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...
The 7 traps in decision making, and how to avoid them.
The seven traps in decision making, and how to avoid them. We get through the day with heuristics. These rules of thumb serve us reasonably well, allowing us to make decisions quickly, so that we...
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...
LEGO excelled at innovation – and it nearly killed them.
Take six standard Lego bricks, and there are more than 915 ways to stick them together. Actually that’s incorrect; there are 915 MILLION permutations. I think ‘endless hours of fun’ is most...
Nomophobia: a growing problem with no solution in sight.
58% of men and 47% of women suffer from this disease. (1) I personally think it’s getting worse with very little relief in sight with more and more people contracting the illness. Technology has not...
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...