At its core, this is already how transformative corporate brand work gets done. The most successful brand transformations aren’t solo CMO projects; they’re upstream CEO-CMO partnerships. The CEO brings the business strategy, ambition, risk tolerance, and commensurate authority over innovation resources. The CMO brings customer intelligence,... See more
If Sharp’s theories were truly universal as he posits, every company would pursue the Diageo approach to brand strategy. They don’t, because different relationships between what brands stand for and the innovation they undertake reveal distinctly different advantages to exploit.
In other words, brand can be thought of as the capstone atop McGrath's framework—an unnamed source of stability, coherence, and discipline. The virtuous cycle, or flywheel effect, this addition creates is why it’s the capstone. Brand brings coherence to innovation; innovation brings essential new vitality to the brand.
McGrath’s theory of transient competitive advantage begins with a fundamentally different assumption of reality from Sharp's: In dynamic markets, sustainable advantages have been replaced by temporary ones. Success requires managing a portfolio of advantages across different lifecycle stages—emerging through experimentation, strengthening through... See more
Reconstructing work means designing for this instead of fighting it.
It means humane agreements that don’t require human sacrifice. Where you can work intensely on a project without giving up your life. Where you can contribute meaningfully without being available 24/7. Where compensation reflects actual value, not how long you’ve been there or how... See more
Adaptive literacy is knowing when to let go of what worked before.
Unlearning is harder than learning. Because it means admitting that the thing you spent years mastering is now obsolete. That the knowledge you built your career on doesn’t apply anymore. That the mental models you rely on are actively getting in your way.
Architectural literacy is knowing how to build when all the templates are null and void.
The traditional structure - holding companies, creative shops, the pitch-retainer-fee model - doesn’t work anymore. And no one’s handing out a blueprint for what comes next. Most people respond to that by trying to save the old model. Optimise it. Make it more... See more
Systems literacy is reading incentives, power structures, and unspoken rules.
It’s understanding why decisions get made the way they do. Not what people say motivates them, but what the structure actually rewards. Not who has the title, but who has the power. Not what’s in the handbook, but what actually determines who gets ahead.