Post on 07-Aug-2015
Hello. James Caig Head of strategy, True Digital @jamescaig
What the @&*! is it anyway?
1. What is strategy and why do we need it?
2. What makes a strategist?
3. What should they be doing for you?
“STRATEGY IS GOD”
OST
I want to lose weight
Lose ten kilosDiet (eat better, exercise more)Record calorie intake and exercise output Visualise ‘thinner me’ Use stairs instead of the lift Join up with other dieters
OST
Morris Ernst, 1933
Publish Ulysses, legallyWin court case before publicationSort Judge and Jury Make it about literary opinion Get prosecuted under import laws Get myself arrested
OST
Steve Jobs, Apple, 1997
SurvivalSimplificationProducts Style Management systems Team structures
OST
It’s not strategy until it’s written down
“THE STRATEGY KERNEL”
The diagnosis
A guiding policy
Coherent actions
The diagnosis
A guiding policy
Coherent actions
The obstacles in the way of success
Signposting your approach to dealing with the obstacles
Feasible actions and resource commitments designed to carry out the guiding policy
The future is wobbly
Craigslist disruption map
Source:Budd Caddell https://medium.com/nobl-collective/culture-is-more-than-a-ping-pong-table-d8c634e475f
Q: Did you end the year working to the same marketing plan as you started it?
92%
8%
NO
YES
Source: Aegis / Advertising Association, 2014
Strategy brings focus and gives you a better chance of controlling your own destiny
1. What is strategy and why do we need it?
2. What makes a strategist?
3. What should they be doing for you?
Common sense
Curiosity
Brevity
“I think science is not about absolutes.
Science is about honesty.
The idea that scientists are some kind of priests that have unique access to knowledge about nature is nonsense – in many ways I see it as the codified application of common sense.
It’s like plumbing."
Source: http://gu.com/p/49je3/sbl
“I think science is not about absolutes.
Science is about honesty.
The idea that scientists are some kind of priests that have unique access to knowledge about nature is nonsense – in many ways I see it as the codified application of common sense.
It’s like plumbing."
Source: http://gu.com/p/49je3/sbl
strategy
Strategy
strategists
“I think science is not about absolutes.
Science is about honesty.
The idea that scientists are some kind of priests that have unique access to knowledge about nature is nonsense – in many ways I see it as the codified application of common sense.
It’s like plumbing."
Source: http://gu.com/p/49je3/sbl
strategy
Strategy
strategists
“Poetry gave me great pleasure. As a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare. Pictures gave me considerable, and music very great, delight.
But now my mind has become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of fact. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by
enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.”
“The narrative arts greatly widen our perceptions of human experience, and enable us – vicariously, or as a fly-on-the-wall witness – to see into lives, conditions and experiences which one might never encounter in practice.”
Read. Research.
Be open-minded, ask questions. Of business, people, history, fiction, art, the future. Seek different sources, learn counter-arguments.
Reconcile and understand. Create new connections.
Create competitive advantage.
Read. Research.
Be open-minded, ask questions. Of business, people, history, fiction, art, the future. Seek different sources, learn counter-arguments.
Reconcile and understand. Create new connections.
Create competitive advantage.
And write.
Research like an academic. Write like a reporter.
1. What is strategy and why do we need it?
2. What makes a strategist?
3. What should they be doing for you?
Constant Optimisation
Richard Huntington, Saatchi & Saatchi
Periodic Disruption
Data gathering and synthesis
Knitting together a wide range of sources to uncover insight and distill thinking that sharpens focus.
A good insight is fresh, deep, focused and directional.
Faris Yakob
A good insight is something you didn’t know before. Something that may change the way you think about the problem.
Dave Trott
A good insight is when you realise the business problem is a behaviour change in disguise
Pats McDonald
FACT: People tend to feed their pets once a day OBSERVATION: They feed them at breakfast and dinner time INSIGHT: People feel guilty eating in front of their pets
Kevin Drew Davis
FACT: People tend to feed their pets once a day OBSERVATION: They feed them at breakfast and dinner time INSIGHT: People feel guilty eating in front of their pets
Kevin Drew Davis
FACT: People tend to feed their pets once a day OBSERVATION: They feed them at breakfast and dinner time INSIGHT: People feel guilty eating in front of their pets
Kevin Drew Davis
FACT: People tend to feed their pets once a day OBSERVATION: They feed them at breakfast and dinner time INSIGHT: People feel guilty eating in front of their pets
Kevin Drew Davis
Facilitation and collaboration
Work with analytics, media, UX and design
Structure and lead workshops
Develop the fundamental skills that give confidence to a client and a team
Story telling
Make data tell a story
Bring others along with a compelling vision of the future
Hone a well-crafted rationale to a business-changing creative idea
1. What is strategy and why do we need it?
2. What makes a strategist?
3. What should they be doing for you?
Go start some fires.
Thank you.