Strategy, vision, and technology all matter. But according to Jim Collins, David Packard, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos, none of it matters more than who you put on your team. In this episode, Alex Franklin builds on his Level 5 Leadership column to examine the single most important factor in organisational success: getting the right people on the bus before you decide where to drive it.

Practical, honest, and grounded in hard-won experience.

Read the full article: ithacacybersecurity.com/first-who-then-what

Work with Alex: ithacacybersecurity.com | penpole.co.uk

References and Further Reading

Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don't. Penguin Random House.
Sanchez, C. (2024). Main Street Millionaire: How to Make Extraordinary Wealth Buying Boring Businesses. Penguin.

Read all Profit Insights: https://www.ithacacybersecurity.com/insights/

Work with Alex: alex@ithacacybersecurity.com

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What does it actually mean to be an entrepreneur? In this episode, Alex Franklin offers a personal and philosophical take on the entrepreneurial mindset drawing on Luke Johnson, James Wise, and John Maynard Keynes to argue that entrepreneurship is not about the yacht or the exit. It is about the willingness to take risk, question the majority, and put capital to work in defiance of the instinct to hoard.

Read the full article: ithacacybersecurity.com/ode-to-entreprenuership

Work with Alex: ithacacybersecurity.com | penpole.co.uk

References and Further Reading

Johnson, L. (2011). Start It Up: Why Running Your Own Business Is Easier Than You Think. Portfolio Penguin.
Wise, J. (2023). The Startup Century: Why We're All Becoming Entrepreneurs and How to Make It Work for Everyone. Bloomsbury.
Marshall, A. (1890). Principles of Economics. Macmillan. (As cited in Keynes, 1936)
Keynes, J. M. (1936). The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Macmillan.

Read all Profit Insights: https://www.ithacacybersecurity.com/insights/

Work with Alex: alex@ithacacybersecurity.com

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What separates leaders who build enduring greatness from those who deliver only short-term results? In this episode, Alex Franklin explores Jim Collins' Level 5 Leadership framework, the paradoxical combination of personal humility and professional will that Collins identified as the primary differentiator in companies that sustained extraordinary performance over fifteen years. From Tim Cook quietly negotiating tariff exemptions to David Packard's law on hiring, this episode offers a compelling framework for anyone building or investing in great organisations.

Read the full article: ithacacybersecurity.com/how-to-become-a-level-5-leader

Work with Alex: ithacacybersecurity.com | penpole.co.uk

References and Further Reading

Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don't. Penguin Random House.

Rogan, J. (Host). (2025, February 28). #2281 – Elon Musk [Audio podcast episode]. In The Joe Rogan Experience. Spotify. open.spotify.com/episode/4OKO5j5RFCx5efek9XXlj3

Read all Profit Insights: https://www.ithacacybersecurity.com/insights/

Work with Alex: alex@ithacacybersecurity.com

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What if the secret to achieving more wasn't pushing harder, but setting better limits?

In this episode of Profit Insights, Alex Franklin draws on the letters of Seneca the Stoic to explore a principle that is almost 2,000 years old.

Natural desires have boundaries. Unnatural ones, driven by comparison and the opinions of others, do not. And it is the boundless pursuit of the latter that quietly drains our focus, our relationships, and our effectiveness.

Building on the Pareto and Parkinson framework from the previous episode, Alex examines what it means to set fixed destinations rather than self-limiting beliefs, why saying no is one of the highest-leverage skills available to any business leader, and how the mental clarity that comes from defined limits creates space for deeper presence, better decisions, and more meaningful achievement.

Read the full column:

penpole.co.uk/post/the-ancient-art-of-setting-limits-a-stoic-approach-to-modern-achievement

Work with Alex: penpole.co.uk | ithacacybersecurity.com

References and Further Reading

Seneca, L. A. (2016). Letters from a Stoic (R. M. Gummere, Trans.). Letter XVI: On Philosophy, the Guide of Life. Dover Publications. (Original work written ca. 65 CE)
Seneca, L. A. (2016). Letters from a Stoic (R. M. Gummere, Trans.). Letter XXXV: On the Friendship of Kindred Minds. Dover Publications. (Original work written ca. 65 CE)
Koch, R. (2022). The 80/20 Principle: Achieving More with Less. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Ferris, T. (2007). The 4-Hour Work Week. Penguin.

Read all Profit Insights: https://www.ithacacybersecurity.com/insights/

Work with Alex: alex@ithacacybersecurity.com

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Time is our most precious and finite resource, yet most of us squander it without realising. In this episode, Alex Franklin applies two powerful principles in tandem, Pareto's Law and Parkinson's Law, to show how focusing on the right 20% of your effort, with the right deadlines, can unlock dramatically better results in both business and life.

Read the full article: ithacacybersecurity.com/how-to-achieve-more-with-less

Work with Alex: ithacacybersecurity.com | penpole.co.uk

References and Further Reading

Galloway, S. (2024). The Algebra of Wealth. Penguin.
Davies, W. H. (1911). Leisure. In Songs of Joy and Others. A. C. Fifield.
Ferris, T. (2007). The 4-Hour Work Week. Penguin.
Parkinson, C. N. (1955). Parkinson's Law. The Economist.
Koch, R. (2022). The 80/20 Principle: Achieving More with Less. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Isaacson, W. (2023). Elon Musk. Simon & Schuster.

Read all Profit Insights: https://www.ithacacybersecurity.com/insights/

Work with Alex: alex@ithacacybersecurity.com

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In this episode, Alex Franklin applies Moore's Law to the modern threat landscape and makes the case that cyber security is not an IT issue, it's a valuation issue.

If you're preparing for investment or exit, this episode is essential listening.

Read all Profit Insights: https://www.ithacacybersecurity.com/insights/

Work with Alex: alex@ithacacybersecurity.com

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Is the success of the world's greatest investors down to brilliance, or were they simply in the right place at the right time?

In this inaugural episode of Profit Insights, Alex Franklin examines one of the most uncomfortable questions in business: the role luck plays in investment decisions. Drawing on the work of NYU's Aswath Damodaran, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and BCG founder Bruce Henderson's Growth Share Matrix, Alex makes the case that fortune and strategy are not opposites and that understanding their relationship can make you a materially better investor.

You'll come away with a clear framework for identifying the kind of high-growth, market-leading opportunities that generate outsized returns and a more honest account of why the most successful CEOs often point to luck when asked to explain their success.

In this episode:

• Why overconfidence, not genius, may be the defining trait of successful CEOs
• The Matthew Effect and how compounding advantage explains the careers of Gates, Jobs, and Schmidt
• The Growth Share Matrix: BCG's tool for separating Stars from Cash Cows, Question Marks, and Dogs
• Why positioning both by fortune and by design is the premier factor in determining return on capital
  
  

Read the full column: https://www.ithacacybersecurity.com/serendipity-or-strategy-bcgs-growth-share-matrix/

Work with Alex: penpole.co.uk | ithacacybersecurity.com

Read all Profit Insights: https://www.ithacacybersecurity.com/insights/

Work with Alex: alex@ithacacybersecurity.com

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