The strategic difference that really counts

Taking action is the only strategic difference that counts Difference, as we know, is at the heart of strategy. In any realm – business, politics, military, personal – it is about walking a different path to the others around you.  Indeed we might say that’s its very definition: Strategy is that which only you do. […]

Sugar, sex, and the supernormal

The Dangers Of Normalised Consumer Addictions Following my piece a few months back on the phenomenon of concentration – the great invisible force shaping pretty much everything right now – I wanted to do another similar piece on a different macro-trend. The purpose of such pieces, which of course aren’t strategy how-to guides like some […]

How successful brands die

Without Brand Strategy, Even The Most Successful Brands Can Fail Understandably we talk a lot here about growth.  That’s what most founders are interested in.  However, this is should only be one part of their agenda.  The other, less discussed, is survival.  Simply sticking around and maintaining your brand’s position – hopefully long into the […]

The Most Underrated Strategic Tool

The Basis Of All Successful Strategic Projects We are all cats in boxes. This is an analogy I once heard (can’t remember where) which really speaks to me, and has a lot of importance for smart and strategic thinking. Expanded, the concept is something like this. Imagine you have a cat in a box, with […]

Strategy can never be “scientific”

Strategy is a discipline that is used to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty. When you’re facing a task that doesn’t have a solution that you know will work at the outset. There is no “strategy” to fixing a muffler, or flying a jet, or tying pigtails; there is just a method. Strategy is reserved […]