Eliminate marketing.Stop all brand building. Sounds crazy? What if the very act of trying to build a brand is what’s destroying it? The science of emergence tells us something profound about complex systems. From consciousness to colonies, complex patterns emerge from simple rules and interactions. As Nobel laureate Philip Anderson noted, ‘More is different’ –…

Have you ever found yourself solving the same problem over and over? You’re not alone. In our rush to fix things, we often miss the deeper patterns that could transform our approach entirely. This is where the concept of single, double, and triple-loop learning becomes your secret weapon. The Power of Three: Understanding Learning Loops…

This post is a commentary on this and this. This is a fascinating take on brand building, but I think there’s a deeper insight hiding beneath the surface that few are discussing. Yes, great brands are built by entire organizations, not just marketing teams. But here’s the counterintuitive part – the very concept of “building…

Ever notice how surgeons don’t put “Heart Expert 🫀” in their LinkedIn bio? They’re too busy, you know, doing actual heart surgery. Yet scroll through LinkedIn for 30 seconds, and you’ll drown in a sea of “thought leaders,” “visionaries,” and, my personal favourite, “expert strategists” who love to say, “We’re all just making stuff up.”…

The world has gone bananas. Let’s end this nonsense. If you’re using the term “brand positioning,” you’re probably thinking about it wrong. Here’s why this matters more than you think. First, let’s clear something up: There’s no such thing as “brand positioning.” There’s just positioning. And the difference isn’t just semantic – it reveals a…

See Elle McCarthy’s post first. What caught my attention was the framing of “brand as an operating system.” This isn’t just semantics, it’s a fundamental shift from viewing brand as marketing to understanding it as the atomic core that drives every business decision. The first six months in this role will be critical, but not…

Mark Ritson’s analysis of Starbucks’ positioning struggles reveals a fundamental truth about modern business: positioning isn’t about mission statements or marketing – it’s about what a business fundamentally is. The coffee giant’s challenge goes deeper than flowery language; it’s about the gap between aspiration and reality. The Fundamental Misunderstanding Look at Red Bull – they…

Dave Gerhardt recently shared insights from CMOs about what keeps them up at night. One response caught my attention: “Positioning. We have a new brand and identity. How do we position the company’s new identity to both our existing customers and the market? While not disrupting everything else in the ‘always on’ side of the…

I don’t believe in experts, and neither should you. In a world captivated by expertise, it might seem audacious, even reckless, to question the value of being an “expert.” Yet, calling oneself an expert can be as limiting as it is empowering. It implies an endpoint to learning, a belief that there’s nothing left to…

If you think safety, you think Volvo. It’s automatic. Instant. You didn’t choose this association – it’s simply there, living rent-free in your mind. And that’s not an accident. It’s the result of perfect positioning. But here’s what most people get wrong about positioning: They think it’s about marketing messages, slogans, or brand promises. They’re…