jefford

Problem Hacker: cultural moments, dismantled for the lesson underneath.

A contrarian business series. I take something you recognise — a match, a headline, a public row — and show you the business problem hiding inside it. Brands don't need to be saints. They just need a spine. New editions land on LinkedIn first. They live here.

  1. The Bill You Stopped Reading

    I might be paying for TNT Sports twice and I don't mind. The winner of the streaming wars is the container you stopped looking inside.

  3. The Sacking Reflex

    Four managers sacked between two clubs, both still staring at the drop. The visible move isn't the fix — Brighton just keep being Brighton.

  4. The Long Way Round

    Andy Burnham lost the leadership twice, then stopped playing the game everyone was watching. Stop pitching for the chair. Build the chair.

  6. The Bubble Whisperers Are Wrong

    The vibe shift says the AI bubble's bursting. The stats sound damning. They sounded damning about electricity too. The bubble whisperers are wrong.

  7. The Reality Gap

    Blink in this market and you feel obsolete, so you run faster. Then ballroom dancing taught me the difference between business-real and real.

  9. The Comfort Trap

    Everyone says they want change — until it's uncomfortable. Budgets get 'revisited'. Ideas get 'piloted'. How companies succeed themselves into irrelevance.

  10. The Boredom Paradox

    My kids have access to every game, song and video ever made. They're constantly bored. Abundance isn't the gift it looks like — curation is.

  11. The Distribution Game

    Twenty-five days, four frontier AI models. Capability is now a commodity. The game — and the margin — moved to distribution.

  12. My 2026 Predictions (Just Kidding)

    It's predictions season, so here are mine. Just kidding. Adaptation beats prophecy — and the people selling certainty are selling something else.

  14. When Brands Fear the Crowd

    Bob Vylan shouted something at Glastonbury and half of marketing lost its nerve. Here's why a spine beats sainthood.

  15. The Commitment Test

    I walked 80 miles for charity. It taught me what business 'commitment' usually isn't.

  16. Lefty do-gooders of the world unite

    Two weeks in a parents' WhatsApp group taught me more about organisational panic than any away-day. See the panic. Name it. Step outside the script.

  17. The Two-Day Truth Machine

    Your next big project will probably fail. The fix isn't a better plan — it's clarity. Clarity beats cleverness, every time.

  18. The Great Fortune 500 Reset

    Why AI will flip corporate power in under ten years — and why the biggest disruptions always hide in plain sight.

  21. When the Bazball Revolution Blinked

    Two years of chase-anything cricket, then Edgbaston forced the blink. What happens when a revolution meets the scoreboard — and what conviction costs.

  23. The Trophy No One Asked For

    The Club World Cup has Madrid, City and the best of every continent. It looks like football. It doesn't feel like football. Belonging beats scale.

  26. Big Dunc and the Death of Straight Talk

    Eight red cards. Three months in Barlinnie. Never, ever hiding. What Duncan Ferguson knew about straight talk that your workplace forgot.

  27. Licence to… Pivot

    Bond survived where Bourne and Reacher didn't — because the franchise changed before charm stopped working. You're not Bond, though. You're MI6.

  28. The $20 wake-up call.

    ChatGPT costs $20 a month and makes most B2B software feel like dial-up. Your customers noticed. Your pricing should too.

  29. AI-First: A Buzzword or a Blueprint?

    Duolingo went AI-first — properly, structurally. Most companies saying it mean 'AI-also': workflow garnish, not strategy. Which are you?

  30. Perfect is boring.

    I don't want a perfect album. I want one where the singer might fall apart mid-verse. Your brand could use the same wobble.