The Strategy Blog.
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Survival
We’re in survival mode. And this affects each of us in different ways. A recent assessment of how consumers are feeling includes this list: Anxiety; Isolation; Loneliness; Boredom; Thankfulness; Community spirit; Slow Living; Personal growth. And, of course, it describes how we are all feeling too. There’s been a faster…
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Why I have not blogged about IWD this year. (It isn’t because of Covid19)
International Women’s Day is a very important milestone in the year. And this year the executive director of the United Nations Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has said that this is a massive year for gender equality. On the days around the official date I am reminded of the issues that…
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Transformation: don’t expect a prince every time
We’re all enormously influenced by the stories we heard as children, even as adults. Psychological theory states that we are, perhaps, more influenced by the stories that we have forgotten, than the ones that we remember; more in thrall to our unconscious, the stories from our very earliest years, than…
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Grit: more essential now than ever.
It’s the essential ingredient for success in the 2020s. Grit is, for me, what makes watching top sports professionals so fascinating. Often, they will have had very similar training and coaching programmes. The technology that they use is mandated to be similar. (There are sometimes exceptions when the rules of the…
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They’re coming and they’re alive!
“The cuteness of robots may make us lower our guard and forget questions of privacy and security”. This warning comes from Cherie Lacey, writing in Cosmo back in 2017. Your day to day interactions with robots may be different to mine, but I wouldn’t characterise them as super cute. In…
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How to be happy
Advertising makes people unhappy. This news comes from Professor Oswald of the University of Warwick who asserts that the higher ad spend is the more miserable people become. He says this is because ads make us want what we don’t or can’t have and comments: “The idea is a very…
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It’s time for the forecast
I once overheard an American mocking the British weather forecast: “Basically it’s always “rainy with sunny intervals” except when its “sunny with a chance of rain”. Weather forecasts have become more accurate. Even in Britain. Though the public still loves to complain when they get it wrong. We also love…
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How clear is your desk?
How clear is your desk? Mine is perpetually cluttered. With apologies to those amongst us who love order above all things, I find it easier to work amongst an element of clutter. It seems to help my thinking and to drive cross pollination, an essential ingredient of creativity for me.…
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Don’t get mad, get brave
The bravery of the intransigent. At the “Bravest” Marketing Society Conference in November Tesco Chair and CBI president John Allan explained his own interpretation of bravery at work. Commenting that risking unpopularity by disagreeing with the status quo didn’t require the same bravery as the day job of a fire…
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The hard truth about appearance
How do you look? How do you feel about how you look? Have you dressed for success in the workplace? Or for comfort? Are you dressing in a feminine or masculine way? One of the most discussed aspects of my last book, The Glass Wall, success strategies for women at…
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Under 20 year olds, do you know what is going on?
Keeping up with the kids. Here’s another point about brand building in the 21st century. The internet means changes are immediate. In analogue times change was slower and it was easier to keep pace. Now it is faster and more important, and in some ways more cryptic. Its important for…
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Ten considerations for 21st century brand building
It isn’t either or. One of the plagues of our industry is binary thinking. Its nice and simplistic to pit different ideas or disciplines against each other. It isn’t true or helpful. A thorough reading of the IPA Effectiveness award winners in 2018 shows that there are many factors that…
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