The Strategy Blog.
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Don’t just follow the waggle, be independent
The psychologist and social scientist Jonathan Haidt has stated that human beings are part bee. As well as the established habits we have hung on to from our ape ancestors, of wanting to stand out and be recognised by the alpha in the group, we also have the bee habit…
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A dozen things I learnt in 2024
I’m inspired by Tom Whitall’s 52 things learnt in 2024 (I found number 35 particularly interesting), but one a week really is a lot of lessons, and so, here is my shorter list, just a dozen things – so one a month – I have learnt in 2024. And to…
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Is there enough creativity in your business?
The term ‘Mathephobia’ was coined by mathematician Mary de Lellis Gough in 1953 after observing her struggling students. In the US, almost inconceivably, researchers have found that 9 in 10 adults have some kind of anxiety about math (that is maths to the readers in the UK, of course). Sian…
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Watching the detectives
The best fictional detectives never follow the establishment rules. Crime and detective fiction is one of the most popular genres that there is. Fans demand a strict adherence to a story arc, which for most of them runs as follows: Vera Stanhope, always arrests the criminal, never gets promoted because…
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Stop that.
Do this. Stop that. In a world where there are so many new things to do and to consider it is absolutely crucial to transform what we do. In order to do new things well people need to know what they should stop doing. If you have ever encountered change…
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New season, new start
On my new journey to work I keep seeing an ad for a drink that proclaims “don’t act your age; defy it”. I wonder if it is aimed at me, (though it might be that I am not in the desired target market.) I am certainly not defying my age. …
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In a high performance business there is only one team
In a high performance business, whatever your team is called, it is also the team that helps clients’ business growth. In a discussion about the parlous state of the National Health Service in the UK, one commentator remarked recently that nothing would change until every government department understood that it…
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What is media strategy, and why is it important?
At its simplest any strategy is a longer term view of a plan, a way of achieving a longer term objective. Of course that isn’t enough. Anyone can write a longer term view. What you need, (or otherwise what’s the point?), is a winning strategy. And a winning media strategy…
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Cannes 2024 takeaways
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Start spinning
New vinyl, new gifting I have missed the smell of vinyl. Growing up, buying a record on vinyl (the main format when I was a teenager) was hugely exciting. After months of saving up you would venture out to the quite intimidating record store, staffed by trendy young adults (everyone…
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There’s more than 2 Fs.
When you are in a stressful situation at work there are famously two reactions that you might feel: Flight or Fight. These ancient responses make sense if you think of a pre language situation, where danger, at the dawn of mankind, might be sensed by the snap of a twig…
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“Gradually, then suddenly.”
Ernest Hemingway fans will recognise this as the apparently contradictory yet ruefully truthful reply that Mike Campbell gives when he’s asked “How did you go bankrupt?” in Ernest Hemingway’s iconic novel The Sun Also Rises. It’s an important concept. It might seem contradictory, (if its gradual, how is it sudden?)…
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