Author: alex

Does the military have anything to teach us about strategy?

I’m going to level with you here, I’ve not actually read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. I know, I know, what kind of strategist am I?  A pretty poorly read one, truth be told.  I did not learn my craft “top down”, through careful study of canonical texts and Harvard Business Review papers, but […]

Meta, addiction, and the strategy of attention

Clearly, it’s hard to take Mark Zuckerberg seriously. This has always been the case, however it’s been particularly on display in the last couple of weeks following his awkward video announcement of Meta – the new name for Facebook’s holding company. I’m sure you’re already familiar with it, but in short the idea is for […]

How to move beyond knowing to understanding

My friend Greg, a strategy director in Paris, has been compiling a series of words which have the power to make you see the world differently. One of these in particular jumped out at me, so I thought I’d share it here: the word “chaunaissance”. Roughly translated this means something like “driver’s knowledge”, and it […]

Master or servant: how should you work with agencies?

The relationship between brands and their creative agencies is often an unhappy one. I don’t have any stats at my fingertips, but it’s often observed that the rate of satisfaction tends to be quite low on both sides of the table.  From the client’s side, the complaints tend to centre on agencies’ inability to understand […]

The founder’s dilemma feat. Dov Charney

I love founder led businesses. Aside from the obvious reason that they tend to be my clients, they have certain qualities which are simply not shared by their corporate cousins. For one thing, they take risks.  They have to, because it’s only through such risks that they are able to compete with corporate competitors who […]

Minimum viable strategy: the art of leaving things alone

The other day I was introduced to a lovely idea which I’m sure will resonate strongly with anyone who has to do something “creative” for a living: The Queen’s Duck. It comes from the development of a video game, Battle Chess, and more specifically a moment of ingenuity on behalf of one of the animators […]