Somewhere along the way business lost its balance. We tilted from standing for something, to measuring things. From building value to extracting it. Vision gave way to valuation. Passion, to profit. Shareholder value became gospel and financial engineering outpaced innovation. Quarterly earnings crushed long-term thinking. Strategy became efficiency. Purpose became PR.

Then AI arrived. What was once a saunter toward speed and scale is now a stampede. As automation and algorithms secure margin and certainty, the subjective, artistic and irrational feel frivolous. But somewhere in this blur, the soul of the business fades. And we realise that in the rush to optimise the business, we’ve hollowed it out.

It can’t go on this way. If AI takes the boardroom wheel, brands and businesses will converge. So real growth needs more than just efficiency. It needs creativity. Not bigger, faster, cheaper. But edgier, truer, stranger. The future won’t belong to the most optimised, but to the most original. To those willing to put soul back into the system.

But here’s the catch: we don’t know how to do it.

Most haven’t the habit — the skills, methods, tools, processes — to pursue creativity and commerciality simultaneously. To grow with meaning, not metrics. To lead with feeling, not fear. We’ve lost the muscle for nurturing and trusting our taste. For chasing growth through subjective calls that can’t be justified by historical data. For taking long-term risks in a short-term world. For making something new when no one asked us to.

It’s time to remember what business is really for — a force for making, not just taking. A place for courage, not just caution. A craft shaped by humans, not algorithms. Because better business doesn’t just grow with speed…

— better business grows with soul.