The Global Edge with Sophie Krantz

Who are the five people missing from your network that will take you beyond local limits? That is the question we are answering today. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sophiekrantz.com

Leaders don’t make decisions alone. They sit in rooms with boards, executives, regulators, investors, customers, communities, and partners across sectors. At times, we may share the same table yet see the world - and our business within it - entirely differently. A significant cost in 2025 comes when stakeholders fail to recognise how the world is shifting. When worldviews clash inside organisatio...

Any organisation - whether one person or 10,000 - can learn and leverage strategic and global intelligence to craft a competitive edge. Let’s do that, now. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sophiekrantz.com

In Australia, many things on the land can kill you. Venomous snakes. Crocodiles. Redback spiders. Funnel-webs hiding in shoes. In the water there are sharks, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopuses, and stonefish. It’s a land where it makes sense to keep your eyes down. And yet, this same country has one of the world’s richest histories of looking up at the stars. There is always much to manage on th...

A few years ago, I jumped off the ladder. The safe, known ladder. The one that promised status, certainty, and steady progress. Yet it wasn’t heading where I wanted to go. The higher I climbed, the narrower it felt. Each step was about defending position, not expanding vision. It rewarded predictability, not adaptability. And while it looked solid inside the organisation, it didn’t prepare me - or...

Doing more with less, achieving market-beating results, or thinking bigger is difficult when the way we work is shaped by company or country culture. Anchored to the status quo, we tend default to small, safe gains. And yet, there’s a direct link between seeing more, making more meaning, and doing more. With smart tools, technologies, and sharper strategic questions, we can see further, decide sma...

In 2025, much in the world that affects doing business is out of our control. Trade tensions, shifting capital flows, supply shocks, new technologies, and demographic shifts move faster than we can manage. The instinct is to shrink back into our corner, where costs, teams, or operations feel controllable. Yet if we stay in our corner, we miss the bigger picture. And often, that is where the real o...

Most companies, from independent consultants to multinationals, hold specialised, high-value expertise that clients benefit from yet rarely see directly. It lives in methods, frameworks, processes, and institutional knowledge built over years. This expertise is latent: often taken for granted internally, seldom packaged for others to use, and frequently invisible to the markets that could benefit...

It’s hard to achieve outsized results by copying what has worked before. For market-beating, positive-sum outcomes, the advantage goes to those who learn from what’s working elsewhere and leverage it to leapfrog the status quo. What’s one of the most underused sources of that leverage? Youth. In most parts of the world, those under 20 have grown up in a digitally connected world. They are, in effe...

While many of us remain stuck - blocked by outdated systems that weren’t designed for what we’re trying to do - there’s a circle of leaders thinking globally, building boldly, and solving in smarter ways. Being stuck may stem from: * A procurement process that rewards incumbents and locks out smaller or newer players, even if their solutions are smarter or more sustainable. * Barriers to accessing...

What If You Built a Billion-Dollar Company Without Knowing How to Code? That was the question posed to a small group of us recently. This wasn’t a hyped-up pitch or a theoretical debate. It was a challenge, set in an online room filled with serious global professionals who come together to think and act bigger. The task? Build an AI-enabled tech solution that makes a billion dollars. Why? Because...

Five years ago, the landscape in many high-growth markets looked markedly different. It pays to update our worldview on how value is created and captured in these markets. Value was tied up in legacy models - goods moved slowly through dense chains of intermediaries, small enterprises lacked global visibility, and most economic activity was locked into low-margin, low-scale industries. Finance was...

In this edition of The Global Edge, we look at when a global recession hits, leaders face a critical choice: retreat and preserve, or explore and expand. This builds on the work by global strategist, Sophie Krantz. While many instinctively opt for caution, relying on familiar approaches and existing structures, history shows this inward focus can lead to missed opportunities and being outpaced. A...

