A quick hello to our new readers 👋. December brought a wave of new subscribers, so this might be your first newsletter. We cover digital transformation, innovation, tech and industry insights, with a strong focus on leadership, policy, and talent. We don’t do hype, futurist fan fiction, or “this will change everything” takes. We write about what leaders are dealing with inside organizations, including messy parts they’re expected to clean up once the BS clears. Here's a view of 2026 ⤵️ |
The Digital Journal Editorial Advisory Committee. From left to right clockwise: Chris Hogg, Nathan Mison, Terry Rock, Kirstine Stewart, Kamales Lardi, Clark Lai.
January is typically full of big ideas about the future. We're kicking off our first 2026 newsletter with a feature article that looks at the problems we’re already running into, and how they’re shaping Digital Journal’s editorial direction for 2026.
In mid-December, we held our first Editorial Advisory Committee meeting, bringing together a group of experts to inform Digital Journal’s coverage with insight into what matters now to business leaders, policy makers, technologists, and talent.
The committee helps surface the issues, gaps, and real-world dynamics shaping how innovation plays out inside organizations and across ecosystems, and those conversations help guide what Digital Journal will focus on and report on over the following six months.
Kamales Lardi chaired the session and guided the discussion with Chris Hogg, Terry Rock, Kirstine Stewart, Clark Lai, and Nathan Mison. The group offered experience from Canada, the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Benjamin Bergen, now CEO of the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association, is also a member of the committee, though he couldn’t join this meeting live.
Early in the conversation, Nathan offered a line that kept coming up as we discussed what everyone was seeing in very different contexts.
“We’re still running medieval institutions with god-like technology,” he said to kick things off.
No one needed it explained.
We’ve built extraordinary capabilities at breathtaking speed, then asked organizations, governments, and leadership structures designed for a much slower world to manage them.
Clear lines of authority, long feedback cycles, and conservative risk models are now responsible for systems that don’t behave that way anymore.
These issues have shown up repeatedly in our reporting over the years.
What the committee’s conversation added was perspective on where it’s now failing in practice in Canada, inside organizations trying to make decisions with tools their systems weren’t designed to handle.
Learn more about what we heard, and how this will shape Digital Journal's editorial focus in 2026 in this summary from our CEO and Executive Editor, Chris Hogg:
