The Strategy Blog.
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Baby, you can drive my car
Except baby might not want to these days. The Economist published an article recently that suggested that “in the rich world, people seem to be driving less than they used to”. The article harks back to the days of the movie American Graffitti, when owing a car was essential to…
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Happy Festivus for the rest of us, or how your belief system at work may dictate the real culture of the organisation.
Festivus is Seinfeld’s alt version of the Winter solstice celebrations, although in my household we prefer the lighter, warmer and more presents alternative from the OC. (“Chrismukkah : 8 days of presents followed by 1 day of many presents”). Since it is that time of year when thoughts turn to…
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Do the same thing as last year ? Flux that.
Generation X, Generation Y, the Millennials, Gen YNot. All useful and descriptive phrases. ( If everyone in the meeting is clear on what they mean that is. ) The next generation that will change everything however is not purely defined by age and demographic but by attitude and action. It…
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Which is better : man marking or zonal defence ?
Which would you prefer in your organisation: a management structure where – when something goes wrong – you know whose fault it is? Or a management structure where it’s less clear whose fault it is when things go wrong, but where there is a greater chance of success? In other words,…
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A quiet man of honour.
This blog is dedicated to Geoff de Burca. In fact he paid for it. Let me explain. One week after the amazing Channel 4 Stand up to Cancer night, MediaCom ran its own version in the bar in Holborn. Compered for the evening by the inimitable Jem Lloyd-Williams (McIntyre…
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Always be closing
Nobody wants to work in the high pressure sales environment featured in David Mamet’s movie, but it is really clear from our Mobile conference this week that Baldwin’s mantra in Glenglarry Glen Ross is good advice for every advertiser. Mobile (by which I mean smartphones and tablets) changes everything. As…
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The key planning theme for 2013
Carlos Grande, the very impressive editor of Warc , has invited me to summarise my view of key planning trends for 2013. I am of the view that there is only one way to do this, which is to consider the key trends affecting the UK consumer in 2013. …
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The limits on reality are no longer a constraint
Convergence is one of those terms that has been talked about for many years. I don’t believe it has hit us in any meaningful way yet. But it is about to. One convergence people used to talk about was how everything would change when you could run video ads…
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The Millennials are coming. Does this change everything ?
Last week at the “Be the Brand” conference, the conference debate was about whether “Brands can be trusted to take a larger role in Society?” I was speaking about my book with other speakers including host Tim Bleszynski from The Alternative, Nick Howard from Edelman, and Bob Thust from Deloitte. The…
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“Until you’ve lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was.”
How much is your reputation worth to you, and how careful are you to protect it? Everyone loves just a little bit of gossip. As it happens I am rubbish at being a purveyor of gossip, and I am always the last to hear anything that’s going on. In…
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As long as you’re being talked about you’re doing well.
At our conference this summer Dan Cobley, MD of Google said that products with one bad review online will sell more than products with no reviews at all. This would seem to endorse the cliché that no publicity is bad publicity. (I’m not sure that the royal family…
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Don’t blink…………………….wait.
Did you read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell , and have you been operating on your gut instinct ever since? How has that worked out for you? If it has gone very well, and you are indeed now CEO or something equally excellent, then stop reading this now. …
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