What is Deliberate Drift?

Most business outcomes don’t arrive suddenly. They accumulate — in decisions that seemed reasonable at the time, assumptions that were never tested, and small shifts that went unexamined until they became the new normal.

Deliberate Drift is a business analysis publication that follows that process in both directions. The drift toward constraint, stagnation, and failure. And the drift toward recovery, resilience, and unexpected success — the companies that found their footing again, often through the same slow accumulation that undoes others.

Each issue examines the decisions, patterns, and structural forces that shape where businesses actually end up, not just where they intended to go.

Who Writes it?

Dawn Porthouse is an analyst, writer, and entrepreneur with years working as a CFO and tax advisor to small and mid-sized businesses — EA, MBA, MPA. I’ve spent that time inside the numbers, watching how companies change slowly and structurally, long before anyone calls it a problem or a turning point.

I write from the road. I’m a full-time RVer traveling the country with my husband and our dogs, which turns out to be a good vantage point for watching how businesses move.

Why subscribe?

Deliberate Drift is free to read. Subscribe to get each issue delivered directly to your inbox — no algorithms, no noise, no agenda other than honest analysis.