​Evidence-based
MARKETING,
STRATEGY &
INVESTMENT
ANALYSIS
for wicked problems
I work with C-Suite officers and senior sales, marketing, strategy, investment and digital managers to deliver high-quality analysis and planning consulting for growth and impact.
My depth of knowledge and experience of big-picture market and strategy contexts, combined with my intellectual rigour, creative use of data, drive and sheer work rate mean I can add real momentum to any endeavour.
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As you can see from my practice areas below, I work across the most common requirements in marketing, investment and strategy. Not only that, I'm experienced in tackling a particular category of issue known as wicked problems.
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My ability to navigate ambiguous and conflicting individual and team dynamics to penetrate the heart of complex issues and wicked problems makes my style of consulting effective and efficient.
With a keen vision for a good value proposition and purpose, I uncover and nurture value in everything I do. My enthusiastic, go-getting style motivates those around me. My ability to communicate data and insights helps keep stakeholders on board and conflict to a minimum.
For organisations whose cultures are able to receive it, my novice but improving attempts at servant leadership add something of value above and beyond the assignment brief and outputs.
WHAT I DO
FROM CONFLICTED STAKEHOLDERS TO VALUE CO-CREATION
PRACTICE AREAS
#1
WICKED STRATEGY ANALYSIS & DELIVERY
Identity, feed-forward frameworks, stakeholder value co-creation & business architectures
#2
SERVANT LEADERSHIP WORKSHOPS
Introduction to SL, review of the evidence for outcomes, field measurements, attributes & behaviours, screening
#3
VALUE PROPOSITIONS & VALUE-BASED SELLING
B2B, B2C & B2Me value exchange identification, testing, calculation, and sales & marketing operationalisation
#4
GO TO MARKET PLANNING & EXECUTION
Requirements analysis, ROI targeting, implementation planning, execution & measurement
#5
MARKET SEGMENTATION, SIZING & FORECASTING
Firmographic, demographic, geographic and behavioural segmentation, quantification & monetisation
#6
INVESTMENT APPRAISAL & SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
Complex, multivariate investment appraisals, scenario modelling, and sensitivity analysis
#7
TOC FRAMEWORK DESIGN & OUTCOME MEASUREMENT
Full Theory of Change workup, stakeholder analysis, and deadweight, displacement & drop-off measurement
#8
TOTAL SOCIETAL IMPACT & SROI EVALUATION
Environmental, societal & governance (ESG) benefits. Inputs, outcomes & social return on investment calculations
#9
ROADMAP VALUATION & COMPETITOR MAPPING
Valuation of future product roadmap scenarios, competitor differentiation & mapping
#10
MERGER & ACQUISITION SYNERGY ASSESSMENT
Evaluation of potential internal, customer & market synergies, across all functions
INTEGRATING SOCIAL IMPACT INTO BUSINESS MODELS
WICKED PROBLEMS
A wicked problem is a problem or issue which is difficult to solve due to incomplete, contradictory or changing data. Due to complex interconnected dependencies, the effort to solve one aspect of a wicked problem may reveal or create other problems. Such problems are frequently found in strategy, at the consumer end of marketing impact and value proposition work, and in policy analysis and social planning.
Wicked problems were first referenced in academic literature in 1967 in the Journal of Management Science but it wasn't until the seventies when it became a full academic management science specialty.
Sometimes a wicked problem is not fully understood until after the formulation of a solution. Solutions to wicked problems are better or worse, rather than right or wrong, and are usually “one-shot” solutions with no given alternatives. Wickedness isn’t a degree of difficulty. Wicked issues are different because traditional processes can’t resolve them.
A wicked problem has innumerable causes, is tough to describe, and doesn't have a right answer. Management scientists have established that certain criteria can be used to indicate the presence of a wicked problem.
The challenges posed by wicked problems simply overwhelm conventional strategy and marketing formulation processes. However, much work has been done in the last decade to develop alternative methods for wicked strategies in response to wicked problems.
I thrive on the analysis of wicked problems because I enjoy working in uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments. I’m good at reading data and seeing patterns. Add an ambitious deadline and I'm hooked.
