Thoughts from the notepad

When you try to control the flow of information too tightly, it rarely disappears. It adapts.

We get shoddy results when we remove our own judgement from the space between input and output.

At work – for some reason we become far more willing to take things as read.

A strong brand reduces perceived risk. Which is a hefty value driver itself.

Most brand problems aren’t strategic. They’re practical. And they show up in the most straightforward places.

A name change doesn’t fix a broken experience. And calling it a rebrand doesn’t make it so.

Blue ocean thinking explains success neatly after the fact, but as a method for building something new, it’s often wildly oversold.

Marketing frameworks assume clear information and open decision-making. Real organisations rarely work that way.

The idea that people have suddenly lost the ability to pay attention is comforting. But attention is up for grabs everywhere.

Anyone who’s worked in marketing knows the truth – the org chart just shows who to blame when it goes wrong.

It’s where brands earn attention, and where tomorrow’s marketing leaders are cutting their teeth.

Marketing’s future belongs to the ones who can shift between worlds and still make sense of it all.

Strategy’s useless without delivery. Delivery’s pointless without strategy. The best leaders know how to do both.

In a world of fast-chairs, cold rooms and half-toasted buns, at least someone out there still believes in seats and heating

Marketing’s in permanent reorg mode – spinning round the Magic Roundabout without a sick bag.

Companies say they want strategic marketers, then lock them out of the business model. Make it make sense.

Recruiters say marketing’s shifting fast. But the real edge still comes from one thing: commercial fluency.