Staffan Canback (1991): Of Coase and Chaos: A Personal Perspective on the Decreasing Management Challenge. McKinsey & Company
This presentation made me globally famous for a short period in the early 1990s. I was then a partner at McKinsey which gave me unparalleled reach.
I then stopped giving it because of what I perceived as potential copyright issues with the Winnie-the-Pooh images (potential, because it was likely fair use). If there were real issues, they expired in 2022. Thus, I post the deck for the first time in 35 years.
The presentation combines Coasian Transaction Cost Economics, with chaos theory, and an adaptation of Henri Fayol’s management theory (he was the first person to systematically articulate what management is, more than 100 years ago).
I find some of the thinking dated but w0n’t update the deck since the first attempt invariably is the best. Most of my conclusions still hold: managing is getting easier, ceteris paribus.
Staffan Canback: The Nature of Predictions: Negative Feedback Loops ∧ P.I.D Controllers
What are predictions and how are they made. Negative feedback loops and P.I.D controllers make life possible. Learn about this from an internal training session.
Staffan Canback: Tellusant on Strategy
I show Tellusant’s frameworks for strategy development. It builds on Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) and the Resource-Based View of the firm (RBV). This is what we automate in our cloud-based solutions.
Staffan Canback: How Tellusant Works: Linear Algebra ∧ Calculus
This is from an internal training session. My focus was the mathematical basis for what we do. We sometimes forget the essence of what we are. That essence is linear algebra and calculus. Everything else flows from this.
Staffan Canback: What Is to Be Done? How What We Do Changes the World (Slowly)
The presentation, structured by the Rule of Threes, shows by examples how our solutions generate insights around the world. It was part of our training sessions at our Global Office Retreat in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, 2025.
Staffan Canback: The World Is My Oyster — Personal Reflections from a Career in Global Business
This is the inaugural speech for the Harvard Club of Boston’s new business interest group: “The World Is My Oyster: Personal Reflections from a Career in Global Business.” It starts with a few slides on tariffs and recessions, then segues to the real topic: why, where, and what in global business.
Staffan Canbäck: The Lund Lecture
This educational deck contains an overview of Tellusant’s methods interlaced with travel stories, and a breakout session for the students. The materials were used at a lecture I gave at Lund University for master’s students in May 2024. It draws heavily on TelluBase data.
Staffan Canback: From Greenlands to Tellusant — Academic Research Meets Real-World Management Problems
The presentation describes my journey from Henley doctoral research to founding two global companies: Canback Consulting and Tellusant. It shows how the general learnings from the doctorate can be applied to address important business issues.
Staffan Canback: The 18 Rays of Project Management
A while back I created this training material for project managers in strategy consulting. I am now sharing it widely since it is useful to a broader audience.
The central theme is that project management is much more than putting together presentations. It covers all kinds of high-level cognitive efforts.