CONQUERING COMPLEXITY, CONFOUNDING COMPETITORS
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE & EXPERIENCE
In-country planning & analysis in over 30 countries
INEVITABILITY OF INTENSIFYING GLOBALISATION & INNOVATION
WHY
COMMISSION ME?
#1
BIG FIRM STANDARDS BUT WITH MORE FLEXIBILITY, EFFICIENCY & PURPOSE
My broad operating range in marketing, strategy & investment domains makes me a more flexible, efficient single-handed option for complex, wicked problems
#2
A VALUABLE, UNUSUAL BLEND OF REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE & ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
Many years of C-suite working across 30 countries combined with academic research ability puts across current best practices, with a real confidence in solving problems
#3
PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES AND A DETERMINED, POSITIVE GO-GETTING MINDSET
My high work rate, single-minded focus on the task and the energy I bring to the work will leave you in no doubt you are getting value for money
#4
SERVANT LEADER APPROACH ADDS ADDITIONAL VALUE TO TEAMS
The empirical data for servant leadership and its outcomes is becoming incontrovertible. Not every organisational culture is capable of receiving it but for those that can there are growth benefits on offer beyond the analysis work
MELDING NEW MODELS FROM DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
Brand evolution, value propositions, content strategy & in/outbound campaign execution & measurement
Personal data company
UK
Consumer segmentation, price modelling & demand forecasting for energy and transport services
An Asian Development Bank
Outer Mongolia
Market analysis, positioning and capacity planning for social enterprise services for vulnerable people
National charity
UK
B2B2C evidence-based value quantification and full value-based selling work up for sales & marketing programmes
SaaS start-up
UK
Competitor & co-opitor analysis in the enterprise services market across 12 countries
B2B managed services provider
USA
Design and execution of fail-fast new product development & go to market plan for content services
Multimedia services provider
Hong Kong
New B2B proposition design, development & testing for digital productivity solutions
Global mobile network operator
Germany & Spain
MARKETING
Credentials
CONVERTING CHALLENGES INTO COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
WICKED STRATEGIES
Over the past 25 years, I’ve seen at first-hand how companies create strategy - the most important responsibility of senior executives. I've found that many organisations have replaced the annual top-down planning ritual, based on macroeconomic forecasts, with more sophisticated processes.
They crunch vast amounts of consumer data, hold frequent planning sessions, and use techniques such as competency modeling and real-options analysis to develop strategy. This type of approach is an improvement because it is customer- and capability-focused and enables organisations to modify their strategies quickly, but it still misses the mark a lot of the time.
This is because organisations tend to ignore one complication along the way: they can’t develop models of the increasingly complex environment in which they operate. As a result, contemporary strategic-planning processes don’t help enterprises cope with the big problems they face. They also fail to recognise and respond to the different types of uncertainty in strategic issues.
Some CEOs admit that they are confronted with issues that cannot be resolved merely by gathering additional data, defining issues more clearly, or breaking them down into small problems. Their planning techniques don’t generate fresh ideas, and implementing the solutions those processes come up with is fraught with political peril. I believe that's because many strategy issues aren’t just tough or persistent: they’re "wicked."
Wicked problems are the opposite of hard but ordinary problems, which people can solve in a finite time period by applying standard techniques. Not only do conventional processes fail to tackle wicked problems, but they may exacerbate situations by generating undesirable consequences.
Wicked problems often crop up when organisations have to face constant change or unprecedented challenges. They occur in a social context: the greater the disagreement among stakeholders, the more wicked the problem. In fact, it’s the social complexity of wicked problems as much as their technical difficulties that make them tough to manage. Not all problems are wicked: confusion, discord, and lack of progress are telltale signs that an issue might be wicked.
In recent years, much work has been done in developing approaches and ways of developing strategic responses to wicked problems, especially in marketing and social planning domains. There are proven tools and techniques which can be deployed to assist executives grappling with wicked problems and the challenges and uncertainties that come with them.
