EPISODE: "AI WILLS AND WILL-NOTS"

One of three articles on judgment, learning, and ownership in the age of AI.

DESCRIPTION

The AI conversation has quietly changed. Two years ago the question was whether you could use these tools. A year ago it was whether you had the time to. Now the barrier isn't capability. It's choice.

In this episode, I unpack the move from AI haves and have-nots to AI wills and will-nots, starting with two respected voices who've decided to sit it out. Along the way: why "unfair advantage" and "weak, hollow output" can't both be true, why judgment is the thing AI rewards and exposes, what the Gartner Hype Cycle and the change curve reveal about this exact moment, and why declaring you're done at the bottom of the trough is a decision to stay there.

It ends where it has to: cattle, bison, and the storm none of us gets to avoid.

IN THIS EPISODE

• The three states of AI adoption: nots, haves and have-nots, and now wills and will-nots
• The contradiction inside the case against AI, and why it can't be both an unfair edge and an obvious weakness
• Why AI is an amplifier of judgment, not a shortcut around it
• What the Gartner Hype Cycle and the change curve say about where we are
• Why the bottom of the curve is the most dangerous place to opt out
• Cattle, bison, and the choice in front of all of us

KEY TAKEAWAYS - HOW TO BE A WILL, NOT A WILL-NOT

1. Direct it, don't defer to it. The gap between leverage and slop is whether you're steering or outsourcing. Bring your thinking to the tool, not the other way around.
2. Work iteratively, not lazily. The one-shot "do it all for me" prompt is where hollow output comes from. Treat AI like a draft partner you wrestle with, not a vending machine.
3. Go deep before you judge. You can't evaluate the whole category from a single lazy experiment. Rebuild one thing you actually do with AI before you decide it doesn't work.
4. Don't treat the trough like a ceiling. Fatigue and disappointment are what the middle of a transition feels like - a reason to keep going, not a reason to declare it's over.
5. Judge the output, not the origin. The question was never whether AI was involved. It's whether the work earns someone's attention and their time.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Adam Grant, Brené Brown, The Curiosity Shop, Alex M H Smith, ChatGPT, Gartner Hype Cycle, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment, Mark Scullard, Kübler-Ross change curve.A LINE WORTH REMEMBERING

"The barrier used to be capability. Now it's choice."LISTEN & READ MORE

You can also read this week's Brandistry Buzz on [LinkedIn / Substack]. Subscribe to Brandistry Buzz for weekly takes on brand strategy, marketing, and leadership.

Full Description

In 2010, I spent the better part of a year hunting for new places for J&J's beauty business to grow - and ended up watching us slowly dismantle the very brand we'd acquired to get there. It's a mistake I've seen play out again and again, at every scale.

In this episode, I trace the rise and fall of Dollar Shave Club: the 90-second video that rewrote the razor category, the billion-dollar Unilever acquisition that was supposed to teach a giant how to win online, and the quiet, reasonable decisions that hollowed the brand out one at a time. I dig into why some acquisitions elevate a brand while others blunt it - and the five questions every leader should ask before they buy, or steward, something sharp.

In This Episode

• The Korres / J&J story: buying a capability, then dismantling the parts that made it work
• How Dollar Shave Club rebuilt the razor category on four ideas at once - DTC, subscription, price, and irreverence
• Why Unilever really paid $1 billion: the foothold in razors, but more importantly the DTC capability it didn't have
• How "the Club" stopped meaning anything - retail distribution, portfolio bloat, and a voice that got safer
• The 2023 sale to Nexus Capital, and what Unilever's own CEOs admitted out loud
• Why Covid explains a chapter of the story, not the whole book
• What separates the wins (Liquid IV, Pixar inside Disney) from the cautionary tales
• Five ways to protect the core you paid for
• The Dr. Squatch bookend: a $1.5B bet on the same kind of brand - will Unilever repeat history?

Key Takeaways - Protecting the Core You Paid For

1. Name the core before you close. If you can't state the brand's central idea in one sentence, you can't protect it.
2. Audit compatibility, not just attractiveness. A great category means nothing if your operating model is built to reject what makes the brand work.
3. Protect the engine, not just the name. The capability you bought is a business, not a cost line.
4. Decide who's changing whom - and mean it. If the point is to learn a new capability, adopt it; don't assimilate it.
5. Resist the regimen. Every capability you bring will tempt you to extend the brand. Simplicity is a position you can give away one line extension at a time.

Mentioned in This Episode

Dollar Shave Club, Michael Dubin, Gillette, Schick, P&G, Unilever, Korres, Sephora, Johnson & Johnson, Proactiv, Walmart, Dove, Vaseline, TRESemmé, Axe, Liquid IV, Pixar, Disney, Dr. Squatch, Nexus Capital Management.

A Line Worth Remembering

"You shouldn't pay a billion dollars for a brand's core if you can't keep it."

Listen & Read More

You can also read this week's Brandistry Buzz on [LinkedIn / Substack]. Subscribe to Brandistry Buzz for weekly takes on brand strategy, marketing, and leadership.

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