a strategist’s convictions

You see, all strategy is defined by movement. Regardless of whether you are a planning fundamentalist or, like me, a proponent of more adaptive methods, the point of the strategic exercise is to move the organization. The difference between the two schools of thought is that while adaptive strategy is concerned with direction, strategic planning ob... See more

Humans are simpler than the instructions would have us believe. We’re all looking for the same things. To be seen. To be accepted. To connect. To matter. This is true for readers and writers and kids and strangers and the cast of Love Is Blind.

the way we sell ideas in the first place. Concepts are much harder to make fun than executions. They also are most open to interpretation, turning future rounds of review into wrestling matches between difference in expectation.

We spend so much time thinking about the big idea, the joy of the output suffers.

The process of reducing a briefing requires great courage, rigor and repertoire.

You have to make brave choices and say a thousand times more No’s than Yes’s.You have to respond rigorously to the problem that you’re trying to solve.You have to have a vast repertoire of references in and outside Advertising in order to get to fresh thinking - and tha... See more

As a strategist, if you want rare insight, you need to have access to rare perspectives and those come from people, not publications or posts on social media.

Is it clear to you when a trend forecast is coming from amateurs versus the professionals?

ES: I mean, no. I think an amateur and a professional have kind of an equal chance at hitting the nail on the head. True flashes of cultural insight happen where you’re lucky enough to just put the right words against the cultural phenomenon at the right momen... See more

strategy is the very human act of imagination. ‘Seeing’ what does not yet exist. Seeing things as they could be. As we would want them to be.

The irony is that the hard parts, like writer’s block and openness, is where there’s self-examination, progress and growth.

And if we’re not pursuing creativity for that, then why are we? The clicks?