Today is the day I should really be planning my new consultancy - turning the dream of lucrative and stimulating self-employment into a reality. A couple of hours in and I am already procrastinating with a blog article (which I feebly justify as good for my profile). In recent years I have taken an interest in... Continue Reading →
'When to rob a bank' is, in fact, the latest book from the Freakonomics co-authors and the reason Stephen Dubner recently visited London. Sourced from a decade of blog articles it provides numerous (often provocative) observations on decisions that appear to be wrong - at least from the perspective of rational economics. These include the way we... Continue Reading →
Manchester City have paid a remarkable £49 million for the Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling. A player who scored just 7 goals last season. This appears to be an irrational amount – certainly compared to top performers such as Chelsea's Player of the Year, Eden Hazard, who was bought for around £35 million. Of course we... Continue Reading →
Richard Thaler was in London this month discussing his new book Misbehaving. It chronicles the development of Behavioural Economics, how this challenged established rational models of economics and the growing practical application by governments globally. (Most notably the UK Behavioural Insights Team which Thaler has supported). It was Thaler’s response to one of the final... Continue Reading →
My home team Norwich City will meet Middlesbrough at Wembley next Monday for the Championship Play-off Final! The man with the unenviable job of refereeing the game is the very experienced Mike Dean who not surprisingly has a great track record of dealing with some of the biggest matches in Europe. This is just as well... Continue Reading →
Many of my recent projects have been focused on product or service innovation. My involvement often starts with preparation for idea generation activity. Part of this preparation almost always involves gathering and reviewing available insight into our target consumer and/or customer. I embrace this insight as a core ingredient (alongside other material) for both successful... Continue Reading →
One of my most exciting 'behaviour change' briefs has been the development and delivery of an Innovation Academy for managers in a leading global FMCG business. Following the success of 8 academies, involving more than 200 participants I have captured 5 learning points I will retain for future projects: The project background The brief was... Continue Reading →
My thinking has certainly been shaped by the likes of Dan Ariely, Richard Thaler and particularly Daniel Kahneman. More importantly, I have seen the consideration of relevant behavioural biases and influences support improvements for clients with marketing or innovation challenges. I therefore embrace Behavioural Economics as something that offers actionable benefits for brand leaders. However,... Continue Reading →
I have some sympathy for the UK election pollsters who now face the prospect of an independent inquiry, alongside a tidal wave of critical comment. Given the 'systematic overstatement' of the Labour share there is undoubtedly an issue of accuracy. But this will be true of most research that relies on claimed and anticipated behaviour.... Continue Reading →
I have been using behavioural influences and biases as part of a framework for assessing the change barriers faced by clients for a number of years. It is something I have used to both identify ways of accelerating the success of FMCG launches and to guide product development in Financial Services. Convincing clients of the... Continue Reading →
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