Episode #33
#33 - Sell It, Then Build It: Kaihan Krippendorff on Proximity
Most businesses still operate on a logic built for the last century: create value in advance, store it, distribute it and hope customers come looking. Kaihan Krippendorff 's Proximity thesis argues that logic is being fundamentally inverted - and the firms that understand why are the ones pulling ahead. In this episode, Kaihan - Wharton Senior Fellow, Thinkers50 management thinker and author of six books including his latest, Proximity - explains why a dozen trends most firms are treating as separate disruptions are actually one underlying shift, and what that means for any business trying to build something genuinely distinctive. Listeners will hear: Why proximity is not about doing things faster - it's about creating value at the precise moment and location that demand arises, not before it The four forces converging to make this inversion both possible and urgent: digital customers, personalisation at scale, the rising cost of distance, and rising expectations set by the likes of Amazon Why customers are increasingly buying transformations rather than products or experiences - and what that changes about the business you think you're in How the Domino's pizza tracker accidentally became one of the best proximity plays in modern business, and why Domino's stock has outperformed Google's over the last decade Why the M&A logic of vertical integration is being replaced by horizontal acquisition of complements - acquiring across to the things that deliver the customer's transformation, not up and down the supply chain Why strategy, as AI commoditises the ability to find the right answer, is becoming a deeply human discipline: about decisions, accountability and collective commitment rather than analysis Kaihan's book, Proximity, can be found here . The Standing Apart LinkedIn page can be found here . Subscribe so you don't miss future episodes.
