Outside Perspective Y26W04 - where strategy happens.

Where is strategy happening now, Stefan P on not drinking the Kool-aid, introducing Ed Bass, and our usual curiositystream from across the stratosphere.

Where strategy happens.

Perhaps some 20, 30, 40, 60+ years ago - creative agencies claimed to be where “creativity” happened, and some went as far as implying that you had to be “a Creative” to be creative, and by extension a strategist to be strategic.

This sort of work coalesced inside buildings, so clients would go to those “creative” businesses to get creative business done. Those businesses grew and grew and became networks and offered more and more services and skills.

For us lot, who wanted to work on those types of projects, it was relatively easy - find a big building where that sort of work happens.

Today, where the work happens is far more distributed.

In my head I have this image of big bubbles, which have popped, and split into lots of tiny little bubbles, spreading out on the surface of the water. The amount of work perhaps hasn’t changed, but where it lives, and where it can be found, is spread more widely.

Smart, creative, strategic, impactful thinking and work is happening inside all sorts of organisations. Not just those with “creative” or “strategic” above the door.

And now for us lot, who want to work on those type of projects, it might be a little harder - as we have to navigate the foam, and find where the bubbles lie.

The old model where it all coalesced in a single place is no longer as valid. But equally, the bubbles, are more varied, more interesting, closer to the businesses the work impacts.

It might be take more effort find where the work happens, but in my experience, it’s a more interesting landscape of bubbles to play with.

Matthew

(ps. I love it when our members take over the newsletter - if you’d like to be the editor for a week, let me know!)

#CuriosityStreamLIVE - The dotLLM era?

Our first huddle of the year - ​Ged Carroll, brand and creative strategy director and member of Outside Perspective, will be presenting his take on the impact of AI, summarising his recently published paper “The dot LLM era?”.

As a technology, LLMs are making lasting changes from business to culture, but what economic risks do they pose and will that risk stop them dead in their tracks? ​He’ll be walking us through his thinking, and a group discussion around the themes it raises.

We’re huddling on Tuesday 27 January, 1pm GMT.
​Free for Outside Perspective members.

» Sign up at https://luma.com/vbez0841

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unbusinesslike. Stefan P on the decline of good behaviours.

Stefan P. is an anti-business strategist who uses SuperBasic™ principles to design empathic brand operations. He posts a weekly letter series on recent business news by fictional humans: Dear Business Owner. We asked him for an Outside Perspective.

If aliens studied our advertising, you’d have to forgive them for believing we are all brand superfans.

Far too many campaigns depict beautiful people ecstatic about technical features, dutifully hitting those share buttons, waiting on edge for the next drop.

All smiles. All energised. All super fake.

No wonder so many campaigns don’t stick.

That’s why I started my newsletter, Dear Business Owner. To flip the script and emotionalise business headlines through the lens of the people actually affected by them. Every day, I work with AI to create a fictional character and write a letter from their perspective to a key decision-maker.

Doing so has helped develop my empathic capacity and break out of brand-centric thinking.

The biggest challenge is finding balance without losing edge. Each story needs to be more than just a complaint about rising prices; it needs to unearth real tensions and suggest solutions.

That’s the discipline: inhabit the frustration, but find the actionable insight within it.

In our line of work, it’s easy to get drunk on the Kool-Aid.

But when we do, we alienate the public. It is practically our civic duty not to. If you accept that, you realise that our job is to continuously challenge our own assumptions.

Only then can we create something meaningful. Something aliens could recognise as human.

Do you think working independently gives us a unique and more impartial perspective on these brand challenges?

Absolutely. By working across clients and industries, we become the embodiment of lateral thinking. We are necessary to facilitate knowledge transfer. We see patterns others can’t. I see us like ‘Total Footballers”:

The word enshittification gets thrown around a great deal - but it increasingly feels intentional over negligent, in how companies are behaving. Are we getting more cynical or is the world giving us more reasons to be?

It’s the oldest play in the book. But we are only now willing to wake up to it because alternatives are within reach. The death of monoculture, decentralized models and the creator economy aren’t just trends, they’re the natural conclusion. Those who have benefitted from extraction historically are just doubling down to hold position.

