Niches are overrated – here’s how to make something with mass appeal.

I’m going to keep this one relatively brief. I see a lot of advice out there celebrating the idea of narrowing down your business to a very specific customer, with a very specific problem. “Riches in the niches” and all that. I call this “Linear Strategy”, because intuitively it makes sense: Step 1: Identify customer […]

This is what a founder’s calendar should look like – does yours?

I can tell how successful your business will be by looking at one thing: How you spend your time. This sounds like a big claim, but it actually isn’t. Truth is, it’s very obvious – because the difference between the founders of great businesses and mediocre ones is so glaring that you can’t miss it. […]

This article will give you a strategy in under 6 minutes.

I don’t really know if what I’m about to write here is true. I haven’t fully thought it through, and even if I did, I probably wouldn’t have the data to prove it either way. But true or not, it’s elegant. And as Paul Dirac said, “A theory of beauty is more likely to be […]

You have an unfair advantage – but you don’t know it

Whenever a new brand breaks out, I’m always curious about the strategy that made it happen. But frankly, the truth is often disappointing. Case in point, a few years back I was interested to learn more about the story of Beavertown Brewery, a phenomenally successful new beer brand in the UK. I know a thing […]

Yes, service businesses can be strategic too – here’s how

These days the most common question I get asked is something along these lines: “Hey, I like your stuff, but you’re always talking about product businesses – what about people like me with service businesses, how do we do it?”. Typically these are people with businesses like: Law firms Accountancy practices Advertising agencies …anything where […]

There are 9 types of innovation – how many have you tried?

It was Peter Drucker who famously said: “A business only has two functions: marketing and innovation. The rest are just costs”. And truth be told, since great marketing is simply a form of introducing something new to the market we could probably say that there is only one central function: Innovation. That is what your […]

Master these two stories for your business

In my last newsletter, I talked about the power of a business having a story. Not just a strategy, but a wider narrative that the strategy sits within, explaining where the business has come from, the change it wants to make, and what that would mean to the world. Safe to say, it went down […]

How to pick your audience (my controversial take)

There’s one thing people tell me is missing from my strategy advice: Target audience. I give all this talk about competitors, value, storytelling, etc., and yet I almost never talk about the one topic that makes it hang all together. Who are you actually doing this for? Who should you choose to serve? Well, today […]

The fatal flaw in most businesses – and probably yours too

This one might sting a little, but it needs to be said: You started your business for the wrong reason. So did I. So did most people in fact. And it’s this misguided ambition that lies at the root of most business failure, sooner or later. It’s a bitter pill when you realise it. It’s […]

The first thing you should do: the art of picking your category

I’ve now been doing sessions in The Strategy Shortcut System for 2 weeks, and it’s cool because it’s given me a new perspective. The “mass” nature of the product has shown more clearly where the most common strategic missteps lie for most founders – and, as expected, they are in the places you least expect. […]