Welcome to Birmingham

On fieldwork. I do like the Brummies and their ways. (The way the girls at Bebo were helping out the panicky till girl on her second day with a three mile queue seemed to capture it.) The industrial muscle of the city is waning, but the civitas somehow cherished. You

Middle

So, having a rest in the sauna at the gym. In come three lads (18ish) after their workout, doing lots of verbal fist bumping. They were riffing about their upcoming trip to Amsterdam.’ Bruv, I’ve got £200 ready to go stylin’ it.’ ‘£200?’ ‘I worked for that bruv. I sold

The inside story of leadership

My good friend John Higgins (we lumbered through Ashridge together) has a very different, psychologically informed view of what it means to be a leader. In becoming one, you become an outsider. Fascinating.

Conviction

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

The Metro tells a story

Met up with the estimable Justin Basini yesterday, who, now loosed from the chains of Capital One, where he was marketing director, is thinking even more furiously about the business and the world in general. Among the gems was how the Metro (at a city near you) describes the plight

Why

Good

Playing safe makes matter worse since you don’t allow yourself to fail or succeed. Play to win. Then play to lose. Then play to play. Make your fellow player look good if you want to look good. Avoid anticipating. It’s a lot more rewarding to try a game out and

Say

Rather admired the way that this hotel was upfront about the bill.

what

The most elegant and effective customer complaints channel. United Airlines, after 4 million downloads, gave up and gave compensation. Poor Ms Irlwig.

Pissed

The number one (only) source of innovation. According to the daddy – Tom Peters.