Category: Strategy
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Shakespeare and the Attacks on Venezuela
Recent political events resemble a moment from “King Henry IV, Part Two.” I am an apex nerd. My passions include science fiction, comic books, fountain pens (a fresh rabbit hole into which I’ve faaaaallen) and comedy. As a researcher, I examine how our behavior changes, and doesn’t change, in the face of new technologies, most…
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Do We REALLY Need More Storytellers?
Corporations are creating storyteller positions, but can this work? A December 12th story in the Wall Street Journal ($)—”Companies Are Desperately Seeking ‘Storytellers’: Brands trying to wrest greater control of their narratives are asking for ‘storytelling’ skill sets—without a campfire in sight” by Katie Deighton—sparked a brief blaze of enthusiastic agreement on my LinkedIn feed. Although this seems like…
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A Marketing Win
Since so much of the news is dyspeptic and terrifying, here’s a story about how 1-800-FLOWERS creates happiness and profit at the same time. My last piece was grim, so I wanted to explore something smart that 1-800-FLOWERS does that drives business and profit while also making its customers happy. 1-800-FLOWERS.com owns Harry & David as…
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How Bad was Elon Musk’s Week REALLY?
Regular readers know that I’ve been skeptically covering Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (and other unhealthy decisions) for years. For both Musk admirers and detractors there has been a lot to follow lately: and… Analysis If you look at Tesla’s stock over the last 5 months, it resembles the EKG of a man with a bum ticker…
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The Flip
In today’s world of limitless information, stores, experts, and brands need to find new functions in order to avoid irrelevance. I’m traveling for business, so I hope you’ll indulge me and let me share a piece I wrote for The Center back in November of 2019 that I think holds up. I’ve updated links and fussily changed…
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Liquid Behavior
Companies launching new products and services would be wise to focus on their target customers existing behaviors and moving them. PROLOGUE, 2025: I wrote the article that follows back in 2017. It was the first time that I dug into something that I believe strongly: businesses and organizations focus too much on their products and not enough…
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When Strategy Devours Culture
In 2004, I had an inside view of a company facing irrelevance and also making bad choices. Peter Drucker famously observed that in business “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” meaning that an organization can have a perfect strategic plan and still fail if the corporate culture doesn’t align around that strategy. The reverse is also…
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Cheating at Wordle
In which I confess to a weak moment that also has some interesting implications, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. Bless me, Reader, for I have sinned. La Profesora and I aren’t competitive when the stakes are real, but this mutual support does not apply to vicious games of Gin Rummy or to…