AI is rewriting how value is created, captured and defended. The fundamentals of a great business remain, yet the playbook has changed.
I have spent my career reinventing playbooks, as engineer, AI entrepreneur, McKinsey consultant and senior executive. I now do it again as investor and advisor across the Middle East.
I back AI founders with Nexan Ventures, help boards, CEOs and leadership teams transform their organisations with Mosanya Advisory, and serve as board member, mentor and fractional executive.
My career has taken me from deep-tech engineer and AI entrepreneur, to McKinsey consultant and regional senior executive, to AI investor and executive advisor today, across Europe, the United States, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
One thread runs through all these roles, sectors and geographies: work that adds value beyond business as usual. New technologies and new businesses, new markets and new geographies, deep transformations, venture building, management consulting and executive decision-making share one trait: the existing playbook was never quite enough, sometimes because none yet existed, sometimes because the one in hand had to be challenged outright or reinvented.
Alongside Nexan Ventures and Mosanya Advisory, I also support other ventures as mentor, board member or fractional executive, when there is a clear strategic fit.
Innovation creates value when it works reliably in the real world.
Startups = the ideal vehicle to test product-market fit at full speed.
Every problem can be solved methodically, whatever the industry.
Global strategies succeed when value propositions meet local needs.
AI now lets small teams build what once took entire companies.
Every organisation now needs a strategy made for the age of AI.
This is a deliberate paradox: both statements hold true at the same time, and much of the confusion around AI comes from clinging to only one position. The paradox resolves itself when each fundamental of a business is examined from both angles.
Strategy
A company still has to choose where to play and how to win, and build an advantage that lasts. It still has to create more value than it captures, and capture more than it costs.
AI redraws industry boundaries, cost curves and sources of advantage. Choices that held for a decade now need revisiting every year, as some moats disappear and new ones are built on proprietary data and workflows.
Market intelligence and customer discovery
Success still starts with a real problem, for customers who value the solution and are willing to pay for it. Understanding their needs, their context and how they decide remains the work of people who listen.
AI analyses markets, competitors and customer signals in real time and at scale. Even the notion of the customer changes, as agents start to search, compare and buy on behalf of people and companies.
Innovation and product development
A product still has to solve the problem better than the alternatives, and be tested against the market before it can scale. Focus, craft and quality still make the difference.
When building costs a fraction of what it did, teams prototype, iterate and test with the market in days. Choosing which problem to solve, and which ideas to stop, matters more than ever.
Go-to-market and sales
Interest still has to be converted into real sales, directly or through channels such as distributors and partners. Customers still buy through trust, references and a clear value proposition.
AI personalises marketing and sales at scale, and new channels emerge: AI assistants, marketplaces and agents that buy on behalf of customers. The path from first contact to purchase is redesigned.
Operations, delivery and service
Value is still generated in operations, delivery and service, held together by end-to-end orchestration. People, playbooks and automation keep the promises made to customers cost-effectively, and customers still expect accessibility and fast resolution of their issues.
End-to-end orchestration becomes AI-enabled and increasingly autonomous. Agents run parts of operations, delivery and customer service around the clock, at a fraction of the cost.
People and organisation
Organisations still make decisions, check results, buy, sell and change through people, trust and time. Leadership, culture and the development of talent still decide whether any transformation holds.
When agents take on part of the work, roles, skills, teams and operating models start to change. Every leader now has to rethink how people work alongside AI, and how they grow.
As an investor, I see founders building at lightning speed, including products that could not exist without AI, yet some forget the fundamentals: a real problem to solve, and a way to convert interest into real sales.
As an executive advisor, I see established organisations facing an ever stronger imperative to use AI, yet many keep a pre-AI strategy, without innovation and product development at AI speed, and without a real understanding of the impact on their people.
For founders and established organisations alike, the paradox is solved in the same way: revamp the strategy in light of AI, anchor every AI initiative in the fundamentals, then use AI to multiply them in depth, breadth and speed.
Nexan Ventures invests in the founders building what AI now makes possible. Mosanya Advisory helps established organisations transform for the age of AI. Keynotes and media share what I see with the leaders shaping the regional AI agenda.
Beyond AI and venture, I keep practising crafts that no algorithm can practise for me: competitive sailing, martial arts, music and film photography. Travelling, and time with family and friends, complete the picture, as they do for so many of us in the region.
Whether you are a founder building in AI, a leader taking an organisation through its AI transformation, an investor, an event organiser or a journalist, I would be glad to hear from you.
