Leadership & Management

Four People and a Dog

Graham Birkenhead, June 10 2025

You may have heard the saying: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”.  When I first heard that, it struck a chord - it still does - and has now been adopted by that little voice at the back of my mind that keeps reminding me to constantly meet and get to know new

Read More
Market Strategy

The Long Game in Market Expansion

Andrew Penny, June 3 2025

Many years ago, I was employee #14 at Bell Mobility in Canada, serving as Vice President responsible for securing dominant market share in Quebec and Eastern Ontario. At the time, we sold cellular subscriptions through phone retailers, whose sales reps could earn up to $1,000 per phone. While our competitors doubled down on this retail gold...

Read More
Leadership & Management

Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat

Graham Birkenhead, May 27 2025

We’ve all heard the saying “Curiosity killed the cat.” But where does that come from, and what was it really warning against? It turns out, the original saying, first recorded in the 16th century, was “Care killed the cat”, where “care” meant worry or sorrow. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that it evolved into a cautionary warning against...

Read More
Market Strategy

Ten New Drivers

Andrew Penny, May 20 2025

In a recent Tuesday TUNE-UP, I talked about PESTLE analysis. The timing was uncanny. Because Canada just got a new Prime Minister: Mark Carney. And on day one, he laid out one of the most business-relevant political agendas we’ve seen in years. Here are 10 key drivers you need to

Read More
Leadership & Management

OOh, DAt's a Useful Tool

Graham Birkenhead, May 13 2025

Back in the 1950s, US Air Force Colonel John Boyd was serving as a fighter pilot during the Korean War. His experience in fast-paced dogfighting led him to study decision-making under time pressure. He was especially interested in why American F-86 Sabres were more effective than the technically superior MiG-15s flown by North Korean and Chinese...

Read More
Market Strategy

PESTLE

Andrew Penny, May 6 2025

Every Strategist knows the acronym PESTLE. It helps us to consider the context in which any planned course of action would take place.  I encourage all leaders to put PESTLE into their strategic planning sessions. For those who don’t recall, PESTLE reminds us of the key areas to

Read More
Leadership & Management

Early Birds, Second Mice, and a Dancing Guy

Graham Birkenhead, April 29 2025

In today’s unpredictable world, good leadership isn’t just about moving fast.  Instead, it’s about moving with judgment; it involves knowing when to lead from the front, and when to watch, learn, and move decisively at just the right moment. We all know the old saying:  “The early bird catches the worm”.  And in business, this has often been held...

Read More
Market Strategy

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs …”. *

Andrew Penny, April 22 2025

About 2500 years ago, 100km west of Shanghai, a young military scholar developed some unconventional ideas about strategy. He took the surprising step of documenting them in a book he called “The Art of War”.  Importantly for our SMB clients, his approach was very much that of the

Read More
Leadership & Management

Please, not another post about Uncertainty!!

Graham Birkenhead, April 15 2025

I know, everyone is talking about uncertainty right now - again. And that’s understandable as there is plenty of it about: tariffs, shifting trade dynamics, economic turbulence, not to mention the various conflicts and environmental issues that have briefly moved out of the immediate media spotlight but haven't gone

Read More
Leadership & Management

Do You Think What You Think You Think?

Graham Birkenhead, April 1 2025

Back in high-school, one of the many books we had to read and discuss was 1984.  Two of the questions we were posed concerned: 'what would have to happen for the world described in that book to come about', and 'what would have to be true for people in that world to not realise what was happening to them'; remember those 2 questions as you read...

Read More
Next