Insights

Or just sharing thoughts

Values matter

More than 20 years ago, I was leading a team making a crunch presentation to a client's leadership team. The client was very much a...

"Kills rats. And tastes great on toast."

That was a phrase I used to hear as a very young - and extremely fortunate - account manager in what I still believe to be the best...

Go for DSP. Not USP.

I was delighted to be invited to co-host an event recently, brilliantly called "How to be a raspberry in a sea of vanilla." The people...

"Nobody knows if they're resilient. Until they're not."

Of all the lessons to be learned from the Covid pandemic, the most brutal, and the most enduring, are about resilience. Most...

M&A? "For better, for worse"? Where's the brand in all this?

Two recent comings-together have been announced. From wildly different sectors, they both create as many questions as answers and neither...

"What's the value of branding in times like these?"

Somebody asked me this question about three hours ago. They're not (yet) a client, but we might work together - it depends on a few...

"I wanted to be a signpost, but..."

Lots of brands end up in the same place. Their owners lack the courage (or the insight? Or both?) to stand for something, or to truly...

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. It is also what it takes to sit down and listen"

Churchill’s words now have special resonance. Someone in a recent Roundtable I was involved in brought them into the conversation - and...

Why take a chance on change?

In 1996, John Kotter wrote that 30% of change programmes fail. In 2022, the figure is still the same. Do we never learn? Well, possibly:...

What's the point of values, if you won't live by them?

Or a purpose, for that matter. Both are meant to show what an organisation really stands for - and what it stands against. They should...

What do you do, if the merger doesn't happen?

In all the excitement that's created around The Deal, who wants to think about the "But what if...?" questions. We've worked on many M&A...

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle..."

.. .and the life of the candle will not be shortened". I haven't discovered Buddhism, but this thought occurred to me while listening to...

It all starts with (self-)awareness

Another day, another piece of research that shows how out of touch leaders can be. Senior leaders apparently are 20% more likely than...

I'm always happy to talk. Even happier to listen.