What Next? Is The Question

You Don’t Have To……Put On The Red Light.

I’ve got a friend who met his wife in a brothel.

Oh, don’t worry – it wasn’t his idea. It was his financial advisor’s. (He takes him everywhere.)

Knowing Me, Knowing You.

Listen, Do You Want To Know A Secret?

Those Were The Days My Friend. (We Thought They’d Never End.)

Dream of Caliphornication?

ISIL want their Caliphate to grow, and to last forever.

Most CEOs want the same for their corporations.

Both would do well to brush up on their history.

I Read The News Today. Oh Boy.

I Don’t Know Where The Lights Are Taking Us. But Something In The Night Is Dangerous.

The middle of nowhere takes a long time to get to.

Especially when it’s in Devon, and you’re in London.

But it was worth it.

The Best Is Yet To Come.

NPR ran a beautiful story about Barbara Beskind, a 90 year old designer at IDEO.

‘Let Them Eat Cake’, She Says. Just Like Marie Antoinette.

Some say the centre of Paris is prettier than the centre of London. That may or may not be true. What is true is that physically Paris has changed a lot less than its British counterpart in the last 150 years.

Don’t You, Forget About Me.

You Can Check Out Any Time You Like.

Been Around The World, Don’t Speak The Language…

Internationalising Your Business: The Execution

In our previous paper, we made a distinction between a globalising approach to beyond-home-country growth and an internationalising approach. We also set out the two most important considerations when developing an internationalising strategy.

Good, Good, Good, Good Vibrations.

Who says the Germans have no sense of humour?

Spies Like Us.

The BBC ran a piece on intelligence agencies, and their need to recruit ‘super-forecasters’.

Papa Was A Rolling Stone.

I’m Not So Manic Now.

I sat down at an EAT café recently with a smoothie and absent-mindedly read the label.

It delighted me.

Why?

Oops, I Did It Again!

Once upon a time, there was a big company.

It was powerful, and it made lots of money.

Mama’s Gonna Put All Of Her Fears Into You.

The key to thriving in the 21st century is, we are often told, a readiness to adapt.

We live in a time of ever-increasing flux: post-modernism meets the information age, at the speed of light.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.

I Am He As You Are He As You Are Me. And We Are All Together.

In 2013, at least on one reading, the heart of the creative world was knifed; violently, and by one of its own.

Been To The Bottom Of Every Bottle?

It’s All Too Beautiful.

Material Girl.

So Ya. Thought Ya. Might Like To…..Go To The Show.

I’m an atheist.

It’s really easy for atheists to take potshots at religion.

But religion gets some things right.

Religion understands (cliché alert) “storytelling”.

And I’m Sailing On The Seven Seas So Blue.

Who knew that luxury retailers such as L’Oreal and Pernod Ricard consider travel their ‘sixth continent’?

20th Century Fox.

Everything Changes. But You?

This was a talk that we were invited to give to a group of emerging leaders.

It’s rough and ready, but we had a lot of fun.

We were invited to speak about ‘Adapting To A New Environment’……..

New York, London, Paris, Munich…

Internationalising Your Business: The Strategy

21st Century Growth™ will come not from Fordism (faster, better, cheaper) but instead from constant corporate reinvention that develops new products and new markets.

And it’s this second part – the markets – where corporations get it wrong, over and over. They might have globalised, but they haven’t internationalised. The distinction might sound semantic, but it is critical.

Don’t Know Much About A Science Book, Don’t Know Much About The French I Took.

But Stephen Jay Gould did.

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me The News.

Clearly, you don’t need to live in the UK to find yourself exasperated by the working practices of doctors’ surgeries. And, across the pond, patients are voting with their feet.

The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades.

Over at The Verge, they’re lauding the achievements of Reed Hastings and the crew at Netflix.

Don’t Take Money, Don’t Take Fame.

Everyone knows that 2015 is the year that Marty McFly visited when he travelled forwards in time.

I Took Her To A Supermarket, I Don’t Know Why But I Had To Start It Somewhere.

The Telegraph reported that Andy Clark of Asda expects serious consolidation of the UK supermarket industry.

He also predicts the disappearance of some household names.

He Just Smiled, And Gave Me A Vegemite Sandwich.

The Telegraph, following on from The Australian, reported on McDonalds ‘big experiment’ Down Under: to reinvent itself as a purveyor of gourmet burgers.

Walking On The Beaches, Looking At The Peaches.

We recently took it upon ourselves to watch the Top 100 ads that featured in this year’s Cannes ‘Festival of Creativity’.

Walk The Dinosaur.

Sree Sreenivasan is the Chief Digital Officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

I’ve Got The Brains, You’ve Got The Looks. Let’s Make Lots Of Money.

Over at The Atlantic, William Deresiewicz, has written a frankly brilliant piece that takes the long view on creativity.