ensure your team's input actually adds value. If you're dreading meetings and they feel more like mind numbing punishment excercises rather than a catalyst for change or action, it’s time for a course correction. Read the full deep-dive & download our slidedeck here: https://lnkd.in/eZmsYGZg. #ChangeManagement #BusinessGrowth #LeadershipRhythms #Strategy #AMVEN
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Andrew McGurk, reposted thisAndrew McGurk, reposted this** ASK FOR ANGELA ON SAFETYDOCS ** A BBC investigation sent researchers into 25 venues that displayed Ask for Angela posters. 13 of them didn't know what to do. That's the gap between intention and execution. And it's the reason we've added the Ask for Angela venue checklist and staff guidance directly into SafetyDocs. Ask for Angela was created by Hayley Crawford in memory of Angela Crompton — a mother of three who was tragically killed by her husband in 2012. The premise is simple: if someone feels unsafe in a venue, they ask for "Angela" and trained staff discreetly help them get to safety. It's a brilliant initiative. But it only works when every member of staff knows the process. With high turnover in hospitality, that knowledge disappears fast. New starters arrive. Briefings get missed. Posters fade into the background. Now, any venue using SafetyDocs has the Ask for Angela guidance built into their safety file — accessible on every team member's phone. A quick search for "Angela" takes them straight to the step-by-step guide. No digging through folders. No hoping someone remembers the training. 53% of women have experienced sexual harassment in a pub, club or bar. 63% of women say they'd be more likely to visit a venue with proper safety measures in place. This isn't just about compliance. It's about creating spaces where people feel safe — and where staff feel confident to act. Try it yourself with a free demo: https://lnkd.in/e7Gw26dH If you support what Ask for Angela stands for, help us get this in front of more venues. A share goes a long way. #AskForAngela #VenueSafety #EventSafety #SafetyDocs #WomensSafety #Hospitality #MartynLaw #Safeguarding #NightTimeEconomy #StaffTraining
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Andrew McGurk, shared thisLet's be honest, a lot of "strategic" decisions are just expensive ego battles disguised as logic. We’ve all see it or been in that meeting: the CEO is dreaming of 10x growth (Yellow Hat), the CFO is terrified of the budget (Black Hat), and the Tech Team lead is stuck in the weeds of technical data (White Hat). The result? Friction, and certainly no real discussion or progress. Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats isn't just a management framework—it’s a cognitive operating system that forces your team to think in parallel rather than in opposition. Here is how it changes the game for high-stakes leadership: * Kill the Ego: By assigning a specific "hat" to the room, you stop people from defending their personal territory and start them defending a perspective. * Optimise for Speed: Instead of two-hour circular arguments, you spend 10 minutes strictly on facts, 10 on risks, and 10 on solutions. It’s a literal shortcut to a "Go/No-Go" decision. * Stress-test your AI & Systems: For the tech founders—use the Black Hat to find the hallucination points and the Green Hat to find the non-obvious use cases before you ship. If everyone is looking in the same direction at the same time, you don't just move faster—you move smarter. Which "hat" does your team usually forget to wear during a crisis? If your 'Leadership' meetings have devolved into a battle of egos rather than a strategy engine, you aren't just losing time—you're losing your competitive edge. At AMVEN, we help leadership teams move past the "Intellectual Vandalism" and install a cognitive operating system that forces high-velocity results. Ready to stop spectating and start leading? I’ve written an in-depth deep dive on the Six Thinking Hats to high-stakes decision-making in 2026. If you're ready to kill meeting apathy for good. Read the full post ( or just download our Implementation slidedeck for free) on the AMVEN blog here: https://lnkd.in/emg-Nscz
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Andrew McGurk, shared thisAI is a leadership stress test, not just a technical one. Amazon is currently finding that out the hard way. Their "AI-first" push just triggered a string of high-severity outages, leading to a new internal mandate: even senior engineers now have to manually sign off on AI-assisted code. Think about that. If your "efficiency" tools end up requiring more senior oversight and forcing longer hours on your staff, you haven’t actually implemented AI. You’ve just automated your technical debt. Real integration isn't a software update you can just plug in and walk away from. Without clear governance and a culture that prizes transparency over speed, the "blast radius" of automated errors will eventually move faster than your team can fix them. The job of a Chief AI Officer isn’t just to ship tools. It’s to protect the business from the volatility of unmanaged automation. I’ve broken down the Amazon 'lesson' and what it means for UK SMEs in my latest post. Read the full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/eE4vy5PD #AIStrategy #Leadership #FractionalCAIO #BusinessTransformation #Governance #AMVEN
