The Strategy Blog.
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The future of strategy is synthesis
Cannes week saw the unveiling of the latest WARC survey on the future of strategy. Of course strategy itself doesn’t change in function. Richard Rumelt usefully defines it as discovering the crucial factors and designing a way to deal with them. Does 2017 change how you do that? If it…
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If it ain’t broke it soon will be
Not the printer. Not the presentation facilities. Not the air con now that summer has arrived. Your business model. Over 70% of venture capital and equity funding in the UK goes into developing tech; in excess of £9bn last year. The variety of innovation driving this investment demonstrated in June’s…
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Man v Machine
20 years ago one man had his life’s effort trashed by a computer. One pundit wrote “the world champion found himself humbled by a 1.4-ton heap of silicone in a victory for IBM’s Deep Blue that marks a milestone in the progress of artificial intelligence. It is a depressing day…
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Once more with meaning
“We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run”. So says Amara’s Law, which we see repeatedly play out in nearly every new thing in media and marketing. It’s best illustrated by the annual Gartner Hype Cycle, which…
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What’s the most important quality in a great leader?
Eve Poole, author of Leadersmithing and leadership coach, believes that one of the overriding qualities for leadership is manners. Making others feel comfortable. Faced with rudeness you should shame those people by perhaps saying “How Rude” loudly and beaming at them. Or making eye contact and “shaming” them. (Do try…
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Clown school lessons in listening
This week I experienced clown school. No, I have not had a lifelong ambition to don a red nose and big shoes. Nor have I discovered a hitherto unknown love of slapstick. At a networking event for Rada for Business we had a taster of what clown school is like.…
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Measured caution or risk aversion?
It’s always a pleasure to watch Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy in full flow. If you haven’t seen him speak, here’s a collection of his bon mots. Last time I saw him speak he was holding the ad industry to account for a lack of risk taking. He said: “is the…
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Forensic media planning
The new forensics of media will change how we evaluate media, just as forensic DNA revolutionised criminal investigations. The introduction of forensic DNA in criminal investigations in 1985 revolutionised the field. Before this date, crime scenes relied on much patchier evidence. If the criminal wore gloves, there’d be no fingerprints,…
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If you need to see it to be it then here’s more role models for girls
Edwina Dunn, famous for setting up the mother of big data DunnHunnby, has retired from her previous life in data analytics and is tackling a problem dear to all our hearts, how to inspire young women. Her new book, The Female Lead, is designed to inspire the next generation of…
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Funny
Twitter chief Bruce Daisley used to have the wrong photo on his LinkedIn feed as he explained on the MediaCom Connected Podcast this month. Instead of his happy smiling face, for a long time he had a picture of iconic British comedian Bob Monkhouse, a man who frankly does not…
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Hate change? Read this.
“You get an ology….you’re a scientist ” Some adverts enter the language, and sometimes last there long after the product they were plugging has dropped the campaign. The BT ology ad featured Maureen Lipman as a grandmother, told by her grandson over the phone, (incidentally played by Josh…
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Abracadabra; there’s no fooling the robots
There are many talented chiefs in our industry. One of them is literally a magician. A highlight of any meeting with Trinity Mirror boss Simon Fox is that he might just make something disappear and reappear. He’s a member of the magic circle, and the last time the Trinity…
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