🚀   2026 Growth Doctrine
🤖   AI as Strategy
🦺   The Way We Work
🚀 The New Growth Doctrine
The growth strategies and business models that worked a decade ago, five years ago, or even two years ago are losing relevance.
2026 has a new growth doctrine:
1. Build for Turbulence, Not Stability. Uncertainty is the new normal. Growth depends on agility. Your business needs modular offerings, flexible cost structures, and pricing that can be adjusted quickly as conditions change.
2. AI-First, Not “Add AI Later.” ChatGPT just turned three! It was released to the public on November 30, 2022. AI has shifted from a nice-to-have or experimental layer to core business infrastructure. The next generation of companies will be defined by AI. Look beyond chat and Gen-AI to employing AI as strategy: proprietary data, domain‑specific workflows, and intelligent automations in operations.
‍3. EBITDA-Fueled Growth. Revenue growth does not equal profitability. In fact, revenue growth without a profitable, cash-converting business model is unsustainable. Higher operating costs coupled with uncertainty are exposing weak business models and inadequate operations. The driver is not revenue, but profitability and free cash flow.
🤖 AI as Strategy
AI is so much more than a chatbot or a way to write quickly. AI is a strategic enabler.
AI enhances business growth in two distinct areas:
- Compression: Accelerate strategic planning and analysis to implement faster.
- Amplification: Faster turns coupled with intelligent automation lead to higher throughput and productivity gains.
I see this already in the work we do at Sticky Branding. AI is accelerating growth strategy by compressing the planning and analysis phases. We can rapidly gain insights and answers, leading to faster go-to-market strategies with less risk.
At the same time, I am seeing clients shift their approaches from “dabbling in AI” to “operating with AI.”
For 2026, I see a significant trend toward implementing “intelligent automations.” Tasks that require decision-making and data can now be streamlined and automated with AI tools. This can unlock massive productivity gains.
Much of the focus is on deep, unsexy, business operations that are core to how work gets done, versus what the customer sees. These range from modernizing outdated systems to rewriting business processes.
I now look at AI through the lens of how, not when.
One Stat to Watch
#1
The #1 use case of AI in 2025 was “therapy/companionship,” followed closely by “organizing my life” and “finding purpose,” according to the Harvard Business Review.
🦺 The Way We Work
Every time we hire a new person at Sticky Branding, we run a Social Contract Workshop. It’s a 90 minute workshop to reaffirm how we thrive as a team.
As a global company, having open and healthy communication is essential for our success. We never take collaboration for granted.
The Social Contract Workshop creates discussion and alignment on how to work best:
- What helps you do your best work?
- What behaviors hold you back or frustrate us?
- How do you want to receive feedback?
- What should we do when we disagree?
For each question, we brainstorm with Post-It Notes on a virtual whiteboard. Each person generates three to five responses to the question. Then we group the ideas, discuss them for clarification, and identify trends or key insights.
Following the workshop we consolidate the statements into a shared document, our team’s social contract.
I love these workshops because they’ve had such a positive impact on our company. Being clear about how we thrive as a team has led to better understanding, better communication, and more trusting relationships.
🤔 Thoughts on Today’s Issue?
We’d love to hear your feedback. Message with any thoughts, comments, or ideas for future issues.