Customer intimacy is a go-to-market strategy built on deep knowledge of specific customers, not broad market coverage. Companies that pursue it win by solving problems more precisely than competitors, not by outspending them. It is one of the most commercially durable strategies available, and one of the least fashionable. That gap between durability and fashion…
Leadership transitions are one of the highest-risk moments in any marketing organisation. The incoming leader brings pressure to perform, the team brings uncertainty about what changes, and the business brings expectations that rarely match the reality on the ground. Most transitions fail not because of capability gaps, but because of sequencing errors: moving too fast…
Leadership and organisational change succeed or fail on one thing: whether the people leading the change understand the business well enough to know what actually needs to change, and are willing to make the hard calls before the situation forces their hand. Most don’t. Most wait too long, change too little, and then wonder why…
An organization creates a customer by identifying someone who has a problem worth solving, making them aware that a solution exists, and giving them enough reason to choose you over every alternative, including doing nothing. That is the whole job. Everything else, the campaigns, the content, the channels, the quarterly planning cycles, exists to serve…
David Novak built Yum! Brands into a global restaurant empire, scaled KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell across more than 150 countries, and became one of the most studied executives in consumer business. His approach to leadership learning, specifically how he gathered feedback, acted on it, and embedded recognition into the operating rhythm of a…
The incomplete leader is not a failure in progress. They are the most commercially effective kind of leader there is, provided they know which pieces are missing and build around the gaps honestly. The leaders who have caused the most damage in agencies and marketing teams I have worked with were not the ones who…
Market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad target market into smaller, more defined groups of customers who share common characteristics, needs, or behaviours. Done well, it tells you exactly who to focus on, what to say to them, and where to spend your budget. Done poorly, it produces a slide deck full of…
BNPL customer behavior follows a distinct pattern that most marketers misread. Shoppers who use buy now, pay later aren’t simply looking for credit. They’re making a deliberate choice about how they want to manage cash flow in the moment, and that distinction changes almost everything about how you should market to them. Understanding that distinction…
Strategic leadership decision making is the process of identifying, evaluating, and committing to choices that shape an organisation’s direction, resource allocation, and competitive position over time. Done well, it is disciplined, deliberate, and grounded in commercial reality. Done poorly, it is expensive theatre dressed up as strategic thinking. Most leaders do not fail because they…
John P. Kotter’s 1990 Harvard Business Review essay “What Leaders Really Do” draws a sharp line between management and leadership, arguing they are distinct functions that organisations confuse at their peril. Management is about coping with complexity. Leadership is about coping with change. Both matter. But mixing them up, or assuming one person can do…
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