About

Most strategists work either upstream in brand and advertising, or downstream in earned media and communications. I've spent my career doing both.

This gives me an unusual perspective on how brands need to behave, not just what they need to say.

I think deeply about fame and effectiveness, and how creative communications can earn attention beyond media spend … but I am not a chin-scratcher or LinkedIn prophet.

I am fundamentally a doer. I do my own research, my own interviews, I write my own strategies, and socialise them with my creative partners early and often.

This (and useful initials) is why I call my practice D-O Strategy. Strategy is worthless unless it lives in the creative output, the actions of a business, and the hearts and minds of its employees.

I am not precious. One of the really excellent things about strategy is that more inputs makes for a better output, and early buy-in beats trying to force feed it later on.

One of the other excellent things about strategy is that if you don’t calibrate it quite right, you can do it again.