The high speed fail

The Difference Engine | B2B Category Design | Private Equity | Venture Capital

Welcome aboard project HS2. Calling at broken promises, lost billions and total political turmoil. Ever since its announcement in 2009 HS2 has been pummeled by a litany of set backs, protests and management disasters. The knockout blow came in July of this year when the government’s infrastructure watchdog labelled HS2 “unachievable” citing “major issues with project definition”.

So was HS2 doomed before it even left the station? And was definition really its downfall?

In today’s episode, we look at why HS2 was a high speed fail and tell Air BnB to keep an eye out for leaches. We review the latest CogX conference, Microsofts deal with OpenAI and the birth (and death) of Meta’s Twitter competitor, Threads.

What to look forward to:

00:54 Why was HS2 a high speed fail?

03:58 How to write a POV

08:01 The Air BnB copycat

10:35 CogX festival - London’s biggest echo chamber

13:41 Will Microsoft blow its chance for category leadership

16:11 The birth (and death) of Threads

There is more information on how to design your category on our blog

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Paul Maher

Jonathan Simnett

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