Month: November 2023

  • November 2023 newsletter – fourth time unlucky?

    November 2023 newsletter introduction You’re still reading? Great! Welcome to my November 2023 newsletter which marks my 4th issue. I am not excessively superstitious – but living in Hong Kong rubbed off a bit on me. I developed a love of milk tea, found the ‘hit women’ cathartic and am still leery of the number…

  • Dot

    Dot as a post came out of me being zoned out and listening to a podcast while shaving as part of my weekend morning routine. Then it hit me whamo! The podcast I was listening to was by CSIS – a US think tank called The Truth of The Matter hosted by Andrew Schwartz. At…

  • The Whole Earth Catalogue + more things

    The Whole Earth Catalogue The Whole Earth Catalogue was a publication that sat at the centre of so many movements over the past six decades and its influence is still with us today. The publication was founded by Stewart Brand in 1968. Brand had been a participant in the counterculture and environment movement that sprang…

  • Value of reputation + more stuff

    Value of reputation The value of reputation is something that various disciplines especially the public relations industry discuss ad infinitum. IPSOS have put together some interesting research and thinking that helps to quantify and shape the value of reputation. Previous discussions on reputation value that I have seen, haven’t had the same rigour behind them.…

  • Western fast fashion + more things

    Western fast fashion Western fast fashion brands have managed to spread around the world, despite concerns over working conditions, product quality and impact on the environment. But things have gone into reverse for western fashion brands in China. Just over a decade ago saw China as a potential growth market. But over the past five…

  • The Brand Vandals conversation

    Brand Vandals preamble Back in November 2012, my friend Wadds was researching and writing a book that would turn out to be Brand Vandals. I had a campaign going into mothers-and-babies screenings at cinemas and was in the final stages of preparing for a move to Hong Kong whilst launching an innovative facebook app for…

  • Humane AI pin + more things

    Humane AI pin The Humane AI pin has been hyped for a while. Now it’s been launched as a product with what seems to be a small initial batch based on a waiting list and drop type distribution model. I thought I would wait a bit to post on the Humane AI pin and let…

  • The New Working Class

    The New Working Class by Claire Ainsley is unashamedly wonkish in nature. Ainsley comes from the left of the political establishment. She is an executive director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. She had previously worked for Unite and as a government advisor. Ainsley posits that the Labour Party is out of touch of who the…

  • Beyond Disruption

    Beyond Disruption by W Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne moves their focus from general business strategy in their book Blue Ocean Strategy. You can read my review of Blue Ocean Strategy which I originally read a number of years ago. By contrast this book looks at the idea of non-disruptive innovation. Non-disruptive innovation as a…