Most business programs don’t work – here’s why

Let me tell you an important story. It’s about the time I was at a conference with Donald Miller – creator of the Storybrand system, and someone I deeply admire. For those of you who don’t know, Storybrand is basically a technique for writing your brand copy in the format of a story – with […]

What to do when sh*t hits the fan

When you break up with someone, have you ever noticed something weird? The next person you get together with – mysteriously – somehow ends up being the exact opposite of the person you broke up with. Funny that. It’s almost like us humans have a tendency to over-correct when things go wrong. And to over-value […]

The 10 greatest strategic innovations of all time

Innovations are nice and all. But strategic innovations are something different. These small – sometimes even trivial – features aren’t just new. They are symbolic of the organisation’s strategy as a whole. They are instrumental to its unique value offering, and demonstrate the frightening clarity of thought at play behind the scenes. But instead of […]

Why most vision statements suck – and how to make one that doesn’t.

There aren’t many things more vapid than “strategy” out there in the corporate world. But this is one of them. Vision. The idea of the “vision statement” actually makes a lot of sense on paper. You spell out some fabulous future state you’re trying to achieve, then use it to give everyone a sense of […]

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 […]