Rory Sutherland

This is why, fairly early on, Microsoft placed whiteboards along the corridors on the Redmond campus; for they found that the accidental meetings which took place in hallways were in fact more productive than the scheduled ones which happened in meeting rooms.

And if you have ever wondered why people show such affection for public sector brands (such as the BBC, the Post Office, the NHS) even when their levels of service are, um, questionable, there’s your answer — for all their failings, they are untainted by perceptions of greed.

To Adam Smith’s: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” We should add: “But don’t expect anyone to like the butcher very much.”

What it seems to show is that people are overwhelmingly intentionalists, not consequentialists. In other words, once they suspect an individual’s intentions are largely self-interested, it colours how they perceive the outcome. Hence they are far readier to attribute a bad outcome to self-interested behaviours than a beneficial one.

While I think originality is a wonderful thing, and while I’m all for stretching envelopes, pushing boundaries, throwing out rule-books, thinking outside boxes, casting off straitjackets and generally pissing against the wind, I do still believe there is a Platonic archetype for press advertising.

Why has no other retail brand attempted this? Why do my M&S corduroy trousers not simply contain a URL and a reference number if I wish to reorder them? Or allow me to order a second pair by text?

*The Beverly Wilshire Hotel has a system where the driver of your Lincoln Towncar furtively texts ahead to the hotel to announce your impending arrival. This meant that, even though I had never been there before in my life, the staff opened my car door for me with the words: “Welcome to the Beverly Wilshire, Mr Sutherland.” This was so cool I nearl

When you are accustomed to living life at an online pace, you live in a world where every action results in an immediate response. Click on the link and, after just a few seconds, up comes the page. Hence when you order a coffee and 10 minutes later it hasn’t arrived, your first response is no longer. “Gosh, they must be quite busy!” No, your auton

Like the late Alan Clarke, who “would not queue for anything under any circumstances” I am driven practically insane by the time wasting procedures of many service industries. For example the check-in procedure at hotels regularly induces a kind of Tourette’s: “You’ve known I was coming for two weeks — why couldn’t you have my twatting key ready, y