You land in a new fast-moving city. The airport Wi-Fi connects. Your phone lights up. A global recession has just been confirmed. In this scenario-led edition of Crossing Borders , we explore a moment that could plausibly arise in 2025. The cause? A double shock: rising tariffs and war in the Middle East. As Stephen S. Roach, the former chair of Morgan Stanley Asia, noted in Project Syndicate on 2...

In this episode of The Global Edge, we’re building on work by global strategist, Sophie Krantz, rethinking how we navigate new environments, starting right from the moment we arrive. Often, we land with a fixed itinerary and a clear set of contacts, but what if the real opportunities lie beyond our familiar networks? The traditional approach of sticking to your plan and keeping to yourself might b...

This edition of Crossing Borders explores what shifts when we tune our lens and look beyond familiar networks. Advantage now sits with those who can map the system, not just manage their slice of it. And that mapping can begin at arrivals. Who you speak to in the immigration queue. Who you notice at baggage collection. Who’s holding the placard. Who you ask, not where to eat, but where business ha...

Today’s episode of The Global Edge, building on work by global strategist Sophie Krantz, explores how global leaders prepare before entering a new or high-growth country. Forget dusty old reports; intelligence gathering for global travel is rapidly changing. Imagine needing real-time insights on a sector like fintech, a list of local founders, and the latest regulatory shifts for a trip to Nairobi...

Before you land in a new or high-growth country, what you know can shape what you notice, who you meet, and the outcomes you unlock. Many leaders default to formal briefings and static country packs. Yet in rapidly-shifting markets, context often moves faster than the briefing notes. This scenario-led edition of Crossing Borders introduces four briefing styles. Choose your approach - or better yet...

This episode of The Global Edge sets a scenario: Imagine boarding a flight and finding a relatively young, quiet person in first class – perhaps not who you expected. In 2025, this could signal something significant. These individuals might be successful young entrepreneurs from high-growth markets where digital adoption is rapid, demographics are shifting, and startup sectors are booming. In thes...

For those doing business across borders, familiarity isn’t always a strength. This scenario-led series examines what happens when leaders opt for considered curiosity over comfortable routine. We look at the quiet moments where global intent becomes global action. You’ve made your last call and are boarding the aircraft for a long-haul flight. You approach your seat, glancing towards your neighbou...

This episode of The Global edge presents a scenario: When travelling internationally, particularly to a new country, there’s a key decision to make before you even land: who will you call to meet you? This choice goes beyond just arranging logistics; it sets the tone for your trip and reflects your intent in engaging with the world. Sophie Krantz, Global Strategist, presents two options. One optio...

Want to cross borders and break down barriers in business? Travel to unfamiliar, valuable parts of the world with intent, not habit. This short scenario-based series shows how to go beyond the status quo, focusing on outcomes, not optics. Fewer LinkedIn likes. More unlocked commercial wins. You’ve left The Departure Lounge . You walk toward the gate, boarding pass in hand. Just before take-off, th...

For ages, businesses thought it was safest to start and stay local, with location dictating strategy. But today, that’s changing. As explored by Global Strategist, Sophie Krantz, thanks to digital tech and global communication, we know that companies big and small can now pursue opportunity over geography . Instead of being tied to a specific place, the focus is on finding and seizing chances wher...

Forget the usual suspects like Silicon Valley or Shenzhen. If you want to see where the future is really being created today , you need to look off the radar. This is the idea behind “Uncharted Study Tours” – journeys designed by Global Strategist, Sophie Krantz, to stretch your thinking and challenge your defaults by visiting places you rarely read about or learn from. This is the focus of today’...

Imagine: you’re in an international departure lounge with a blank boarding pass in hand. Where do you want to go? Not on holiday. This is a study tour - one designed to stretch your thinking, challenge your defaults, and open your eyes to where the future is being created today. Your flight options? Flights are not departing to the usual suspects. Not Silicon Valley. Not Shenzhen. This time, you’r...