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Andrew McGurk, shared thisYour firewall is not an AI strategy. The startling disclosure by CodeWall this week regarding McKinsey’s "Lilli" platform is a massive wake-up call for every Board in the UK and Europe. In a controlled security exercise, an autonomous AI agent gained full read-write access to 46.5 million internal messages, 728,000 files, and 3.68 million RAG document chunks—the very "brain" of the firm’s intellectual property. The most alarming part? It took under two hours. Predictably, some will call this an "AI failure." It wasn’t. It was a failure of fundamental architecture. The agent didn't "hack" the AI; it simply walked through 22 unauthenticated API endpoints using a decades-old SQL injection vulnerability. Here is why this is a strategic crisis for leadership in 2026: System Prompt Poisoning: Because the exploit was read-write, the agent didn't just take data; it had the power to rewrite the core instructions governing the AI. Imagine the risk when your internal advisor is silently reprogrammed to provide biased M&A advice or "hallucinate" strategic errors. The New UK Regulatory Floor: Under the UK Cyber Resilience Bill, the "I didn't know" defence is dead. With fines up to £17 million or 4% of turnover, boards are now expected to treat unauthenticated APIs and AI data pipelines as "material controls." Speed of the Adversary: This wasn't a human team following a 3-week audit protocol. This was an Autonomous Offensive Agent with "a domain name and a dream," finding the one needle in a haystack of 200 endpoints that was left unlocked. If your board is treating AI as a "cool tool" rather than a core infrastructure risk, you are leaving the door open for an attacker that never sleeps. Stop blaming the tech. Start fixing the architecture. Read my full breakdown of the Lilli disclosure and the 2026 implications for UK Boards: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gF3QtnPd DM me if you want to move beyond "static" security and discuss what actual AI due diligence looks like for your organization. #AIStrategy #FractionalCAIO #CyberSecurity #McKinseyLilli #PromptPoisoning #UKBusiness #AgenticAI #CyberResilienceBill
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Andrew McGurk, shared thisThe cloud as we know it is becoming a legacy bottleneck. We’ve spent the last decade perfecting a centralised infrastructure built for a digital-only world. But in 2026, the game has changed. AI has moved off the screen and into the "kinetic" world. Here is the hard truth: if you are trying to run a robotics fleet or autonomous systems on standard cloud SLAs, you aren't just dealing with lag—you’re managing physical risk. At AMVEN, we are seeing the "Network Wall" hit businesses in real-time. To capture the next wave of productivity, we have to stop thinking about "best-effort" connectivity and start architecting for Deterministic Networking and Edge-Cloud Hybridity. I’ve put together a breakdown of why this structural reset is mandatory for any leader looking to capitalise on the "Robotics Dividend." Take a look at the full post from the team below. I’m curious—is your current infrastructure actually ready for machines that move, or are you just hoping the latency holds up? #PhysicalAI #Leadership #Robotics #AMVEN #AI #IndustrialTechAndrew McGurk, shared thisIs your infrastructure ready for the "Kinetic" era of AI? The cloud architecture we’ve spent the last decade perfecting is becoming functionally obsolete. As we move through 2026, the Robotics Revolution is no longer a prediction - it’s a live deployment in our factories, logistics hubs, and service sectors. But there is a massive bottleneck: the infrastructure built for text-based "tokens" cannot handle the real-time "tensors" required for autonomous machines. To capture the Robotics Dividend—the productivity surge needed to offset aging demographics—we need a total structural reset. The shift is moving from: 🔹 Centralized Cloud ➡️ Edge-Cloud Hybridity 🔹 Best-effort SLAs ➡️ Deterministic Connectivity 🔹 Digital Outputs ➡️ Kinetic Risk Management In his latest deep dive, Andy McGurk explores the "Network Wall," why Sim-to-Real training is the new frontier, and how the UK and EU are racing for Compute Sovereignty through AI Growth Zones. The era of "Five Nines" is no longer enough when a robotic arm requires sub-10ms latency to ensure physical safety. 👇 Read the full analysis on the AMVEN website to see the 4 decisive actions leaders must take now: https://lnkd.in/eHp6eb73 Does your leadership team have the bandwidth to navigate this transition? At AMVEN, we provide Fractional CAIO (Chief AI Officer) services to bridge the gap between complex infrastructure and C-suite strategy. We help you architect for the edge, operationalize kinetic governance, and secure your place in the autonomous economy. 🚀 Ready for a no-obligation chat? Let’s discuss how to future-proof your strategy: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eywRt73Z #PhysicalAI #Robotics #Industry40 #AIInfrastructure #AMVEN #CAIO #TechLeadership #EdgeCompute
