Strategy

There was a time when every big brief made me anxious. Big goals, big promises, big pressure. I’d open a blank doc and stare at it for hours, trying to find the perfect idea. It took me years to realise that the secret isn’t in thinking bigger, it’s in starting smaller. Once I began slicing big goals into small, doable steps, everything started moving faster.

The best agencies don’t just learn fast - they unlearn faster. In a landscape that punishes certainty and rewards adaptability, marketing success depends not on knowing more, but on letting go of what used to work.

A few years ago, I was deep into my final-year MBA project, designing a strategy to launch a new business in the UK. I thought I had a solid plan: a well-researched market analysis, a detailed marketing mix, and a roadmap for growth. But something wasn’t quite right. I had ambition. I had a vision. But the more I refined my plan, the more I realised I was making the same mistake that many of us in marketing often make: I was confusing goals with strategy. I wanted success, but I hadn’t truly defined the challenge standing in the way of that success. I had listed marketing activities, but I hadn’t decided on a clear, guiding approach that would make them work together. Then, I came across Good Strategy/Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt. And it changed everything.