Leadership - Basic Arts

Are you a tyrannical leader without even realising?

Most business leaders are tyrants. Even the most kind. Even the most friendly. Even the most fair. Even the most democratic. Even, I dare say,

Going deep on strategy with the Hungry podcast

An exciting change of pace this week, where I’ll give you a break from the essays and point you instead to my recent appearance on

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

You have a responsibility to be interesting

Let me let you in on a secret. It’s not something they’ll teach you in business school. Or in strategy books. Or on branding courses.

Why the secret of climbing higher is aiming lower

You know who gives terrible advice? Really successful people. Billionaires, celebrities, top ranking athletes. You know, the very people whose advice we most seek. The

The “Thingness” of strategy: The mindset shift that changes everything

If there’s one part of my job that really sucks, it’s this: Nobody is shopping for what I’m selling. There are companies out there thinking

The lie of expertise

Before getting into this week’s essay, I just to alert you to a new undertaking of mine: Concept testing on Linkedin. From now on I’m

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

If you want to do great marketing, never use this word

As long time readers will know, my views on business begin and end with one simple belief: Business is the practice of delivering value to

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

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

The thing I admire most about founders

People often ask me, given my job, whether I ever have any ideas for a new brand myself. It’s a fair question. After all, I’ve