Strategy should be joyful
Somewhere along the way, business has acquired an unwritten rule that goes something like this: Creativity and artistry are only to be applied in the media elements of company, specifically its advertising and branding. Advertising and branding, the external media “dressing” of a business, are the acceptable canvas for fun, playful, exuberant, emotional creative thinking, […]
Your business does not care what you want
As some of my geekier readers may have noticed, I very rarely talk about “goals” in this newsletter. Indeed I very rarely talk about goals in my projects either. Goals just aren’t a particularly big thing in my interpretation of strategy – which is pretty weird when you think about it, because by most definitions […]
Operational vs. Human strategies
I suppose that if you pressed me on it, I’d say I consider myself a bit of an expert on strategy. It is my job after all. However I should also stress that the purpose of these essays isn’t just to teach you, but to teach me. Sometimes complexities arise in the field that give […]
The crushing tedium of excellence
Here we have part 6 of my cultural context series, in which I try to illuminate some of the hidden forces that define the world in which we strategise. Soon I’ll be able to piece these together into nice self-indulgent little book! Until then, the others are here: Concentration – the untold story of the 21st century Sugar, sex, […]
Waitrose, the cost of living, and the lure of the trend trap
What are trends for? In the minds of most businesses, trends are see as things to follow. They represent the movement of the market in a certain direction, and thus to follow the trend is to follow the money. The formula is pretty basic: “X is starting to become more important to consumers, therefore if […]
The thing I admire most about founders
People often ask me, given my job, whether I ever have any ideas for a new brand myself. It’s a fair question. After all, I’ve seen inside a lot of different companies, at various stages of growth, so you’d think I’d have developed a pretty decent sense of what works and what doesn’t. And of […]
Taste: The secret ingredient
A client and I were recently analysing the surprising success of the canned water brand Liquid Death, now valued at over $700 million. In case you’re not familiar with it, Liquid Death is notable because the entire brand is essentially one big joke – it’s water (obviously a pure and healthy substance), presented in a “dangerous” […]
Why is strategic thinking so rare?
I saw an old Peter Drucker quote today which really got me thinking: “Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things”. Efficiency versus effectiveness. Doing things right, versus doing the right things. Two deceptively similar modes of working, which are in fact miles apart. One means doing something well, with quality, with skill. And […]
There is no good or bad – only congruent or incongruent
The other day a reader alerted me to a funny little scam being pulled, surprisingly, by Apple. Apparently in the weeks running up to Christmas, they have been known to book all cargo flights out of China, partially to allow for rushes on their stock, but also to chuck a spanner in the works for […]
Don’t try
There’s an idea which permeates our schools, workplaces, and culture at large which goes something like this: The more effort you put in, the more results you get out. It’s a truism so bland and uncontroversial that it barely registers as an “idea” at all. It’s more like a scientific law, taken for granted as […]