Who is Simon Wardley?

Simon Wardley is a British strategist, researcher, and self-proclaimed “mapmaker” who’s been causing a ruckus in the world of business strategy with his Wardley Mapping framework. Picture a bloke who’s part cartographer, part tech wizard, and part cheeky philosopher, armed with a knack for turning chaotic business landscapes into something resembling a treasure map. He’s the mastermind behind Wardley Mapping, a tool born in 2005 when he was playing CEO at Fotango, a now-distant memory of a tech outfit. His maps—visual beasts plotting value chains against an evolution axis from “genesis” to “commodity”—help businesses, governments, and anyone with a pulse figure out where they stand, where they’re going, and how not to fall off a cliff in the process.

Wardley’s no one-trick pony. With a background in genetics, mathematics, and economics, he’s been wrestling with complex systems since most of us were still figuring out dial-up modems. He’s advised startups (all snapped up by US giants), served as a fellow at Open Europe, and worked at DXC’s Leading Edge and now hangs out independently, dishing out wisdom to corporations and governments alike. Voted among the UK’s top 50 IT influencers (2011, 2012, and likely beyond if people kept score), he’s a regular on the conference circuit, dropping truth bombs on open source, commoditization, and the art of not being strategically clueless.

His book, Wardley Mapping: Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones, is a rollicking tale of a bumbling CEO (spoiler: it’s him) who stumbled into a way to make strategy less like shouting into a void. You’ll find his musings on Medium, LinkedIn, or X, where he’s as likely to riff on cybernetics as he is to poke fun at corporate jargon. Tongue firmly in cheek, Wardley’s maps are his legacy—a way to navigate the wilds of business without a GPS, a compass, or a prayer. Dive in at wardleymaps.com, and you might just see the world as he does: a game board where situational awareness is the only winning move.