Product is nothing: How to see things the way your customers do
People – especially founders – are fond of saying “product is everything”. Have a great product, and you’ll succeed. Have a poor product, and you’ll fail. That’s the general idea. It’s a nice sentiment, and true enough in a number of ways, but in a bigger way… it’s bullshit. Not just bullshit, but dangerous bullshit, since it […]
Anatomy of a great strategy: Ford
People often ask me to give an example of a strategy I admire, and honestly I struggle. Of course there are the usual suspects – Apple, Nike, blah blah blah – but such answers feel like cop-outs. As a supposed expert, I should have more obscure and surprising examples on the tip of my tongue, […]
Strategic confidence: this is everything
It’s not every day that I come across a new idea in this field which stops me in my tracks, but I heard something recently that did just that. I’m paraphrasing but it was along the lines of: Marketing is the barrier you put up between yourself and the world. This is epic, so let me […]
The secret process of expert thinkers
I’m going to level with you. It’s about how I work. And I’ll admit up front, it makes me look kinda lazy and unprofessional. But through this essay I hope to show that not only is there logic in the laziness – but that it’s actually the only way to do effective intellectual and creative work. First, […]
Chess vs. Ecosystems: What’s strategy really like?
The other day someone sent me a great Twitter thread where a strategy expert explained why he doesn’t do consultancy: namely because, in his view, there is no such thing as strategy consultancy. You should check out the thread as it’s pretty entertaining, but in essence his argument was that strategy and execution aren’t divisible, so you cannot have […]
How to make strategy stick
The other day I stumbled across this Kevin Kelly quote which really sums up something I’ve learned in the past couple of years: “To make something good, just do it. To make something great, just re-do it, re-do it, re-do it. The secret to making fine things is in remaking them.” In some fields this […]
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 […]
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 […]