🔮 Navigating the Accelerated S-Curve with Paul Nunes | Big Bang Disruption & Shark Fin Strategy

Welcome to episode 2 of our exclusive Harvard Business School series! 🎓 Join host Aidan McCullen as he interviews Paul Nunes, renowned as the King of the S-Curve, in a masterclass on navigating today’s fast-evolving business cycles.

📈 Discover how exponential technology change is collapsing traditional life cycles and creating “Shark Fin” business models—where sudden success can be catastrophic and strategic timing is everything. Paul explains how companies like Netflix, Apple, Peloton, and Intel navigated (or missed) these cycles and what it means for your business.

🔥 Learn about Big Bang Disruption, the death of early adopters, managing multiple S-curves, the rise of orchestrator firms, and how strategy must evolve for verticalized industries, fleeting advantage, and supply chain complexity.

 

⏰ Timestamps for Key Topics:

00:00 – Introduction and Welcome

00:26 – The Evolution of S-Curves

01:43 – What is the Shark Fin Strategy?

03:52 – Managing Multiple S-Curves

05:29 – Rapid Market Change & Business Lifecycle

07:42 – Case Studies: American Giant & Peloton

10:30 – The New Supply Chain Realities

18:01 – Is Vertical Integration Still Viable?

24:13 – Strategy in the Age of Compression

24:34 – Industry Diversification & Component Thinking

25:17 – Nvidia, Intel, and Strategic Orchestration

27:02 – Innovation vs. Manufacturing Models

33:15 – Capital Investment, Risk & Timing

39:06 – Why the Chief Strategy Officer Role is More Crucial Than Ever

47:55 – Final Reflections & Thank Yous

💡 Whether you’re a strategist, innovator, entrepreneur, or business leader, this episode is a must-watch to future-proof your thinking and strategy.

📚 Based on Paul’s seminal works: Jumping the S-Curve, Big Bang Disruption, and Pivot to the Future

🔗 Watch, learn, and subscribe for more expert-led strategy content!

#SCurve #BigBangDisruption #PaulNunes #SharkFinStrategy #BusinessStrategy #Innovation #ChiefStrategyOfficer #AidanMcCullen #HBS #Nvidia #Intel #Netflix #Apple #Peloton #ExponentialChange #FutureOfBusiness

Chuck House, Permission Denied, Intrapreneurship, Innovation Show, Aidan McCullen, Thinkers50, HP innovation, Corporate innovation, Innovation resistance, Logic analyzer history, Paradigm shift, Reinvention

On this episode of The Innovation Show, we welcome Chuck House, serial intrapreneur, author of Permission Denied, and former executive at Hewlett-Packard.

Chuck shares hard-won lessons from inside one of the world’s most influential tech companies—revealing what it really takes to innovate from within. From helping pioneer the first commercial computer graphics display to earning HP’s only-ever Medal of Defiance, Chuck’s story is both a cautionary tale and a masterclass in intrapreneurial resilience.

Hosted by Aidan McCullen, Thinkers50 Award recipient for Innovation and keynote speaker based in Ireland.

🎧 Highlights include:

• Surviving and thriving as an intrapreneur

• Navigating organisational resistance

• Why engineers must meet customers

• Leadership in uncertain times

• Insights for today’s innovation leaders

 

📖 Get Chuck’s book: Permission Denied: Odyssey of an Intrapreneur:

https://amzn.to/3Xq2LxC

🌐 More on Aidan: www.aidanmccullen.com

In this thought-provoking episode, Aidan McCullen — Thinkers50 Innovation Award Winner, author of Undisruptable, and host of The Innovation Show — welcomes Samuel Arbesman, scientist, author, and polymath, for the grand finale of their trilogy.

Together, they explore The Magic of Code: How Digital Language Created and Connects Our World, diving deep into how code shapes our understanding of reality — from biology and evolution to artificial intelligence and the simulation hypothesis.

 Discover how code is the new DNA, the universal language linking art, philosophy, and technology, and why rekindling curiosity, humility, and wonder is essential in our age of machines.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction and Sponsor Message

00:18 The Power and Mystery of Code

01:33 Guest Introduction: Samuel Arbesman

02:26 The Magic of Code: Themes and Inspirations

03:53 Rekindling Wonder in Computing

11:01 Biology and Computation: A Deep Dive

14:43 Artificial Life and Evolution in Computing

24:17 Emergent Behavior and Evolutionary Contingency

28:28 Simulation Hypothesis: Reality as a Program

29:30 The Complexity of Digital Simulations

30:35 Weather Prediction and Simplified Models

32:00 The Physicality of Computing

33:17 The Simulation Hypothesis

39:05 The Role of Language in AI

44:09 Humanity and Technology

47:39 The Future of Technology and Society

57:00 Final Thoughts on Humility and Curiosity

In This Episode

• The connection between code, language, and human creativity

• How biology and computation mirror one another

• Artificial life, evolution, and digital ecosystems

• The simulation hypothesis: Are we living in code?

• The importance of humility, restraint, and curiosity in an AI-driven world

Guest: Samuel Arbesman — Author of The Magic of Code, The Half-Life of Facts, and Overcomplicated

🔗 Find Sam: https://arbesman.net

Host: Aidan McCullen — Thinkers50 Innovation Award Winner, international thought leader on change and reinvention, author of Undisruptable, and host of The Innovation Show, a globally acclaimed and Thinkers50-recognised podcast inspiring leaders to thrive through change.

A former international rugby player, Aidan now helps organisations and leaders adapt and evolve in an age of exponential transformation.

 

Get Sam’s Book: https://amzn.to/3Xb8abN

Find the Innovation show: https://thethursdaythought.substack.com