This is the best way to learn strategy, but most ignore it

If you want to learn a skill like strategy, there are lots of resources to help you do it: Books Courses Videos Newsletters Frameworks Podcasts Etc. These are all great, and I’d recommend anything you can get your hands on (especially if they’re by me *cough*). But there’s one problem with all that stuff. It’s […]

The Cybertruck is another strategic masterclass from Tesla

Sorry.  Here I am writing about Tesla again. I don’t even like Tesla!  But damn they just make for the cleanest strategic case studies, so I can’t help it. Elon Musk’s “secret masterplan” that got the company off the ground in the first place (and pretty much invented the electric car category) is basically the […]

How to 10x your strategy with one conversation

When you’re developing a strategy for your business, you know who the most helpful person is? It’s not your co-founder. It’s not your head of strategy. It’s not your head of marketing. It’s not your consultant. It’s not even your customer. No, the most helpful person – who nobody ever bothers to involve in the […]

This is a leader’s biggest responsibility – but nobody talks about it…

There’s a simple exercise that you’ve just got to try. Not only try in fact; you must make it a ritual.  Every year, or half year even, you should be doing this, recording the results – and, hopefully, the progress. It will tell you more about the strength of your organisation’s strategy (and thus its […]

If you’re serious about growth, you must drop this delusion

There’s a poisonous assumption you see in business, which goes something like this: I’m the best, but the world’s unfair, so I don’t get the results I deserve. I think we’re pretty much all guilty of it.  Nobody ever admits that they are where they are because they deserve to be.  Nobody ever thinks the […]

To create great strategy, you’ve gotta understand this tension…

The thing about “good advice”, is that you can always be sure that the opposite will also be “good advice” too. Perhaps you’ve heard people say things like this: • Be true to yourself • Follow your heart • Don’t listen to the critics • Be authentic All very good.  But then you’ve probably also […]

The deep strategic error that keeps you poor

Here I’m going to lay out a fundamental strategic mistake that I’ve been making my whole life.  I expect you have too. It’s a mistake that leads most people into starting businesses, or embarking on careers, where their chances of meaningful success are minimal.  Where their whole lives they will be sweat, struggle, and hustle, […]

How to get people to actually give a damn about your strategy

As you may recall, I believe strategy has two jobs: 1. To decide what to do 2. To motivate people to actually do it The first is well understood, the second, not so much.  People believe that good ideas should speak for themselves, and that energy will build behind a solid plan – but this […]

How to use goals to provoke an awesome strategy

Historically, I’ve kinda thought that goals for businesses are a waste of time. After all, aren’t the goals always the same? • To grow • To increase profits • To get more customers • Etc. It’s all so obvious it goes without saying, so I’ve preferred to “cut out the middle man” and just jump […]

The humility hack – the secret weapon of great CEOs

Everybody agrees that it’s good to be humble. But why? Mostly I think it’s because we believe humility is “nice”.  You are a “nice person” if you are humble.  You are kind, thoughtful, and gentle.  Never mind the fact that humility isn’t necessarily any of these things (it’s perfectly possible to be a humble asshole […]