Dr Eve Poole OBE
March 17, 2026
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Make no mistake, AI is the biggest strategic threat you have ever faced. It will upend entire sectors and business models, either by making them completely redundant or woefully uncompetitive. So next time your Board has a strategy day, it’s time to go back to basics.
Adopt defensive positioning
First, consider Porter’s Five Forces framework, which assesses industry rivalry. The intensity of rivalry is a function of the threat of substitutes, the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of suppliers, and the bargaining power of buyers.
AI attacks you on all of these fronts.
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In particular, AI removes many of the barriers to entry that have protected you until now so for most sectors it is not a matter of if but when.
Where companies in a mature market have a commodity play, they have typically differentiated through brand, or, via scale, with price. AI can help you bolster both of these, to boost your positioning while you re-think.
Map your activities
Next, and more generally, a good way to take a global look at your enterprise is to use the Stacey Grid about Uncertainty/Agreement (Stacey, 2002). Things that are certain and agreed – like standard procedures and regulatory reporting – tend to be susceptible to business process and automation, so they are now susceptible to AI.
Things that are uncertain and disagreed about, like strategy, R&D, and cultural change, are the polar opposite and will take the longest to be uncontroversially copied into AI. Mapping both your market-facing and back-office activities onto this grid may help you to see where your operation has scope for efficiencies, differentiation, or specialization.
Get clear on your value chain – and be obsessive about it
Meanwhile, get crystal clear on your value chain. Which are your primary activities, and which are your support activities? Are you certain which is which? What data do you have on why customers really choose you, and who they choose instead of you? What drives any loyalty they have for your brand or service?
Then get into the weeds of your processes through some good old fashioned business process reengineering (Hammer, 1990). AI gives you an unprecedented opportunity to be ruthless about outsourcing anything you do that is not value-adding in your context.
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But beware: something that looks to you to be superfluous might be the weird reason people stick with you, so be obsessive about clarity on value-add for all of your stakeholder groups.
Develop a resilient business model
Once you have winnowed out the particular set of advantages you have, work out how to turn these into a resilient business model. AI can really help you with this bit of the process, because it will be hard for you to “un-see” your existing business model: try looking at it with fresh eyes from this new perspective. Take a long hard look. Is there an operating model in here that might work, or should you be thinking about a pivot, or even a managed exit from your industry? No business lasts forever, but there may be a shrewd way to rethink what you still have to offer.
Develop the leaders you need for the future
If there is a plausible business model you might adopt, you will need some people to both run it and adapt it as circumstances change.
This is where guessing comes in. Identify your wisest and most seasoned leaders, and dissect their Leadership DNA: precisely why are they good, and how did they become so? How much of this will be replaced by AI, and what will remain salient? Use the list of human "junk code" to help with this process.
Then, in the same way you have re-engineered your business, re-engineer your leadership development for the leaders you will need in the future. How will key capabilities be learned or taught, and when? Are your existing development initiatives still fit for purpose in a world of co-intelligence, and how might they need to change?
Then go back as far as you need to through the supply chain to start developing your future leaders now. Businesses have been partnering with schools and youth organizations for years, usually as part of their charitable outreach. Many have engaged with older children and school leavers to support their transition into work through placements, training, and apprenticeships. Any company with a graduate scheme will already have strong links with universities and colleges. Depending on the future leaders you will need, you may need to take a fresh look at these opportunities for engagement, so see where you could finely tune your nurture and support to develop the actual skills and characteristics you will need.
It is tough out there. It would be nice if this was not happening right now, when we are all so busy. But this is happening on your watch, and your job on the C-suite is to navigate these choppy waters. Luckly, you have a whole Board to help you, and all the tools you need to help you to do it well. It’s time to get started.
Meet the expert
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Eve Poole
Associate Faculty at Hult International Business School
Dr Eve Poole OBE is a Hult Impact Leadership Lab Visiting Fellow. She has a BA from Durham, an MBA from Edinburgh, and a PhD from Cambridge. Following careers in the charity sector and at Deloitte Consulting, she taught Leadership at Hult Ashridge for 10 years.
She is the author of several books, including Leadersmithing and Robot Souls. She has held a variety of senior leadership roles, including CEO of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, and Chairman of Gordonstoun. She was Third Church Estates Commissioner for England from 2018-2021 and is now Executive Chair of the Woodard Corporation. She was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List for services to education and gender equality.
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