Five business lessons from Masters of Scale's 2023 retrospective

Executive overview

Each year brings moments that redefine how leaders think about business. In 2023, five themes stood out: AI experimentation, pop culture as marketing, diversity as competitive advantage, the end of the public/private self, and leading with empathy through crisis.

Leaders who experiment early, stay authentic, and remain human-centred will outpace those who wait for clarity.

Lesson 1: Adopt an experimentation mindset for AI

• AI is already mainstream — waiting for the "right moment" is not a viable strategy.
• Every business should ask two questions: how does AI threaten or improve the core product, and how can AI tools speed up adjacent functions like finance, HR, and sales?
• Employees who learn to partner with AI will be more productive, more creative, and more in demand.
• Leaders must actively encourage experimentation rather than let hesitancy take hold.

Lesson 2: Pop culture is a marketing asset for any business

• Pop culture is the currency of attention — every business can tap it, not just consumer brands.
• Cross-pollination of audiences (e.g. Taylor Swift × NFL) demonstrates how unrelated platforms amplify each other.
• An asphalt company in Wisconsin doubled revenue to $2.5M after a single viral TikTok — the channel matters less than showing up contextually.
• Content must be tailored to the platform and the mindset of the audience at that specific moment.
• Treat social media like a cocktail party: being enjoyable and contextual beats broadcasting.
• 99% of businesses treat distribution as the goal; the real goal is winning the room.

Lesson 3: Diversity of perspective drives breakthrough outcomes

• Princess Reema bint Bandar al-Saud built female inclusion at Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Sports by moving before anyone could say no — establishing precedent beats seeking permission.
• When no infrastructure existed (no offices, no bathrooms), she improvised: Olympic athletes trained in her home gym.
• Today, 40% of Saudi small and medium businesses are women-owned — a statistic that was not true five years ago.
• The most persistent barrier to progress is limiting beliefs held internally, not external opposition.
• Staying committed to ideals through criticism and repeated refusal is what distinguishes true leadership.

Lesson 4: Authentic leaders no longer separate their personal and professional selves

• The expectation that leaders maintain two separate identities — public professional and private person — no longer works.
• Customers, teams, and audiences want to understand leaders as full human beings, not roles.
• Transparency builds trust far more effectively than a curated, buttoned-up persona.
• Discomfort with sharing is real, but getting comfortable being uncomfortable is now a leadership requirement.

Lesson 5: Empathy is a strategic capability, not a soft extra

• The October 7 Hamas attacks forced Israeli business leaders to manage simultaneous military, personal, and operational crises — with employees who were soldiers, survivors, or spouses of combatants.
• Aid workers inside Gaza operated under constant threat while still asking "find me something useful to do."
• Daniel Lubetzky (Kind Snacks founder) reframed the moment: choosing to laugh, live, and build is itself a form of resistance to division.
• In times of crisis, human-centred organisations — those that account for the emotional state of their teams — outperform those that don't.
• Empathy at the forefront of strategy builds bonded, more productive teams.