HARNESSING THE POWER OF VALUES & COMPETENCES
Led the strategy for tender of national mobile spectrum awards, & managed the competition process
Government spectrum agency and regulator
Denmark
Strategy lead on the design, launch and execution of a global partner programme in enterprise managed services
Global technology company
20 countries
Full strategic review of internal capabilities, market landscape & generation of strategic options for decisions
Utility company
Russia
Developed strategic options for margin improvement, including product rationalisation, restructure & partnering
Media company
Hungary
Impact assessment & new services innovation strategy, improving both services users' and supporters' experience
Not for profit
UK
Delivered strategic plan for improving competitive differentiation & increasing the value of propositions Data services company
UK
Advised on the technology strategy for next-generation mobile networks and national spectrum usage
Government department/regulatory agency
France
STRATEGY
CREDENTIALS
CRAFTING TRANSFORMATIONAL BUSINESS MODELS
For the last 25 years I have worked in organisations large and small, in over 30 countries: profit, not-for-profit, development agencies and governments. I have held C-level roles in marketing, strategy and product for global brands and small start-ups.
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My Scottish working-class background, my formative years on Wall Street and buccaneering consulting worldwide with Deloitte combined to produce and sharpen a healthy gallows humour which has served me well in some very tight spots with idiosyncratic clients in interesting parts of the world.
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I have backed up my substantial real-world experience with investments in relevant, and recent, academic qualifications as a means of staying current and abreast of applied best practice in my practice.
Wicked Strategies is the vehicle for my personal consulting practice.
My research focus is in the field of servant leadership and its efficacy in producing desirable outcomes in engagement, loyalty and performance for organisations, their employees, customers and citizens. First labelled in the 1950s, the last four years has seen the completion of 180 empirical studies into servant leadership world-wide, overwhelmingly establishing the evidence of its potency. The data seems incontrovertible now.
Away from work, I’m a keen sportsman. My passion is rugby sevens, one of the fastest growing sports globally. On those weekends when a World Series leg is on in a distant time zone, I can be found in a sleep-deprived state from overnight live broadcasts. Having been a licensed rugby coach for years I qualified as a specialist sevens coach under All Blacks greats DJ Forbes and Scott Waldrom in New Zealand in 2017. I now run rugby sevens programmes in education, one of the most satisfying experiences of my life.
I am also privileged to be part of the #SamuraiRugby family, arguably the best (literally) invitational elite sevens team in the world. Comprising an ever-changing squad of professional and amateur players and coaches, we compete around the world. I am helping to steer the marketing development of this Harlem Globetrotters-type phenomenon into a truly global, and future commercial, brand.
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I try to keep track of and keep up with my four sons, who are all out there tackling the world in their various fascinating, sometimes worrying, but usually pride-inducing ways. When time permits, I can be found exploring the wild with my lurcher or attempting to play the banjo.
ABOUT ME
Find me on
FROM UNKNOWABLE FUTURES TO FEED-FORWARD SCENARIOS
INVESTMENT
CREDENTIALS
Wrote Series A & B pitches, targeted and presented to, c.50 VCs/PEs, with successful closing of both rounds
Software as a Service (SaaS) company
UK
Preparation for IPO, rationalising product portfolio (300 products), commercial lead on pitches to city analysts
Telecom, media & internet services provider
Europe-wide
Led commercial tracks of an acquisition project (for the target), evaluating potential market & operational synergies
FTSE 50 company & technology platform company
UK
Led the in-country phases of 2 M&A projects, building market-facing industrial logic, outline numbers & structures
Fortune 50, FTSE MIB 40 & FTSE 50 companies
USA, Italy & UK
Commercial, marketing & product lead on M&A negotiations in the enterprise managed services sector
Fortune 500 & FTSE 100 companies
USA
Ongoing business adviser (marketing, product & technology) for internal M&A and capital markets team
Global mobile network operator
Europe-wide
Investment appraisal for telemedicine market new entrant (B2B2C) based on hardware and service propositions
Equipment manufacturer
UK
TOTAL SOCIETAL IMPACT FORECASTING & MEASUREMENT
If this sounds helpful, please get in touch, I love to talk about wicked problems
