When historians look back on the business climate of the 2020s, they may conclude that this was the decade when strategy stopped being enough. The era that rewarded operational brilliance and technical superiority now increasingly favours leaders capable of something far less tangible: orchestrating influence. Products still matter, of course, but in industries shaped by government spending, geopolitical tension, digital algorithms and venture capital exuberance, products alone rarely determine winners.
What does determine them is harder to measure: a leader’s ability to build coalitions across sectors, attract the right investors, shape narratives that resonate with policymakers, and secure early validation from high-signal customers. In short, the power to assemble networks that matter.
Few observers are better positioned to explain this shift than Miro Cernetig, a former foreign correspondent and bureau chief who has spent 30 years navigating the delicate junctions between media, business, and public policy. As the CEO of CityAge—a network of more than 30,000 figures across government, finance, R&D, and industry—Cernetig has come to view influence not as a soft asset but as the most underpriced form of capital in the modern economy.
The Age of the Connectivity Dividend
Economists have long argued about the role of networks in economic performance, usually citing infrastructure, trade links, or talent flows. Yet the more subtle networks—the human ones—are proving equally important. The connectivity dividend, to borrow a term from sociologists, is the measurable economic gain that comes from being connected to the right people at the right time.
It manifests in ways large and small: the policymaker who accelerates a regulatory approval; the anchor customer who derisks market entry for everyone else; the investor who lends credibility simply by participating; the journalist who reframes a company’s mission and sparks broader recognition. In many cases, a founder’s trajectory depends less on the size of their addressable market than on which five phone calls they are capable of making—and who takes them seriously.
In calmer times, these networks evolved slowly. Today they form and dissolve with unusual speed. The pandemic, geopolitical tensions, climate spending, supply-chain volatility and the proliferation of “moonshot” industrial policies have fundamentally altered the calculus of who gets funded and why.
The Company That Had Everything Except Momentum
Consider one mid-sized technology firm focused on modernising infrastructure systems. The company had respectable revenue, a capable engineering team and a product with clear societal benefit. It should have been a darling of both investors and government innovation funds. Instead, it found itself repeatedly losing out on major contracts and struggling to secure the capital needed for expansion.
Its shortcoming was neither technological nor financial. It was contextual. No one with authority—whether investors, public officials or industry leaders—truly understood its relevance. The firm had, quite simply, failed to locate its place within the broader narrative of modernisation.
Through the CityAge network, the firm gained access to a constellation of partners who could articulate that broader narrative. Innovation directors offered insight into what governments were prioritising. Infrastructure operators clarified which problems were mission-critical. Strategic investors provided context about market confidence. Journalists, once they understood the public benefit, gave the company a platform on which to stand.
Within 18 months the result was unmistakable: a tenfold increase in valuation, expanded deployment and a newfound status as a serious player in a space previously indifferent to its existence. The inflection point was not capital alone, but connectivity.
Public Policy as a Market Force
One of the underappreciated shifts in the global economy is the growing influence of public policy on private-sector growth. Industries such as clean energy, transportation, biotechnology, housing, AI and advanced manufacturing are now shaped as much by government spending and regulatory frameworks as by consumer demand. In some areas, governments effectively act as primary customers.
Yet many founders approach government as an obstacle rather than a partner. Cernetig argues that this mindset is increasingly outdated. His framework, termed Public Policy & Benefit (PPB), proposes that companies articulate how their innovations contribute to national priorities: resilience, sustainability, competitiveness, public well-being. Investors, especially institutional ones, respond sharply to clear PPB narratives because they derisk long-term bets.
The surge of federal innovation funding in the United States, Europe and Asia only amplifies this point. Firms capable of aligning profit with public benefit stand at an advantage; those who cannot often discover that their competitors—with weaker products but stronger narratives—advance faster.
Media Fragmentation and the New Gatekeepers
The decline of traditional media and rise of algorithmic dissemination has not eliminated the role of journalists. It has concentrated it. Certain publications, broadcast segments and long-form features still shape elite opinion. Strategic leaders understand that visibility in such venues is not vanity; it is validation. It legitimises ideas, attracts investors and influences policymakers who are themselves inundated with noise.
Cernetig’s earlier life as a bureau chief for The Globe and Mail affords him a rare vantage point: he knows which stories journalists will pursue, which angles resonate, and how to articulate complex subjects without lapsing into corporate jargon. This ability to translate innovation into narrative is increasingly essential for companies operating at the nexus of technology and policy.
The Five-Leader Theory of Growth
Behind these dynamics lies a principle that Cernetig emphasises in nearly every engagement: growth is rarely an outcome of broad visibility; it is an outcome of the right visibility. Most firms do not need thousands of contacts. They need five leaders who can materially change their trajectory: one investor, one anchor customer, one strategic partner, one media champion and one policymaker.
The difficulty, of course, is that these leaders differ for every company and every sector. Identifying them—and approaching them with a coherent narrative—requires precision rather than volume. It also requires a network expansive enough to locate them.
The Rise of the Influence-Oriented CEO
There was a time when the ideal CEO was an operator: financially disciplined, operationally rigorous, experienced in a specific industry. Many still fit that mould. But a new archetype is emerging—an influence-oriented CEO capable of navigating public policy, capital markets and media ecosystems with equal fluency. They are part diplomat, part economist, part storyteller. Their competence lies not only in what they build but in how effectively they can mobilise others around it.
These leaders are not necessarily more charismatic than their predecessors. They are simply more attuned to the structural forces shaping their markets. And they tend to outperform.
Where CityAge Fits Into the New Landscape
This is the environment that gave rise to the CityAge Studio System, Cernetig’s structured approach to accelerating leaders through strategic positioning and targeted connectivity. The Studio System blends four elements typically scattered across consulting firms, PR agencies, accelerators and public-affairs shops:
Strategic investor networks with capital already in motion.
Media access informed by decades of frontline reporting.
Cross-sector leaders in government, finance, R&D and industry.
A policy-aware storytelling framework that aligns innovation with public benefit.
The model has supported IPO-bound firms, billion-dollar brands, Regulation A raises and a range of partnerships worth more than $100m. It is not conventional consulting. It is influence engineering—an unspoken but increasingly central function of modern leadership.
A 90-Minute Inflection Point for Leaders
For executives seeking to test this approach, CityAge offers a concentrated option: a 90-minute strategic session in which Cernetig diagnoses a company’s narrative gaps, maps the 3–5 individuals most capable of altering its trajectory, and builds an execution roadmap from the desired outcome backwards. Participants receive the PPB pitch framework, three strategic introductions and access to the CityAge network for a month—along with a sober assessment of whether their current story is investable.
It is, in effect, an acceleration lane for leaders navigating markets where credibility and access determine speed.
A Final Observation—and a Call to Action
The modern economy rewards those who can build coalitions across sectors that once operated in silos. The leaders who thrive will not merely craft good strategy; they will cultivate the networks capable of moving that strategy into action. For those prepared to operate at this intersection of policy, capital and narrative, the opportunity is considerable.
For leaders who recognise that their next stage of growth depends not just on what they know but on whom they can reach, CityAge’s strategic session offers a pragmatic starting point. Executives may learn that they do not need more meetings—they need the right ones.
Leaders ready to accelerate their influence, capital access and strategic visibility can explore the offering at:
Book Your Strategic Session with Miro Cernetig