University marketing has always been a somewhat murky affair. Just looking at their advertising, every university is ‘best’, ‘leading’, ‘#1’. Many of these claims are based on the universities’ own surveys or analysis of government/public data. They can also be derived from sub-set rankings: the way Indian airports claim to…

Despite its recent growth in popularity, many B2B brands are still wary of adding Instagram to their social media mix. Consumer brands often find natural alignment with the network, especially anything linked to food, fashion, or travel. …

When we do something well, it’s because of our skill and talent. When we don’t do something well, it’s because of other people. Someone else didn’t approve my work on time, or didn’t give me the inputs I need, or gave me too much other work. It’s always easier for other people to lose weight, or get fit, or be promoted, or write a book.

Amazon buys the Whole Foods supermarket chain for 13.7 billion dollars. As the dust settles and the approvals go through, the first changes are announced with much fanfare in the press: “Amazon Cuts Whole Foods Prices as Much as 43% on First Day” From the lists I’ve seen, one item was cut by 43%: organic Fuji apples. There are other cuts as well, such as avocados and baby lettuce, of between 7% and 30%.

People are afraid of spiders, flying, the dark, horror films. Fears paralyze you or make you scream when you come face to face. Fear of failure is gentler. Most of the time it is just a quiet voice that stops you from doing new things. It says things like: *It…

In digital marketing, it is incredibly easy to fall into the trap of useless metrics. No metric in itself is useful or useless. The value comes from how you use the metric — what action do you take as a result? Reports quickly fill up with numbers, percentages, ranked lists. You glance at them and go back to what you were doing. If there are enough non-actionable metrics, sometimes you don’t even open the report (too busy with actual work).

Constructive conflict in an office is when different people want the same outcome, but see different paths to getting there. The direction is clear, but the means remains undecided. Even if your favorite path is not selected, you still win when the outcome is achieved. Conflict is far less constructive…

Every day we avoid things that we want to do or say because we are scared of being judged. We don’t want to be embarrassed. You might want to speak up in a gathering, but don’t because you don’t want to feel embarrassed. You might want to ask for a…

Everyone has dreams about where they want to go and what they want to achieve. For most people, these are just daydreams. Fleeting thoughts about how nice it would be to be promoted, to win a big project, to solve a big problem, to make lots of money. For others, the dream is so powerful that it becomes a motivating force. They can see the outcome of the dream in great detail. They can smell, hear, and feel what the world will be like on the day they succeed. They wake up and go to sleep focussed on their dream.