Structured Thought Meets Music Meets The Business Equation … and probably more besides.

You say yes, I say no,
You say stop, and I say go, go, go,
Oh no.
You say goodbye and I say hello, hello, hello,

💬 Paul McCartney

First song from Paul after Brian Epstein (no relation) passed on to the next stage of his life …

Wikipedia:

“It’s such a deep theme in the universe, duality – man woman, black white, ebony ivory, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye – that it was a very easy song to write.” McCartney also said that, in “Hello, Goodbye”, he was promoting “the more positive side of the duality”.

Which all came to mind this morning reading 🔗 this post by Manton Reece who observed …

If everyone can ship software, what will distinguish the successful companies from the apps that are lost in the noise?

To which I reply by quoting some lines from a less talented group of songwriters - and yet seem pertinent …

Shooting stars never stop even when they reach the top

💬 Those that believe they have won.

and

The world is my oyster

💬 Everyone else.

.. or perhaps more simply - as one door closes - another opens.

Corollary - not for everyone (the corpses of software companies that litter the technology freeway is testament to that.) … so what do we do?

The shift that Manton is describing is right - but IMHO falls short of what a business needs in The Age of Engagement which is pretty much what I have been writing about for a while now ….

Two Foundational Posts

🔗 The Age of Reason Is Over

🔗 The Age of Experience is Emerging

Just this past week

🔗 Coherence Is The New Moat

🔗 Engagement Platforms as Coherence Infrastructure

Bonus Post

🔗 Marketing in 2025 (and 2026 it turns out)

From a marketing perspective - the 4Ps have been part of the lexicon of any marketeer on this planet since before I was born. But now …

say goodbye

… to the 4Ps: Price, Place, Product and Promotion

say hello

… to The 4Es : Exchange, Ease, Essence and Experience

Price gives way to Exchange
Not what you charge. What you trade. Mutual value.

Place gives way to Ease
Not where you are. How frictionless you make it. If engagement hurts, product dies.

Product gives way to Essence
Not what you make. Who you are - through your customer’s eyes. Stop second guessing.

Promotion gives way to Experience
Not what you say. What they feel. Their perception is your only reality.

OR

You say ‘goodbye’ to ‘Product Efficient Supply Chains’ while I say ‘hello’ to ‘Customer Effective Demand Networks’

(Those are two thought threads of mine that go back to the early oughts and are integral to The Business Equation.)

When everyone can ship code (I know, I know), technical execution becomes table stakes - but I think although Manton’s words are different to my words he is recognising the shift that I keep describing … constraint has moved from PRODUCT to EXPERIENCE.

So - back to Manton’s list;

• Marketing shapes perception
• Customer support reduces friction
• Documentation enables ease (even ‘easier’ intuitive UI)
• Building trust demonstrates essence
• Speed removes barriers to engagement

These aren’t the ‘other aspects’ of running a software business. They are now the primary aspects. Code is just infrastructure. In fact just last week, my friend and partner for the development of the apps we are building said just last week.

The cost of code might be coming down - but people don’t buy code - they buy software.

Actually - being who I am I think they are buying what the software will do for them - but that’s my marketing lens. What Tony was hitting on is right from th pot of what marketeers used to call ‘Full Product’.

The 4Ps assumed scarcity of products, distribution and information, whilst the 4Es assumed abundance where engagement is the only moat.

Manton’s list is actually part of The 4Es.

• Essence: Building trust (who we actually are)
• Ease: Documentation + Speed (frictionless access)
• Exchange: Customer support (mutual value delivery)
• Experience: Marketing (perception management)

The Age of Engagement isn’t coming. It’s here. Code is just catching up.

and clearly - Jimi was way ahead of his time! (But we knew that already. Right?)

If you want to set some time to explore how all this can be used to help your business transition into the ‘Age of Experience’. 📅 Let’s Talk

TL;DR

Context as a product feature that SaaS vendors can package and sell is wrong thinking. It’s actually the foundational infrastructure layer that makes any system intelligently operational. Context is the operational intelligence that knows who, where, what, and how people interact across and with organisations and each other. In short - it is the essential layer that transforms disconnected capabilities into coherent, situationally-aware engagement.

Scott Brinker writes: 🔗 The SaaS Moats Are Crumbling, but the Opportunity Is Bigger - and I agree - but not for the reasons he lays out.

I mean he even highlights things I talk about, like

Context.

Not just in passing either, the article’s subtitle is

Context-as-a-Service (CaaS)

I’ll just let that sit while you think about that for a moment - and return later.