But I’m with Gil-Scott Heron:

» Read “Dear Business Owner” here, or connect with Stefan over on Linkedin

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Meet a Member: Ed Bass

Each week, we aim to profile a new member of the community, so you can get to learn a little more about your fellows. This week, we spoke to Ed Bass, and experienced insights and innovation driven Strategist with over a decades impactful work in Digital, Content & Social Media Strategy, Social Insights, Audience Intelligence and Trend Analysis.

Hi, I’m Ed

I'm an experienced insight and data focused digital strategist whose worked with some of the worlds leading brands - including BMW, Samsung, LVMH and Tommy Hilfiger.

Right now I'm focused on my Culture Decoder newsletter which explores emerging trends in tech, entertainment and media.

A recent piece of work I’m proud of

Unfortunately all my good projects are deep under a layer of NDA's.

My outside perspective is…

Social media audience fragmentation is on my mind a lot right now - essentially how platforms are becoming communities of like minded people rather that home to a broad range of opinions.

This seems to be working along values lines (BlueSky & X) or demographic lines (Facebook & Instagram) right now - and has huge implications.

Three things I’m currently consuming

Read: Homo Criminalis by Mark Galeotti - an amazing work which explores how criminal enterprises become states.

Listen: Sea Power - Disco Elysium Soundtrack - my favourite video game with music from one of my favourite bands. This got re-released as a limited edition recently and unbeknownst to me my partner got hold of the vinyl and surprised me with it.

Watch: One Battle After Another - Paul Thomas Anderson's latest and absolutely superb and original in equal measure. Oddly funny for a PTA movie too - with a cast of characters you'd expect to find in a film by one of the McDonagh brothers movies.

» Connect with Ed on Linkedin or via the community

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Curiosity Stream

If you’d like to share a piece of work you’re proud of, something interesting you’ve seen, or get featured in the newsletter, drop me a note, or post in our community slack.

» Lily Bishnoi on repositioning service design in a world moving quickly

» One third of journalists are “creator-journalists”

» Tom Goodwin on abundance being a problem

» Popular music is getting sadder and angstier (thanks Joel)

» Simeon Rose, Brand Director at Faith in Nature has published “Nature's Boardroom - Giving Nature a Voice and a Vote”.

» Going to the movies is cool again (Thanks Phillip)

» Implications for freelancers wellbeing based upon our Leapers 2025 data.

» Sticky’s “what type of curious are you” quiz (thanks Nick)

» Edelman’s trust barometer is out (thanks Ged)

» Cory Doctorow on the AI bubble (thanks Willem)

Stuff that’s happening IRL

» @CreativeMornings LDN first event of the year: Anthony Burrill and Nafeesa Arshad on Hope, Jan 30, London

» Emily Penny and Michelle Mariathasan-Holland are hosting a Design Boom event on Feb 12th in Brighton. Details here.

» The next strategy and insights coworking day is on Feb 16.

» Carla Moss is hosting the next Future Friends in Vienna on Feb 20.

Opportunities.

A digest of recent gigs found and shared via our community - plus things from our friends and partners. Want to reach 4k+ strategists for your next project? Drop me a note.

1. [UK] Freelance FMCG Brand Strategist via Lucy Lawson
   https://bit.ly/4jVbBxL

2. [CA] Freelance Health Strategist with medical education exp at Dentsu
   https://bit.ly/45TldU2

3. [UK] freelance content marketer at Barry Duffy
   https://bit.ly/4jYtex0

4. [UK] Freelance D2C Strategist - Food & Drink via Major Players
   https://bit.ly/4sTDFWm

5. [BE] Marcoms Strategist for banking client via ROUCOUCOU
   https://bit.ly/4jOfO6F

6. [UK:London] Freelance Brand Strategist with sport and/or fs exp at OffPitch
   https://bit.ly/49MgvbX

7. [US] Freelance Brand Strategist for rebranding project at GYF Talent
   https://bit.ly/45lOSFc

8. [UK] Social Strategist via Sphere
   https://bit.ly/4a4bOvi

9. [US] freelance content/social media strategists at Global Dairy Platform
   https://bit.ly/3YL9IdB

10. [UK] Performance Creative Strategist at Taxfix
    https://bit.ly/4qOcoDH

Keep up to date on our real-time posts here:

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That’s all for this week.
mk✌️