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Episode #73. Systems, Value & Action: Organizational Design with Mike Jones

Listen to the episode here:

This episode has been reposted from Strategy Meets Reality Podcast.

How do organizations create meaningful value in a world that’s complex, nonlinear, and constantly changing?

In this episode of The Value Creators Podcast, Hunter Hastings talks with Mike Jones — consultant, organizational psychologist, and host of Strategy Meets Reality — about systems thinking, value creation, and practical implementation. Mike explains why older, linear management models let people down in adaptive environments, how leaders should think about value exchange and asset stewardship, and why action and learning matter more than perfect forecasting.

Key insights include:

  • Why systems thinking is essential for organizations operating in a complex, adaptive world.
  • How value is discovered through exchange and experience—not merely engineered inside firms.
  • Why action, not endless planning, generates the information leaders need to adapt and create value.

This episode is for founders and leaders who want frameworks that actually work in messy, real-world organizations.

Resources:

➡️ Learn What They Didn’t Teach You In Business School: The Value Creators Online Business Course

Learn more about Strategy Meets Reality Podcast

Connect with Hunter Hastings on LinkedIn

Subscribe to The Value Creators on Substack

Knowledge Capsule

1. Systems Thinking Is the Right Mental Model

  • Organizations are adaptive systems (not machines).
  • Systems change in response to internal and external signals.
  • Leaders must design for adaptation, not for control.

2. Old Management Models Are Becoming Obsolete

  • 19th/20th-century function-based organizations are designed for continuity and assume predictability.
  • Those models prioritize control, measurement and efficiency in a stable environment.
  • In dynamic markets, those assumptions are wrong – they cause mismatch and brittleness.

3. Value Is Discovered, Not Merely Produced

  • Value emerges through exchanges and customer experience relative to customer expectations and aspirations.
  • Producers can’t unilaterally declare value—customers reveal it through choices.
  • Pricing is downstream of the value exchange; customer response validates value.

4. Value Exchange and the Customer Experience

  • The value exchange is followed by a value experience that determines repeat behavior.
  • Consistently meeting expectations in experience is central to retention and referrals.
  • Design and operations must orchestrate both the exchange and the subsequent experience – even those parts of it that are invisible to the producer..

5. Asset Stewardship Matters for Sustained Value

  • Creating less value means that assets have depreciated.
  • Neglecting infrastructure or capabilities reduces the customer experience.
  • Investment in assets is an investment in future value creation.

6. Teams Need Clarity, Roles and Autonomy

  • Clear role definition and trust among team members enable fast, coordinated action.
  • Self-organizing teams reduce the friction of top-down control.
  • Empowered teams adapt quicker to changing conditions.

7. Action Over Endless Analysis

  • Action creates evidence: you learn by doing, not by over-modeling.
  • Speed of iteration produces information to update beliefs and strategy.
  • Execution (tested action) beats perfect plans in uncertain contexts.

8. Failure Is Informational, Not Just Negative

  • Small experiments reveal what customers do and don’t value.
  • Failure is a feedback and learning mechanism that refines hypotheses.
  • Low-cost tests reduce downside while increasing learning velocity.

9. Leadership Is About Intent and Moral Commitment

  • Values and intent shape how organizations interpret signals.
  • Leaders’ moral framing (why they create value) affects long-run choices.
  • Purpose-aligned decisions sustain culture through ambiguity.

10. Institutions & Policy Create the Operating Environment

  • Policy layers and management rules can add friction and cost.
  • Policy chaos raises the cost and risk of investment.
  • Entrepreneurs must design-in resilience given institutional uncertainty.

11. Capital Allocation Requires Courage and Judgment

  • Capital must be deployed without perfect knowledge; courage is a factor.
  • Investors and entrepreneurs balance risk, timing, and learning horizons.
  • Resource commitment is necessary for the discovery process.

12. Organizations Must Design for Continuous Adaptation

  • Systems of review (after-action learning) are essential for improvement.
  • Simplicity of communication and clarity of purpose reduce internal noise.
  • The work of leaders is to enable learning at scale and speed, not to try to eliminate uncertainty.