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Andrew McGurk, shared thisEver tried to fix a complex human problem with a rigid checklist? If you work in Continuous Improvement or Operational Excellence, you probably live for a robust SOP. We’re trained to map processes and hunt for root causes. But here’s the hard truth: Applying a one-size-fits-all methodology to an unpredictable problem usually makes things worse. When a situation is volatile, "Best Practice" can quickly lead to a catastrophic collapse. To drive sustainable change, you first need to understand the nature of the environment you’re operating in. This is where the Cynefin framework (pronounced kuh-nev-in) becomes a game-changer. It’s not just a management matrix; it’s a sense-making device that dictates your strategy: 🔹 Clear: Sense – Categorise – Respond (Best Practice) 🔹 Complicated: Sense – Analyse – Respond (Good Practice) 🔹 Complex: Probe – Sense – Respond (Emergent Practice) 🔹 Chaotic: Act – Sense – Respond (Novel Practice) In our latest blog, we break down how to stop forcing complex challenges into simple boxes. We also share a real-world case study on how a healthcare provider saved months of effort by mapping a digital rollout to these specific domains. Ready to stop "guessing" your strategy and start mapping it? Read the full deep dive here, including a breakdown of Cynefin vs. The Stacey Matrix: https://lnkd.in/dAdsUgPs #ContinuousImprovement #OperationalExcellence #Cynefin #ProblemSolving #ChangeManagement #LeanSixSigma #Improvementors
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Andrew McGurk, shared thisA Founder's Perspective: Is AI a Pandemic or a Tide? I’ve just shared a new piece on the AMVEN business page exploring why the "AI apocalypse" narrative misses the point. Having watched technology waves for over 25 years, I’m convinced that AI isn’t a sudden lockdown, it’s a 'slow-moving' tide. In our recent work at AMVEN, we saw a 99.85% processing time reduction by implementing an AI workflow. But the most important part? The people didn't disappear. Their roles evolved from manual tasks to high-value delivery, system validating and auditing. The real challenge isn't the technology; it’s our own organisational inertia and the habit of saying, "but we've always done it this way." The competitive advantage in this new era isn't just owning the best AI, it’s having the discipline to redesign your workflows so your people can do their best work. I’ve shared the high-level summary on our company page, but for those who want to get into the detail, you can read my full deep dive on the AMVEN blog. Read the full post here: https://lnkd.in/eGSD9Ntw #AI #Leadership #DigitalTransformation #BusinessGrowth #AMVEN #ImprovementorsAndrew McGurk, shared thisIs AI a Pandemic or a Tide? Does AI feel like the early days of 2020 to you? I’m not talking about the quiet streets or the confusing one-way systems at the supermarket. I mean that tense, liminal feeling where the data is mounting, the warnings are getting louder, and yet many of us are still hoping it won’t truly change the way we live and work. In a recent essay, Matt Shumer argues that we are reaching a tipping point where AI shifts from a "helpful assistant" to simply doing the job better than a human. He warns: “Nothing that can be done on a computer is safe in the medium term.” Strategy Over Scaremongering I’ve watched technology waves wash through organisations for 25 years. While the pace today is visceral, the disruption won’t be an overnight "lockdown." Instead, it’s a slow-moving tide. At AMVEN, we recently used AI & Automation to cut processing time for a rules-based task by 99.85%, saving over £52,000 in efficiency. But here is the key: the people didn't vanish. Their roles shifted from manual "doing" to high-value auditing and system design. The bottleneck isn't the technology—it’s our legacy systems, governance, and the habit of saying, "but we’ve always done it this way." Designing Your Boat: The real competitive advantage isn't owning the best AI model; it’s having the discipline to redesign your workflows so your people can move into higher-value work. Are you designing the boat you’re sitting in, or just hoping the water stays low? Read the full deep dive on our blog: https://lnkd.in/ejFfDDUC How Improvementors AI Can Help We help businesses of all sizes bypass the hype and implement AI that makes sense for the bottom line. From mapping workflows to embedding change, we ensure your team rides the wave rather than being swept away by it. Explore our AI services: https://lnkd.in/eazHg9U3
Andrew McGurk, commented on a post
1w
SKILL
Andrew McGurk, commented on a post
2w
Spot on. Claude (inc the CLI) is excellent
Interesting to see that the 'exodus' from ChatGPT - post the Pentagon’s comments on Anthropic hasn't diminished Claude's effectiveness or capacity.
