Articles on Strategy

by Sid Peimer

The 6 reasons why work gets rejected

You get the brief – you do the work – you show the work and you either get a yay or a nay. Your work is probably of a high standard, so when it gets rejected you feel the pain acutely. However, if...

Do or die: the advantage of moving first

In the early days of the automobile industry, engineers agreed that the steam engine was far more efficient than the petrol engine. But in popular races the steam engine produced so much power, that...

How balanced is your company?

The legend goes that accounting was invented by a child during a cricket game. As there were 12 children, one had to sit out and keep score. He was really put out by this and got his revenge by...

Fight it out with strategy

When you’re the age of about two or three you discover something quite devastating. And you never view the world in the same way again. And what do you learn? You learn that the world is not made...

Throw your strategy away

Strategic intent has not entered the everyday lexicon of strategic planning. The reason I think is that it lies outside all the formal methodologies and processes of planning. We are more familiar...

Intelligence will just hamper your progress

In the martial arts, the idea is either to feign a move or catch an opponent by surprise. The problem is that your body often telegraphs what you are about to do - your eyes move to the side just a...

Strategy: are you flying blind?

There were six men from Indostan, the most learned of gentlemen, who wanted to expand their knowledge by getting to know elephants more intimately. They excitedly headed out to investigate the...

The eBay PEZ dispenser story is not true

Life poses an interesting enigma: although we can make the atomic bomb, we still don’t know the answer to simple things, like where do songs come from? Where do ideas come from? The epiphany, or...

Why insights should not be in creative briefs

Don’t panic. I’m not saying that insights aren’t important. I’m just saying that they’re not a prerequisite for great advertising. If you have that rectangular block in your brief labelled...