Earlier signals
Identify emerging risks and opportunities before they become consensus.
Geostrategy for Decision-Makers
See what consensus misses.
Better information is everywhere. Better judgement isn’t.
Most organisations don’t suffer from too little information. They suffer from how it gets weighted — through cognitive and institutional bias, herd instinct and the safety of being wrong with everyone else.
Mark Brolin helps boards, investors and leaders challenge prevailing assumptions, spot neglected signals and turn independent judgement into better decisions on strategy, risk and growth.
AI is making information abundant. Independent judgement is becoming more valuable, not less.
What leaders gain
Clearer judgement when the signal is hard to see.
Sharper judgement
Challenge institutional bias, inherited assumptions and headline-driven reactions.
Clearer priorities
Distinguish what matters strategically from what merely feels urgent.
Decision-ready implications
Translate global change into practical choices for strategy, capital and leadership.
Signature talks
Ideas with a clear line to the decisions leaders face.
01
Explore all talks and formats
Geopolitics Without Panic
Where is consensus exaggerating danger—and what is it missing?
02The Doom Trap
From risk culture to strategic advantage.
03The Geopolitics of the AI Revolution
Power, risk and the new competitive map.
04Glocal Leadership
Why national strength still begins locally.
Featured for Autumn 2026
The Doom Trap: From Risk Culture to Strategic Advantage
A timely keynote on the hidden cost of fear-driven decision-making—and how leaders can restore initiative, innovation and confidence in the future, including among a younger generation too often taught to fear what lies ahead rather than believe they can shape it.
Explore The Doom TrapThe Consensus Trap
What if everyone around the table—and your competitors—are making the same mistakes?
A fully tailored strategy session applying Mark Brolin’s six signal-detection questions to the organisation’s own assumptions, scenarios and live decisions—before consensus errors reach strategy, investment or capital allocation.
Explore the strategy sessionMedia & ideas
Analysis that turns headlines into strategic implications.
Selected analysis on geopolitics, AI, political recalibration and the institutional assumptions that shape strategic decisions.
The Telegraph
The cognitive bias that allows Putin’s crumbling regime to dominate the West
Future historians will wonder how Russia was able to intimidate the most powerful military alliance ever. The answer lies in institutional and cognitive biases.
So what? Misreading Russia affects both security and economic assessments.
The Spectator
Denmark’s velvet trap has been exposed
A successful society can still become trapped by its own consensus, missing voter frustration until it breaks through politically.
So what? Institutional confidence becomes a strategic blind spot when it stops testing its assumptions.
The Wall Street Journal
The AfD’s Rise Is Angela Merkel’s Legacy
A case study in how establishment consensus can drift while continuing to present itself as moderation.
So what? When consensus itself moves, “moderation” can become a label rather than an accurate description of the middle ground.
The working principle
Risk, without the reflexes.
The reflex
“Each new crisis proves the world is falling apart.”
The signal
Structural shifts in energy, policy, technology and alliances matter far more than episodic shocks.
Implication: Prioritise long-term positioning and resilience over reacting to daily headlines.
Representation, bookings & direct enquiries
Start with the decision you need to make.
Available for international keynotes, executive briefings, tailored strategy sessions and selected advisory mandates.
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