Garrett Lane Advisors Garrett Lane Advisors

Insights

What I am reading, and what I am writing.

Below: current thinking on corporate strategy and governance that is worth a chief executive's time, with a note on why. Then my own occasional writing, published when there is something worth saying rather than on a schedule.

INSIGHTS
— Reading

On the table now

Harvard Business Review · March–April 2026

The Skills Board Chairs Need Now

Pedro Fontes Falcão and Randall S. Peterson argue that the chair's job has outgrown the executive résumé that usually wins it. The skills that matter now are synthesis, facilitation, psychological safety in the room, and balancing interests that genuinely conflict.

Why it mattersAlmost every board review I have seen confirms this. The chair's technical credibility is rarely the constraint; the ability to get six directors to disagree productively in ninety minutes is.
KPMG Board Leadership Center · January 2026

On the 2026 Board Agenda

Seven priorities, of which four are new in substance: scenario planning as a standing board activity, governance frameworks for autonomous AI agents, resilience over prevention in cyber, and a hard look at whether committee remits still cover the risks without overlapping.

Why it mattersUse it as an audit, not a reading list. Take each item to your own board calendar and ask where in the year it is actually discussed. Most boards find three with no home.
McKinsey & Company · February 2026

The State of Organizations 2026: Three tectonic forces

Technology infusion, economic and geopolitical disruption, and a workforce whose expectations and demographics have both shifted — with the conclusion that sustained performance, not short-term gain, is what the structural response has to be built for.

Why it mattersThe forces are not controversial. The useful question is which of your operating processes were designed before all three were true, and what it would cost to redesign them.
Bain & Company · 2026

Global M&A Report 2026

Deal value at its second-highest year on record, driven by three motives: buying a position in AI, adapting to fragmented post-globalisation markets, and chasing profit pools that are moving faster than organic strategy can follow.

Why it mattersDeal logic has rarely been the failure point in the transactions I have worked on. Integration capacity has. Read the value-creation chapter before the volume charts.
Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance · February 2026

How Boards Can Lead in a World Remade by AI

On the gap between boards that receive AI updates and boards that govern AI — oversight of deployment, data, workforce consequences and accountability when a system rather than a person makes the call.

Why it mattersThe certification I hold in governance and climate competence exists because governance frameworks lag the risk by about five years. AI is the current instance of that lag.
— Writing

Articles

— Talks

Recorded sessions

Clip · What makes a great coach · 3 min
Coaching · 57 min

Why do I need a transition coach?

What a coach is actually for, what separates a competent one from a good one, and the relationship contract that has to be in place before any of it works. Then the process itself — the big picture, the goals, the plan, the success profile, the journey — and what a coaching programme should leave behind when it ends.

Watch the full talk →
Clip · Asking for referrals · 3 min
Networking · 56 min

Make your personal network your best asset

Why your network is the most productive channel you actually control, and why it only pays if you do the work. Keeping in touch, widening it, and asking for the order — along with the don’ts, which cost people more than the do’s ever gain them.

Watch the full talk →