Strategy
When small independents learn big companies’ tricks
As of today the contents of my fridge have changed. Bye-bye big name labels and uniform vegetables. Hello real food delivered from local shops by Hubbub. If you haven’t come across them already, Hubbub is roughly what you get when you cross the good bits of buying local with the convenience of ordering from Ocado. [...]
Jargon isn’t the problem and ‘Plain English’ isn’t the answer.
Every year the Plain English Campaign gives out gobbledegook awards to the worst examples of incomprehensible writing at work. But most writing problems in an organisation can’t be solved with a Plain English crystal mark.
An open letter to Sir Richard Branson
Hello Richard, A lot of newspapers this morning are talking about how you’ve bought Northern Rock for a bargain price at the expense of us taxpayers. We’ll grumble to the chancellor about that. But seeing as you (and some private equity suits) have bought it, we hope some good will come of it. Richard, this [...]
How to sum up your brand in a line
How to describe your brand in a few words. How to make it really, properly, actually different. How to sell it in.
The whatever-you-want-it-to-be society
The Big Society isn’t an idea, it’s a bunch of thoughts lumped together under one woolly label. It’s supposed to be simple and easy to ‘get’, but it’s just confusing. And it’s the kind of mistake strategists and consultants make all the time.
How to write a strategy
How to get to the point. How to structure your ideas clearly. How to involve the right people (without letting any of them mess it up). This isn’t a guide to doing a SWOT analysis or the McKinsey way. This is the bit they forgot to cover on the MBA course. How to write a [...]