Don’t beat yourself up if you have an off day. We are surprised when we fail to hit the heights at something we are normally good at. We didn’t make the sale. I didn’t get the job. We lost the match. We shouldn’t be surprised. We are humans not robots. There are days when it […]
Read MoreFrom Mad Man to Glad Man
David Wethey’s Twitter account playfully proclaims him a ‘survivor’ from the Mad Men era of advertising, but David’s much more than that. With over 50 years experience, including running his own advertising agency, he’s seen it change beyond recognition. He’s even helped shape it himself through his innovative approach with Agency Assessments, a spur-of-the-moment business that’s lasted 28 […]
Read MoreIt’s not what we say, it’s what they feel
We know all about presentations in marketing and advertising. Even if we aren’t too hot at French, and haven’t learned to code, we are all pretty fluent in PowerPoint. Yes, I know everyone says they hate PowerPoint, but we use it all the time, and how else can you do credentials or show the new […]
Read MoreDoes the referendum threaten Parliamentary democracy?
I’ve always steered clear of politics in this column. Marketing and advertising flourish in a free country, and periodic changes of government have made little real difference. But the In/Out Referendum on 23rd June is a new phenomenon. Remain in the European club, and life will go on more or less unchanged. On the other […]
Read MoreNudge? Or fudge?
Do we buy all the tenets of behavioural economics? Are we convinced by these counter-intuitive insights and theories, where people apparently behave against their self interest, and can be persuaded by the way the argument is framed? We’ve all heard about the Prime Minister’s enthusiasm for the Thaler and Sunstein approach, and the establishment of […]
Read MoreJoin the meeting revolution – hit ‘Tentative’
When you receive your next meeting invitation on Outlook, try something different. Instead of automatically clicking on ‘Accept’, try ‘Tentative’. I’m suggesting that you experiment with something that could become a new habit. After all accepting meeting invitations isn’t in the same category as paying your taxes or observing the rules of the road. You […]
Read More‘We can’t go on meeting like this’
Article published in Market Leader 2016 Q1. Please click on the links below to read the entire article: mkt leader jan 16 pp1&2 mkt leader jan 16 pp 3&4
Read More“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go”
When Oscar Wilde coined this saying, he might have had business meetings in mind. Haven’t we all suffered in conference rooms at the hands of people who try to dominate, to interrupt, and to be generally contrary and uncooperative? We also know too many meeting participants who are, well, miserable…. In these circumstances it is […]
Read MoreDon’t be in a meeting
Despite a bewildering choice of smart (and not so smart) phones, you begin to wonder whether it is worth calling anyone these days. Most of the time you get either a voicemail, or the message that he/she (the object of your desire to communicate) is in a meeting. Let’s dwell on this ‘Bob/Tracy is in […]
Read MoreTry changing people before changing the people
Ours is a hire and fire culture. Perform or you’re out. We don’t have time to bring you up to speed, so we have found someone else. It is such a limited view of the world, and completely at variance with everything we have learned in marketing and advertising – where persuasion is the fundamental […]
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