Readiness is a brilliance multiplier.

Every company on Earth has been moved from a chessboard to a squash court. Most haven’t noticed.

That framing comes from Mo Gawdat, former Chief Business Officer of Google X. It captures a fundamental shift in how competition now works.

For most of modern business history, strategy looked like chess. You made a move, the clock stopped. You assessed the board, planned several moves ahead, and executed deliberately.

Markets moved slowly enough to reward planning cycles measured in quarters and years. You could find a model, lock it in, and scale it while the board remained relatively stable.

That world is gone.

Today’s game looks more like squash. There is no pause, no reset between points, no time to step back and rethink the entire strategy. The ball is always in play. You launch a product, and the market has already responded. You adjust, and the landscape shifts again.

Strategy is no longer something you do between moves, it is something you do continuously, in motion.

Consider what it takes to win in a game like squash. Very rarely is it a single brilliant shot. What matters is positioning, conditioning, and the ability to respond to the next return == agility.

Advantage compounds through sustained preparedness. The same dynamic is now visible in business. What once took a generation now happens within a product cycle. And the pace is accelerating.

Yes, new players like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity are shaping the game. But incumbents are NOT standing still. Google is reinventing Search with AI-native answers. Accenture is reorganizing around “Reinvention Services”. Salesforce is rebuilding its platform with Agentforce and composable architectures.

Now, several big incumbents leaning into AI have seen their stocks fall from 2024–2025 highs. The market may or may not reward every reinvention bet. BUT it is undeniable that the game has changed.

Valuations are cyclical, capability building is structural. And the days of holding onto a position are over. Momentum, the ability to out-innovate the competition (as Aravind Srinivas Perplexity CEO puts it) is becoming the only defensible moat.

The implication for leaders is clear: build an organization that is always ready for the next move. That means: shorter decision loops, continuous deployment of capabilities, organizational structures designed for adaptation, not stability. And teams trained to operate without the expectation of pause.

This is the organizational singularity as Salim Ismail defines it.

We are no longer playing a turn-based game. We are playing a continuous one. And in this new game, readiness beats brilliance.

Readiness is a brilliance multiplier. Until next time, Ram — 

Ram Srinivasan

MIT Alum | Author, The Conscious Machine | Global Future of Work and AI Adoption Leader published in Business Insider, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, MIT Executive Viewpoints and more.

—

A Message From Ram:

My mission is to illuminate the path toward humanity's exponential future. If you're a leader, innovator, or changemaker passionate about leveraging breakthrough technologies to create unprecedented positive impact, you're in the right place. If you know others who share this vision, please share these insights. Together, we can accelerate the trajectory of human progress.

Disclaimer:

Ram Srinivasan currently serves as an Innovation Strategist and Transformation Leader, authoring groundbreaking works including "The Conscious Machine" and the upcoming "The Substrate Shift"

All views expressed on "Substrate" and across all digital channels and social media platforms are strictly personal opinions and do not represent the official positions of any organizations or entities I am affiliated with, past or present. The content shared is for informational and inspirational purposes only. These perspectives are my own and should not be construed as professional, legal, financial, technical, or strategic advice. Any decisions made based on this information are solely the responsibility of the reader.

While I strive to ensure accuracy and timeliness in all communications, the rapid pace of technological change means that some information may become outdated. I encourage readers to conduct their own due diligence and seek appropriate professional advice for their specific circumstances.