OpenAI just dropped GPT-5.6 in three versions, and the most powerful one is staying limited to cybersecurity use. Asian AI startups are also moving fast to fill the gap left by Anthropic’s export restrictions. Google is reportedly capping Meta’s Gemini usage because compute is tight even at Google. And Claude Cowork now lets you run tasks from your phone, which is actually a pretty useful upgrade. A few things worth keeping an eye on: • GPT-5.6 is out in three flavors, with the strongest version tightly restricted. • Claude Cowork now works better across phone and desktop. • Asian AI startups are stepping into the space left by Anthropic’s export ban. • Google has reportedly limited Meta’s Gemini usage because of compute shortages. • A few new AI tools are worth checking out too. What prompt are you trying?! Put it I the comments below 👇🏽 !

We recently worked with a company doing over $20M a year. From the outside, they looked like a large, established operation. But once we stepped inside, it became clear they were still running the business the same way they did in the early days — through back of napkin systems, scattered notes, memory, long lost threads, and whatever someone happened to remember that day. As we analyzed how work actually flowed, the pattern was obvious: revenue had scaled, but their internal systems hadn’t. Nothing was consistent, repeatable, or easy for the team to follow. The business looked strong, but it functioned like a small shop that had never updated how it operated. The biggest takeaway was simple: growth will expose whatever systems you didn’t build. And if everything still relies on people remembering things, the business ends up operating with stress, confusion, and unnecessary inefficiency. Case Study Question: When transforming back-of-napkin style businesses, what are the main systems you think every business should have in place before scaling? Extra questions: Have you seen this before? Maybe in your own company or someone you know?How often do you think big businesses are still running on small-business systems behind the scenes?

Stumbled upon a great article that reinforces the power of systems thinking at a business level — and highlights several examples of how major companies (think Blackberry, Polaroid, Bank of America, etc.) created their own pitfalls by failing to think systematically at the leadership level. Here's a little summary for those short on time - and for those that want the full read the article is attached 👇🏼 Research Approach and Methodology 1. Examine real-world business failures in areas such as product development, pricing, sales, operations, and administration. 2. Use a Systems Thinking lens to identify systemic causes. 3. Extract and synthesize recurring principles into a hands-on business protocol. After studying eighteen well-known organizations, the authors found four main patterns behind most breakdowns in performance and adaptability: 1. Product Myopia – Building around a single product instead of designing the full user experience. 2. Frozen Mental Models – Operating from assumptions that no longer match reality. 3. Feedback Blindness – Making decisions without understanding how actions create ripple effects across the system. 4. Misaligned GBMR Systems – Structuring goals, behaviors, metrics, and rewards that compete instead of reinforce. And here are the four main fixes we can apply in our own companies: 1. Design user experience systems, not products. Value exists in the ecosystem, not the object. 2. Align mental models. Bring assumptions to the surface and update them as context evolves. 3. Map feedback loops. Every decision has a delayed impact — identify those loops early. 4. Engineer the GBMR structure. Align goals, behaviors, metrics, and rewards to drive one direction of momentum. The takeaway here is simple — every business already operates as a system. The question is whether leadership and teams align their thinking with that system - and if it's designed intentionally or left to evolve or dissolve on its own. Which of these four patterns shows up most clearly in your professional world right now?