The Blog
Long-form essays, field notes, and frameworks from the FIRMSconsulting team — published weekly.
All posts
Published weekly-
When Someone Erases Everything They Know About You
A misread word nearly ended a years-long relationship. Why the most dangerous thing a leader can do is judge someone on a single frame instead of the whole film.
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Prompt Engineering Is the Self-Checkout of AI
Prompt engineering is not a skill to master. It is shadow work AI companies offload onto you. Good AI carries the burden — you shouldn’t have to.
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A perfect corporate sleight of hand becomes tougher with AI
Every expert who sells judgment is scored on results — except advice, outside or internal. Real accountability means being measured against banked value.
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They Complain and Envy You
A short letter on reinventing yourself: if your life isn’t working, why not rewrite it? On changing your identity, paying the price for a reimagined life, and why others complain and envy those who do the work.
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If You Are Not Growing, You Are Degrading
A letter on why the most successful leaders never stop investing in themselves. Through the stories of two exceptional clients, why building capability that stays with you for life beats any quick fix or shortcut.
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A Company Is Not Valued on Its Past. Neither Are We.
Most people cannot tell the difference between a bad decision and a bad outcome. Here is how to tell a real setback from a right decision that simply has not paid off yet — and how to rebuild momentum after a streak of them.
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AI Strategy Is Not a Strategy
Most companies launch an AI strategy without asking how it serves the corporate strategy. It must — long term, that means the ROIC–WACC spread and growth.
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The Success Trap: Breaking the Cycle of Never Enough (with Brooke Taylor)
Brooke Taylor spent more than a decade inside high-performance environments, including leadership roles at Google, before turning her attention to a question that many accomplished professionals quietly wrestle with: why does achievement so often fail to produce a lasting sense of fulfillment? In this conversation, she examines what she calls the “success wound” — the…
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Adjunct Professor at Cornell University, Cheryl Strauss Einhorn, on Critical Thinking vs. AI
In this conversation with Cheryl Strauss Einhorn, the discussion examines what happens to judgment and critical thinking as AI becomes embedded in daily decision-making. Drawing on her background as an investigative journalist at Barron’s, Einhorn explains how questioning assumptions and searching for disconfirming evidence shaped the development of her AREA Method for decision-making. She argues…
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The Habits and Systems That Shape Success (with Fredric Marshall)
Fredric Marshall spent decades helping companies including Apple, Pfizer, and Genentech solve problems in sales effectiveness, product launches, and organizational change. In this discussion, he explains why he views sales and leadership primarily as change management challenges: helping people move from where they are to where they want to be. The conversation centers on several…
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BCG Managing Director and Partner, Kristy Ellmer, on Why Change Fails and How Great Leaders Build Real Transformation
Kristy Ellmer has spent her career leading large-scale transformations across industries, countries, and operating environments. In this conversation, she explains why most change efforts fail — not because of bad strategy, but because organizations underestimate the human side of execution. A central idea from the discussion is the imbalance between the “what” and the “how”…
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Associate Director of Culture and Change at BCG, Philip Jameson, on Why Most Transformations Fail
Philip Jameson discusses why most organizational transformations fail despite strong strategic intent, significant investment, and broad awareness that change is necessary. Drawing on his work at Boston Consulting Group and the research behind How Change Really Works, Jameson argues that the core problem is often not strategy itself, but a poor understanding of “how humans…