The Value Creators Podcast Episode #70. Will Today’s Students Redefine Entrepreneurship? AI, Agency, and New Roles: A Conversation With Raushan Gross

Listen to the episode here:

AI is now at the leading edge of value creation, where creativity, innovation and new business thinking will exercise great leverage. Entrepreneurs – and especially young entrepreneurs unburdened with the baggage of old business models – will lead the value creation revolution. 

Dr. Raushan Gross is a professor, author, and expert in AI, in business systems, and in entrepreneurship, all of which he is teaching to students in preparing them to enter a rapidly evolving marketplace. With Hunter Hastings, he explores how AI can empower these young entrepreneurs, and why agency—not technology—is the driver of progress, especially for new startups and small businesses who embrace technology and automation without losing their human advantage.

Dr. Gross shares how entrepreneurial thinking must evolve in a world of predictive algorithms, and how leaders can build businesses that remain adaptive, authentic, and focused on value creation.

Key insights include:

  • Why entrepreneurs must focus on agency over automation—and how to stay proactive in a reactive world.
  • How small businesses can leverage AI as a strategic collaborator, not just a productivity tool.
  • Why the new economic advantage isn’t size, but speed, flexibility, and intentionality.

If you want to lead with clarity in an AI-enabled world, this episode offers the mindset shift and tools to help you do it.

Resources:

Raushan Gross AI Articles Archive

➡️ Learn What They Didn’t Teach You In Business School: The Value Creators Online Business Course

Connect with Hunter Hastings on LinkedIn

Subscribe to The Value Creators on Substack

Knowledge Capsule

1. Agency Is the Core Entrepreneurial Advantage

  • Professor Gross’s message to entrepreneurs: Don’t  fear AI—focus on preserving and expanding your own agency.
  • Agency means the power to choose, to act, and to innovate intentionally.
  • Automation can be powerful only when paired with human direction.

2. Technology Is a Tool—Not a Replacement for Thought

  • Entrepreneurs must view AI as a collaborator, not a substitute.
  • Critical thinking and vision remain irreplaceable assets.
  • Tools should enhance decision-making, not dictate it.

3. The New Edge Is Speed, Adaptation, and Flexibility

  • Large enterprises move slowly; entrepreneurs can learn and pivot faster – it’s the ultimate advantage.
  • Small businesses that adopt AI intentionally gain a competitive edge.
  • Advantage now lies in responsiveness, not scale.

4. Predictive Systems Can Reinforce Old Biases

  • AI tools trained on outdated data may replicate legacy thinking.
  • Entrepreneurs must challenge assumptions, not automate them.
  • Intentional input leads to more valuable outcomes.

5. Entrepreneurship Requires Systems Thinking

  • Business owners must think in systems, not isolated tasks.
  • AI can help visualize and improve those systems.
  • Strategic automation happens at the systems level.

6. AI Literacy Will Define Future Business Success

  • Entrepreneurs need fluency in AI to use it responsibly. Fluency comes from experience: practice, practice, practice.
  • Literacy includes knowing limitations, risks, and opportunities.
  • This doesn’t require coding—just clear conceptual understanding.

7. AI Can Unlock New Levels of Customer Insight

  • Data-driven tools can help anticipate needs and personalize service.
  • But value comes from how entrepreneurs apply the insight.
  • Empathy + analytics = human-centered advantage.

8. Intentionality Beats Automation

  • Blind automation creates detachment and risk.
  • Entrepreneurs should deploy AI with clear objectives and constraints.
  • Design determines whether AI empowers or alienates.

9. Decision-Making Remains a Human Function

  • AI assists, but it doesn’t replace context, judgment, or nuance.
  • Leaders must remain accountable for the choices made.
  • The ultimate value creator is the human who wields the tool.

10. Entrepreneurial Education Must Evolve

  • Current business education is rigidly based on old models that have been superseded.
  • New teaching frameworks must incorporate digital fluency and ethics.
  • Future entrepreneurs will need systems awareness and AI navigation skills.
  • Learning must combine theory, tools, and lived experimentation.

11. AI Will Not Equalize—It Will Amplify Differences

  • Businesses that use AI strategically will accelerate.
  • Those who ignore it risk falling behind.
  • The gap will widen between the adaptive and the passive.

12. Value Creation Is Still the Ultimate Goal

  • Regardless of tools or trends, entrepreneurs exist to create value.
  • AI is only useful to the extent that it enables better outcomes.
  • The human intention behind the tool is what matters most.