Pre-Hire Stability Status (PHSS) is a simple framework for assessing an employee’s circumstances before joining—whether they were gainfully employed or in transition. This distinction shapes how a company approaches terminations. If someone left a stable role for you, there’s a greater moral obligation to help them land on their feet. If they were already between […]
Author: Marc Ragsdale
When your job becomes a playbook
Kaamfu is mapping every job into a precise playbook — capturing each step, decision, and dependency so AI can learn to perform it. The process starts with augmentation, evolves into supervision, and, for repetitive work, leads to full automation. This isn’t about removing humans, but removing their burdens, freeing them for higher-value work. In the […]
The widget era of AI: why micro-applets aren’t enough
The AI market is flooded with micro-widgets—tiny, single-purpose features that solve narrow problems but add to the overall Burden-to-Value (BTV) by creating more buttons, processes, and awareness to manage. While they offer incremental gains, they don’t change how work truly happens. Kaamfu takes a different path, building a unified AI-driven work operating system that connects […]
Decision acceleration: when mistrust derails a launch
When our HR produced only three unqualified agencies for a critical AI feature, I dug into the process and found the issue: the RFP demanded a “detailed essay.” Strong agencies had no time for it, weak ones did—so we filtered in the wrong partners. With decision acceleration, measurable daily goals and instant visibility would have […]
My first working paper on SSRN
Today marks an important milestone: I’ve just published my first working paper on SSRN. This paper introduces the Ragsdale Framework for Autonomous Organizations (RFAO) — a model I’ve been developing for years to chart the path toward AI-driven, self-managing enterprises. The framework lays out how organizations can progress through maturity stages of alignment, acceleration, and […]
The new intellectual gold rush
The rise of generative AI has triggered a hidden intellectual gold rush. Ideas alone no longer secure influence; publishing, patents, and posts are quickly lost in the noise. To stake real ownership, thinkers must turn insights into practical tools, frameworks, and systems that others can use. In this new era, the winners won’t be those […]
A significant update to the Ragsdale Framework for Autonomous Organizations
After two decades of research, experimentation, and refinement, I’ve released a roadmap for guiding companies from fragmented operations to intelligent, self-managing systems through the Ragsdale Framework for Autonomous Organizations. Built on the definition that organizations are people making decisions toward shared goals, the Framework clarifies three phases: Alignment, Acceleration, and Autonomization. It offers leaders a […]
The Human-First Model: the science of reducing obstacles-to-value
The Human-First Model is my framework for designing work where value flows with the least possible friction. At its core is a science I call Obstacles-to-Value (OTV) and it is the total count and cost of every step, decision, or delay between intent and outcome. By classifying and measuring these obstacles, we can compare processes […]
Introducing the Ragsdale Framework for Autonomous Organizations (RFAO)
The Ragsdale Framework for Autonomous Organizations (RFAO) is my final rebranded work philosophy, now published at RagsdaleFramework.org. It reduces organizational complexity to first principles, offering a phased roadmap: Alignment, Acceleration, and Autonomization. Unlike rigid models, RFAO embraces uneven progress across departments while providing leaders with clarity on where to advance next. While I own the […]
Learning to decide faster: why I ended our direct sales effort in India
Kaamfu’s India GTM was built on the strength of our own offshore development center—cost-efficient, fast, and fully in-house. But great delivery isn’t the same as a strong sales market. Over three growth teams, we proved demand, hardened operations, and built marketing muscle. Yet the economics in India didn’t work: price-sensitive buyers, slow adoption, and misaligned […]