Business are apparently moving on from being

systems of record

… with much more ‘relevant’ thinking …

systems of truth or single source of truth.

Cough - the ‘single source of truth’? New? A branding upgrade? We used to talk about the 🔗 single source of truth when I was part of Oracle - and 🖇️ as I pointed out recently - in my early days at Oracle - I had email - and could not use it to communicate with anybody outside of Oracle that I worked with … so we know that was a looooong time ago.

And systems of truth? Whose truth?

If my cell company believes that my primary email is mickeymouse@philpin.com - because when they asked me for my primary email I gave them mickeymouse@philpin.com - that may well be their ‘truth’ - but it is certainly not mine.

But back to ‘context’ …

Context is different. Context is personal and situational. It’s knowing not just what the data says, but what it means for this marketer making this decision, or for this customer in this moment.

So why is it a new service? Spoiler Alert. It isn’t - unless you are going to add it to a list such as this;

• Buzzword-as-a-Service (BaaS) - The self-aware parody of vendor speak.
• Synergy-as-a-Service (SaaS) - Corporate nonsense on demand.
• Disruption-as-a-Service (DaaS) - Generates any pitch deck you will ever need.
• Oxygen-as-a-Service (OaaS) - Because anything that can be ‘monetised’ - will be ‘monetised’.
• Innovation-as-a-Service (IaaS) - Outsourcing the very thing you can’t outsource - but now you can.

Context is where domain expertise meets operational reality.

… amongst many other things.

Truth implies something universal and static — the same for everyone, in every situation.

It does. That’s why even 15 years ago - my mantra was

and as for ‘context’ being new thinking?

Another one from the archives

🔗 Engagement Platforms as Coherence Infrastructure

A slight restructure of this post - and so a reissue.

🔗 Coherence Is the New Moat

Another post restructure - and reissue.

… but not with good news.

I’m reaching out to let you know about a security incident that resulted in the email address from your Substack account being shared without your permission.

I’m incredibly sorry this happened. We take our responsibility to protect your data and your privacy seriously, and we came up short here.

What happened. On February 3rd, we identified evidence of a problem with our systems that allowed an unauthorized third party to access limited user data without permission, including email addresses, phone numbers, and other internal metadata. This data was accessed in October 2025. Importantly, credit card numbers, passwords, and financial information were not accessed.

What we are doing. We have fixed the problem with our system that allowed this to happen. We are conducting a full investigation, and are taking steps to improve our systems and processes to prevent this type of issue from happening in the future.

What you can do. We do not have evidence that this information is being misused, but we encourage you to take extra caution with any emails you receive that may be suspicious.

This sucks. I’m sorry. We will work very hard to make sure it does not happen again.

This is one of the reasons I use a different email forevery service I sign up for - so if that email does find its way into unauthorised hands - it is obvious. (So far so good).

Identified on Feb 3rd - EMail sent Feb 5th - good

BUT - this data was accessed in October 2025.

So what was going on in October, November, December, January and into February where it was not spotted?

Who dropped the ball?

🔗 Robin Sloan - Pace layers

As you climb the pace layers, your sources of infor­ma­tion get fewer and far­ther between.

The Full Quote

As you climb the pace layers, your sources of information get fewer and farther between. Everyone has something to say about nature. But to remain relevant in the higher and more turbulent layers you must update rapidly, and be correct more often than not. Few people are worth listening to about commerce or fashion. Most people’s ideas are simply out of date. At a certain point you reach the edge of what is known or talked about at all, and there are only a few people left. I will find you there, among the researchers, the reporters, the shamans and the spies.

💬 ‘Deepfates’

I was referencing 🖇️🔎Pace Layers a few times through 2024 - and it very much ties to some of my recent thinking. More to come as I fold it all together.

🔗 Vanguard – The Government Project to get British Businesses to use the Internet – Terence Eden’s Blog

In that late 80s period Terence is writing about - I was part of Oracle and had email on my DEC terminal for communicating with others in the company around the world. Just gnashing my teeth over why people outside the company couldn’t see the benefit.

Probably because they understood that …

a single computer terminal was likely to set you back around £3,000 - and that’s before you take into account message transmission costs.

… better than I did

When Oracle moved me to California - I even had one of those terminals at home.

Of course - come the PC and laptop revolution they were so slow in adoption it was hard to understand that it was the same company.

It was kind of like how use of mobiles in geographies with bad landline coverage resulted in exponentially faster adoption