The Strategy Blog.
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Creativity = data + imagination + empathy.
There’s a reason that organisations that have real diversity thrive. It is not just a tick box exercise. It’s the synthesis of people with differences of opinion, personality and thinking. It’s the ultimate “Avengers Assemble” team (as WPP UK Country Manager Karen Blackett puts it). These teams are not groups…
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Sick of fake news
Fake news is everywhere, swaying politics, election results, public opinion. Fake news permeates our business too. You only need to attend a conference or browse your Twitter feed to come across media business fake news, such as, for example: “Brands are dead.” At a recent panel (Chatham House Rules) there…
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“What’s in it for you?”
If you read this blog, you’ll have a better chance of being promoted, paid more, liked more, going home early. Got your attention? “What’s in it for you?” as a strategy is in fact short term and unsustainable for marketing, for management and finally for life. “What’s in it for…
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Transforming attitudes to age
Most businesses have a strategy for transformation, and if they don’t probably need one. When so much is changing and so fast it’s easy to assume that the old guard need clearing out. However it’s a mistake to assume that everything must change. If you lose perspective and all the…
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What happened at MediaCom’s Transformation Week 2018?
5 days 24 presentations 21 partners 35 presenters 1,400 attendees Our first transformation week at MediaCom happened as our English summer transformed into baking heat. Charles Darwin said “it’s not the strongest or the most intelligent that survive, but those most responsive to change”. Stephen Hawking said: “Intelligence is the…
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The new and unprecedented challenge for brands
To boldly go, where no brand has gone before. Brands are facing an existential threat like no other. Exactly how it will play out and how soon the question. As Twitter’s Bruce Daisley said on MediaCom’s Connected Podcast recently (and out soon here), it’s impossible to predict the next twenty…
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Here’s how Cannes got serious this year
Serious about business. The best of the work this year curated in the MediaCom suite had business success running right through it. Sure the collection of work had plenty of stunts littering it still, but the cream of work that rose to the top included fabulous strategic thinking. This is…
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Harry Potter guide: Better ways to work for women
Don’t do everything Don’t shape shift Don’t do everything JK Rowling has been responsible for a generation of children learning to love literature. In 2013 she was named a national literacy hero by the National Literacy Trust. In her books and her films she defined femininity for a generation of…
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Does your job pay you enough? Here’s one different way to work it out
What do you go to work for? Success is getting up and spending all day doing something you enjoy, and then getting paid for it. There may well be a proportion of the day that you don’t enjoy. Essentially that is the part you would only do for pay. One…
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Being brave at The Marketing Society one morning in May
Brave and Uncomfortable. Thursday 10th May was the time for uncomfortable conversations. The Marketing Society held a forum to push boundaries and make braver decisions, to help each other to address the toughest issues, this time on gender at work. Gemma introduced the session by talking about the time that…
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One crucial reason the plan might not go to plan
A great plan is crucial to progress. Whether it is a plan for your marketing ambitions, a plan to transform the sector, a media plan or a career plan, great understanding and a logical solution are essential for success. A great plan isn’t enough. As Mike Tyson said: “everyone has…
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This is crucial
It’s more important than a good strategy In 2016 I was introduced to the ceo of a manufacturing company as a strategy head. “Ahh,” he said, “you know Sue don’t you that culture eats strategy for breakfast”. “Indeed” I answered, “but the strategy is to have a good culture”. Without…
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