The 'Steroid Olympics' are just around the corner
Cricketing publications, motorbikes and cybersecurity.
Hello,
Sometimes I regale you with some coffee-buying adventure from the week, sometimes it’s about how great such and such band is. This week, however, we’re getting into the day job.
Much of the work Q5 does is at the strategic (sexy) end of Human Resources. Working out how best to get people to do the stuff that XYZ organisation needs doing. HR is seen by many as the day-to-day rigmarole of hiring, firing and keeping everyone happy, but, without humans deciding they need to get something done, we’re nowhere. No moon landing, no Albariño, no 14:32 to Bognor Regis.
This has all been thrown into question recently with the whole AI thing. What if we don’t need humans to get stuff done? What if we have a ready and willing computer program that will blend our wine and drive our trains? This all now seems possible. But we’re not there yet. Humans have to work with their computer compadres for the foreseeable future. It’s therefore been on my mind that the people most opposed in their ways of thinking in an organisation are those in the technology function and those in the people function. It’s like having a cat and dog who tolerate but ignore each other. It seems to me this needs to change. Well, a little company called Moderna (of Covid times) recently decided to merge their people and technology functions. The writing is on the wall.
We are entering an age where there is work to be done, and an increasing proportion of it can be done by machines. This isn’t anything new. Hopefully, your finance team aren’t using abacuses and you don’t have a typist pool knocking out memos on typewriters. But the shift in how work gets done is now accelerating and we all have to put our systems thinking hats on to examine how this interaction between humans and computers works in practice. Exciting? Yes. Alarming? Definitely.
If all goes well we can focus on fixing that dripping tap and taking the bins out whilst AI responds to our emails and puts off doing that report we were meant to do for another week.
OK Computer,
Hugo
Chief HRAI Officer
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
Lots of veterans are moving into cybersecurity 🥷 - it’s a tough gig being a vet, you’re really good at something society only requires once in a while so when you leave, your options can be limited. Cybersecurity has provided a massive opportunity for people who are calm in a crisis and think in terms of risk, helping to fulfil the four million person shortfall there is in the industry globally.
Don’t be a trade unionist in Colombia 🥸 - having any sort of power in a country with an active cartel is a risky business but by some measures being in a union is most dangerous in Colombia. It’s not because they are fighting against the suggestion that maybe you don’t need a guard on trains, it’s altogether unclear why it’s happening aside from cartels not wanting organised groups in their territory.
Nvidia blasts American export controls 🍪 - several years ago the US banned exports of the most advanced chips to China to restrict their progress in the field of AI but Jensen Huang argued this week that all this has done is force them to build their own companies and market. It just goes to show you can’t pick and choose which free market economic policy you choose to follow.
Gerry Cardinale wants to take the Telegraph international 🗞️ - the Redbird acquisition of the Telegraph is just about over the line and they are hoping it may fill a hole in the US between the shouty Fox News and the shouty MSNBC et al. I’m not sure what the US equivalent is of old colonels voicing their opinion on the civil service is but what is for sure, is things are less polarised in the UK, would you believe it?
Things aren’t going so well at Builder.ai 📉 - the company claimed they could enable non-engineers to build software a long time before vibe-coding was a thing but despite raising nearly half a billion dollars and having backing from Microsoft they have basically run out of money. This is amid accusations of Indian workers pretending to be AI and just doing much of the work in the background.
OpenAI buys Jonny Ive’s company 🤔 - it does feel like they’re trying to reinvent the wheel and their lack of any real connection in this weird video leaves one sceptical. I’m a massive Jony Ive fan but I’m also a massive Oasis fan and they released Be Here Now, presumably thinking it was a good idea. If it does mean we all become a bit less indentured to our bloody iPhones, I guess that’s worth a punt.
‘Steroid Olympics’ to open in Las Vegas 🥇 - it’s the perfect sporting conclusion to a Trump America - a competition where there are no restrictions on what performance-enhancing drugs people can take. The games are being backed by Donald Trump Jr. and Peter Thiel and will be launched in May 2026. I hate to be the bore here but it does all feel a bit stupid. Like, what if we played football but everyone had a sword? Sure it would be entertaining, but do we really need to do that?
The Cricketer magazine is seeking new ownership 🏏 - if you’ve got a few quid lying around please let me know. I think we can turn the 104-year-old cricketing publication into the digital behemoth it deserves to be. Cricket is on the rise globally, it goes on forever so there’s loads of content and it’s endlessly meme-able. Let’s get a bid together and start our media empire.
India is the motorcycle capital of the world 🏍️ - Honda is planning to increase its annual production in the country by 650,000 units to 2.61 million motorbikes by opening a new production line at its plant in Ahmedabad. The market in India continues to heat up as sales of motorbikes rose 9% to 19.61 million units in 2024.
Defence spending is up but on the wrong things 🪖 - countries are still spending a huge amount of money on expensive fighter jets and subs when it’s become apparent over the past couple of years that relatively inexpensive drones and missiles are the direction in which warfare is heading. Governments (and defence companies) just love a massive spending programme with a cool name.
Quote of the week
“It’s a London Thing” - MC Styles