That said, Google Gemini is a very, very close second for me right now.
Andrew McGurk, commented on a post
3w
Agreed. Leading with compassion is a business imperative, not a luxury. Mental wellbeing isn't just a 'nice-to-have'—it’s the new Health & Safety. Investing in a culture of compassion isn't just a moral choice; it’s a strategic one that drives retention, reduces risk, and provides a clear competitive edge in a talent-driven market.
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Andrew McGurk, liked thisAndrew McGurk, liked thisDet finns något speciellt med att vara i ett rum fullt av människor som brottas med exakt samma frågor som du. Hur får vi ledningsgruppen att faktiskt agera på kundinsikterna? Hur balanserar vi AI med det mänskliga? Vad har andra provat – och vad funkade inte? Den 28 maj skapar vi det rummet på High Tech – High Touch. Ledare från bland annat 3 Sverige, Vattenfall, Ving Sverige, Postkodlotteriet, Bonnier News, PostNord, Releasy Customer Management delar hur de på riktigt får värde av sina kundinsikter – i kundservice och tvärs hela verksamheten. Pär Johansson, som precis fick publikens pris för bästa talare 2025, kommer också att bidra med något som berör på ett annat plan än vanliga konferenspresentationer. Och när programmet är avklarat avslutar vi på taket med AW, utsikt över hela Stockholm, gott i glasen och plockmat. Lägg till AW-biljetten när du bokar – jag lovar att det är värt det! Vårt event blir alltid fullsatt och sista dagen för rabatterat pris är idag! 📌 Länk i kommentarerna
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Andrew McGurk, liked thisAndrew McGurk, liked thisThis caught my attention on LinkedIn this week. Amish Mehta’s move into a Director role focused on AI and Agentic Commerce at Boots UK. It’s great to see a major retailer taking AI this seriously. Now we’re starting to see dedicated leadership roles being created inside large retail businesses to actually drive it forward. And the timing makes sense. Recent data shows nearly 1 in 6 UK businesses - around 432,000 companies, have now implemented at least one AI technology. What stood out to me about this appointment is that it’s one of the first times I’ve seen someone from a major retailer holding a Director-level role specifically focused on AI and in particular agentic commerce. This isn’t experimentation anymore. It’s becoming core strategy.
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Andrew McGurk, liked thisAndrew McGurk, liked thisToday’s the day! 🌊 The Lido is officially open – so why not make it your first outdoor swim of the year? Take the plunge, get moving and kick-start your day the Peterborough way. Who’s brave enough for that first dip? 👀 #PeterboroughGetMoving
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Andrew McGurk, liked thisAndrew McGurk, liked thisIs your business always meeting, but never moving? We often confuse "breaking down silos" with "leading by total consensus." The result? Calendars full of meetings that lack outcomes, and a leadership team that has zero time to actually "do the doing." At AMVEN, we believe change management isn't a soft skill—it’s a systematic rhythm. Our latest blog post breaks down the four essential components of leadership: * Strategic: Annual Roadmaps and Quarterly Pivots. * Tactical: Monthly Accountability and Daily Pulse Checks. We explore why following these "rules" is the only way to escape decision paralysis and ensure your team's input actually adds value. If you're dreading meetings and they feel more like mind numbing punishment excercises rather than a catalyst for change or action, it’s time for a course correction. Read the full deep-dive & download our slidedeck here: https://lnkd.in/eZmsYGZg. #ChangeManagement #BusinessGrowth #LeadershipRhythms #Strategy #AMVEN
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