Behind the accelerating crisis in advertising lie challenging new rules for building, growing and sustaining brands While the rosé flowed freely at this year’s Cannes Lions, dark and heavy clouds, that have been threatening on the far horizon, suddenly appeared overhead. It looks, this time, like a perfect storm. The Information Commissioner’s Office has, finally,…
Procurement Transformation – It’s the People not the Technology
After many years working in Supply Chain and Procurement in the corporate world I stepped outside to start my own Supply Chain and Procurement Solutions consultancy business, to realise my passion to help organisations and individuals achieve Commercial and Operational Excellence in their Supply Chains and Procurement activities. This afforded me the luxury of time…
Are you talking about the ‘Triple Bottom Line’?
When it comes to marketing we often talk about the 4 P’s (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) and more recently there’s been a lot of talk about purpose as, the now infamous, Simon Sineck asked businesses to look further than their commercial goals and start with their ‘Why’. But there’s a new set of P’s…
My recent projects: Blending up a storm
For some businesses, an in-house marketing and design team just makes more sense than relying on agencies for every small request. However, sometimes your in-house team may not have the capacity, skills, or creativity needed to complete your projects. At Something Big, we support in-house teams by working collaboratively with them, filling in the gaps…
6 priorities for leading your marketing in a volatile environment
We’re living in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world (VUCA*) and that is unlikely to change. In fact, the only constant IS change. Apologies if you’ve come to this blog hoping for some answers, futurology, predictions or economic forecasts. No one has a crystal ball, but we can offer some insights into how to…
When the challenge is immense, find your winning team.
It’s nearly 4 years since my oncology consultant sat by my hospital bed and told me I had just 2 months to live. It was July 2015, I was just 38, with a loving wife and 2 young children. I’d relapsed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), an aggressive form of blood cancer. My heart, ocular…
Creating Shared Context
Context Curation As the digital era becomes entrenched, while many companies are focused on mere survival, a few vanguard companies thrive. These companies are vanguard because they understand the importance of coherence in vision and objectives throughout all layers of their organization, from the executive ranks to operations. Everyone in their boat understands their role…
14 Tech and Marketing Trends to Watch in 2019
In 2019, more than half (55%) of the world’s population has Internet access. That’s 4 billion people. Almost as many use email. Over 3 billion use social media. That’s pretty impressive if you consider it took about 80 years for Americans to adopt the dishwasher. The Internet got there in less than a decade. 2018…
Using Capability Mapping to Inform the Target-State Systems Landscape
One of the most important jobs of an Enterprise Architect is to map out the target state for the organisation. Capability mapping is an effective way to drive target-state decisions using objective, clearly-presented information captured from key stakeholders. Business Capabilities A capability is something an organisation does which helps to achieve its business goals. Capabilities…
What’s the Buzz? — Why Beaver Ate Owl (and other stories).
In my last article I explored the question: “What is psychological safety?” as it not only a recent buzzword being bandied about, but something that, counter-intuitively, we see far less of these days. One would think that societies, corporations, and governments would become better at bringing out the best in their people and teams, but…
