Reed Harrison

  If you enjoy the blog, subscribing is the easiest way to make sure you never miss a post.   When you subscribe, you simply receive an email whenever I publish something new. I average about 40 posts per year — less than one a week — so you won’t be flooded with emails.   Several people have […]

My friend had a stroke. While recovering, he built a small team of AI agents.  He calls them “The Sisters.” They now manage a personalized stroke recovery program based on global medical research. They also helped develop two investment portfolios—both of which I invested in myself. And remember this as you read the story:  He is

I’m  thinking out loud again.  This time about high school and college students trying to figure out what to study and what kind of life they want to build. Recently, my daughter’s friend asked me what she thought her son — a high school junior — should major in. That question sounds simple.  It isn’t. What

Happy New Year! My 2025 Year in Review.  My work friends will recognize my OCDness and my love of scorecards.  Apologies to all if it’s bragging. In no particular order: Exercised on 341 days … for a total of 643 hours … and covered a total of 2,570 miles (the equivalent of being 76 miles short of

  I just experienced the 1st direct, explicit impact on my life by the Trump Tariffs, albeit a minor one in the grander scheme of things.  (I imagine I’ve experienced a lot of indirect effects too.)   Every now and then I buy something from a store in London called Farlows.  (They seem to be an Orvis-like thing.)  I

Part 1.  Attention senior leaders. If your organization isn’t already all over experimenting, adopting, and scaling AI, you will soon be a zombie.  What are your competitors doing with AI?  How are new entrants likely to disrupt your industry?  I get a monthly highlights newsletter from McKinsey & Company, one of the big gun management consulting outfits.  December’s had 7

    Preamble:     I’ve had, to me, an interesting life.  I never expected, much less planned, its twists and turns.  There are 2 common threads:  1.) being close to diversely talented people who I genuinely liked, found interesting, and learned from … and 2.) finding myself in an eclectic set of quite enjoyable situations where I

In 1956, when most classrooms still had chalkboards and film projectors, our third-grade class in Hagerstown suddenly had a TV.   Not for cartoons — for school. We didn’t know it then, but we were part of one of the first experiments in digital learning. Before the internet or even widespread videotape, Washington County pioneered the idea of using

Thinking Out Loud here. As always, I’m inviting comments and perspectives.   2 totally unrelated items in the most recent issue of the Harvard Business Review (HBR, Jul-Aug 2025) caught my eye.   1.  “Speed Is a Leadership Decision” in an interview with Amazon’s Andy Jassy.                 Amen.    

5 years of revenue and profit decline. Terrible product quality. Customers openly unhappy. And the biggest competitor? Owned by our customers. That was the situation when I was asked to lead the turnaround of a 1,000-person business unit at AT&T Network Systems. Most people would have run.  I said “Yes.” The Challenge The team was smart