Elephants in the Boardroom

A podcast about the powerful forces transforming our world. It’s not just technology that shapes the future—there are deeper, often-ignored megatrends driving disruption. These Grey Elephants are the big challenges we hope will go away but can’t afford to ignore. Elephants in the Boardroom offers a megatrend radar for leaders who want to identify tomorrow’s most important opportunities, seize advantage, and shape a better future. Join us for unflinching discussions, incisive insights, and actionable strategies to stay ahead in a rapidly changing world. Powered by Achilles.

Elephants in the Boardroom is a society podcast hosted by TomorrowToday Consulting, with 20 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

TomorrowToday Consulting hosts Elephants in the Boardroom, a society show with 20 episodes published.

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  Episode #21

  The AI Race: Are We Asking the Wrong Question?

  Oct 1, 202636 minS1

  In September 2026, AI's builders started publicly warning that the technology could destroy us - while building faster than ever. Dean and Graeme think everyone is asking the wrong question. When a senior Anthropic researcher resigned warning of AI Armageddon, and the company's CEO called for "pacing the frontier," the world fixated on one question: how fast should we run the AI race? ⁠Dean van Leeuwen⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠Graeme Codrington think that's the wrong question entirely. The right one is: where exactly are we racing to? This host-only episode cuts through the hype to ask what nobody in the mainstream AI debate seems to be asking. Graeme unpacks what large language models actually are - and why the real danger isn't autonomous AI, but humans removing guardrails and then claiming they couldn't stop it. Dean revisits the Waymo standoff that went viral to make the case for humans in the lead, not just in the loop. And together they argue that AI should stand not for Artificial Intelligence but for Advancing Intelligence - and that the industry desperately needs its President Kennedy moment: a clear end game for what all of this should make humanity capable of. You’ll take away:   • Define your AI end game before you choose your tools  •  Humans in the lead means responsibility, not just oversight  •  AI stands for Advancing Intelligence - machines and humans together, not machines instead of humans This episode explores:  Intelligent Advances - one of the seven grey elephants we track at TomorrowToday Global. •  The seven grey elephants framework → ⁠tomorrowtoday.consulting/greyelephantsintroduction Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  Episode #19

  Human Leadership: Why Experience Has No Expiry Date with Faisal Abdalla

  Aug 6, 20261h 3mS1

  Faisal Abdalla became CEO of a 27-country business, stepped down in his early seventies - and took the HR job. What happens when experience refuses to expire? Dean van Leeuwen and Graeme Codrington open this month’s episode with the grey elephants on their radar they see stampeding: the reshaping of global supply chains from efficiency to strategic dependency; 17 countries with simultaneous wildfires; China’s one-child policy time bomb; and OpenAI’s models autonomously hacking Hugging Face - raising questions about whether AI singularity has already quietly arrived. Our guest this month is Faisal Abdalla - former CEO of ALJ Saudi Arabia Motors, now its Chief HR and Kaizen Officer, and author of Emonomics - The Economics of Positive Emotions. With 50 years of leadership across 27 countries, Faisal makes a quietly radical argument: the human being is always the most important driver of any organisation. And love - in the fullest sense of the word - is the practical foundation of effective leadership. You’ll take away:  • Lead through informal power - the kind that can’t be granted or taken away  • Experience is a strategic asset - the wisdom that leaves with every forced retirement is irreplaceable  • HR leadership requires a different patience - culture change takes years; the leaders who understand this build institutions This episode explores: Ageing Populations and Intelligent Advances - two of the seven grey elephants we track at TomorrowToday Global. The Elephant you could name: When was the last time your organisation retired someone whose wisdom you couldn’t afford to lose? Resources mentioned·       ·       Emonomics: The Economics of Positive Emotions - forthcoming book by Faisal Abdalla ·       Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ) - global family business founded in Saudi Arabia, operating in 27+ countries (alj.com) ·       The Jameel Principles - values framework at the heart of ALJ, centred on respect, empathy, and giving back ·       Kaizen - Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement, embedded in ALJ through its Toyota origins ·       Hugging Face - open-source AI platform; OpenAI models reportedly gained unauthorised access (huggingface.co) ·       AI Singularity - Sam Altman’s claim that the point of indistinguishable human/machine intelligence may already have arrived ·       Ray Kurzweil - futurist who predicted singularity circa 2045 ·       ELIZA Emulator (elizaemulator.com) ·       China’s one-child policy - and its second/third-order demographic consequences ·       The seven grey elephants framework → tomorrowtoday.consulting/greyelephantsintroduction Sponsored by Achilles - building anti-fragile, transparent supply chains. achilles.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  Episode #18

  Humans in the Lead: The Case for Advancing Intelligence, Not Just Automating It

  Jul 2, 202645 minS1

  The real AI question isn't about automation - it's whether we're designing technology to advance human capability or quietly engineer it out. In this episode, Dean van Leeuwen and Graeme Codrington ask the question most boardrooms aren't asking: are we advancing intelligence, or just advancing the artificial? Hear what happened when one of Nashville's Waymo driverless taxis ends up in a standoff with a road foreman that the algorithm can't understand, and why the Pope's new encyclical on AI - mirrors its 130-year-old predecessor from the height of the Industrial Revolution. You'll take away: • Demand "humans in the lead" not just "humans in the loop" - genuine responsibility for AI outcomes • Reframe AI as advancing intelligence - the language you use shapes the choices you make • Build the guardrails now - seatbelts weren't mandated until the 1980s; AI's side effects are already visible 🔗 Resources mentioned Magnificat Humanitatis - Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI → https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html#The_res_novae_of_our_time Rerum Novarum - Pope Leo XIII (1891) → https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html The seven grey elephants framework → https://tomorrowtoday.consulting/greyelephantsintroduction This episode explores: Intelligent Advances - one of the seven grey elephants we track at TomorrowToday Global. The Elephant You Could Name: Are you using AI to make your people more capable, or more replaceable? Full shownotes, references and white papers: https://www.tomorrowtoday.consulting/podcast#episode-17 Sponsored by Achilles - building anti-fragile, transparent supply chains. achilles.com

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  Episode #17

  The Ageing Workforce: The Leadership Challenge Hiding in Plain Sight with Lucy Standing & Lynda Smith

  Jun 4, 202657 minS1

  <p>Why the most experienced workers in your organisation are the ones most likely to be filtered out - and what to do about it.</p><p>Most organisations are facing talent shortages, productivity problems, and skills gaps - and overlooking one of the most capable parts of the labour market: people in midlife and beyond. In this episode, Dean van Leeuwen and Graeme Codrington are joined by Lucy Standing (founder of Brave Starts and author of Age Against the Machine) and Lynda Smith (CEO of 50 Plus Skills) to name the elephant: the ageing workforce is not a problem to...

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  Episode #16

  Future of Education: Preparing Children for a World That Doesn’t Exist Yet with Jude Foulston

  May 7, 202657 minS1

  <p>We’ve spent decades making our organisations leaner, faster, and more efficient. But what if that optimisation is now the problem?</p><p>Graeme Codrington and Dean Van Leeuwen explore two forces reshaping leadership in real time: the “big squeeze” hitting global supply chains, and the subtle but dangerous shift towards outsourcing our thinking to AI.</p><p>As geopolitical tensions disrupt trade routes and expose the limits of just-in-time systems, we unpack what this “big squeeze” means for businesses - and why resilience is no longer enough. Instead, leaders must think in terms of anti-fragility: building organisations that don’t just...

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