#166 — Your Business Model Has an Expiry Date: Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva

Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva is a globally recognised reinvention strategist, four-time author, and founder of the Reinvention Academy. A former chaired professor at a business school in the Slovenian Alps, she coined the role of Chief Reinvention Officer — unifying strategy, innovation, and change management into a single connected discipline. She has worked with organisations across mining, telecom, financial services, and the public sector, including steering a London-listed mining and metals company through the largest industry crisis in modern history. Her weekly newsletter, Reinvention Weekly, reaches business leaders across the globe.
Most companies know change is accelerating — but they're still operating as if it's temporary. The assumption that things will eventually "go back to normal" is quietly killing organisations that could otherwise survive. A handful of companies have built genuine reinvention capability and are riding waves of disruption ahead of their competitors. Most are still firefighting, waiting for certainty that will never come.
In this episode, we explore why the business model playbook built in the 20th century is dangerously mismatched for today's environment — and what leaders need to think, build, and kill in order to stay viable.
In this episode we cover:

The concept of "metaruption" — why black swan events are now arriving in flocks, and what it means for long-term strategy
Why Reinvention 1.0 (the once-every-40-years big pivot) is no longer sufficient — and what Reinvention 2.0 looks like in practice
The three interlocking disciplines — anticipate, design, and implement — and why most organisations are weakest at the first
Why the shelf life of your decisions is shrinking, and how to build a system that accounts for it
Where to actually start a reinvention journey — including the "kill session" practice that reduces overload before adding anything new

Additional Resources:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nadyazhexembayeva
Reinvention Academy: reinventionacademy.com
Newsletter: Reinvention Weekly — subscribe at reinventionacademy.com

Thank you to our executive producer Zach Ness, our producer Nazanin Homayoun Jam and our editor James Pearce. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

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