There are two different types of strategy tax in a company. One for product strategy and one for corporate strategy. The former is what people usually refer to, and it often comes up when describing Microsoft and its strategy in the 90s. Blogging legend Dave Winer wrote a good explanation of this in 2001, for instance. In more modern times, Ben Thompson from Stratechery has defined it like this: A strategy tax is anything that […]
Scene: the board room. You’re presenting a new idea for investment. Your CFO is concerned. How much will it cost? How many FTEs will you need? It’s predictable, but not unreasonable. What is unreasonable is the asymmetry of continuing with business as usual. Doing the same thing as last year requires no preparation and little effort. But it represents the largest hidden cost of all big companies. The cost of status quoThis hidden cost is […]
The political cliché in Silicon Valley is that everyone is a libertarian (and that they want to be seen as a contrarian). The first part is in fact a myth, as disproven by this Stanford study. Actually most people here are some form of Democrat. But a Quartz article stated that this political leaning came with two big exceptions: There were two key areas where the entrepreneurs’ views diverged from Democrats, hewing much more closely to […]
I love a good prediction. For it to be good, it should be specific in time, detailed, and the more unexpected the better. Scott Galloway does a great job with this. Boring predictions are vague and don’t specify a time frame. Things like “consumers will increasingly want to be part of a conversation”. That’s the kind of thing Nostradamus would have said if he was still around. Simply because I enjoy it, I’m making three […]
Design parameters for branding have changed a lot. Screen legibility and name suitability for Instagram weren’t exactly top of mind for Paul Rand. Last year this caught up with the fashion industry. The effects yielded this wide-spread image below. Bloomberg wrote a good round-up of the discussions around these design changes. They were divided, as expected. The first camp said that it was dull and generic. The second camp said that it was classic and […]
Along side my practice, I have spent the past few months working together with a great team to create a new type of product in the mental health space. Since I spent seven years working with kids, it seemed only right that I should work with parents this time around. The app is called Enjo, and we are launching today. Enjo offers instant emotional support to parents. It does that by helping you reflect on […]
San Francisco, 2012. I had just moved from Sweden to set up the US office for Toca Boca. Part of the reason for choosing this part of the US was the proximity to Apple. We needed to get to know them, and we needed them to know us. On one of my first visits to Infinite Loop, I visited the store. As a long-time Mac user, this was an exciting moment. I bought a water […]
It’s now been five months since I started my new practice. So, what have I actually been doing? Firstly, it’s been amazing to be free to pursue new opportunities and ideas again. I do my best work when I get into this flow. I can filter incoming things and seek out areas where I want to go without hinderances. Secondly, this newly found freedom has allowed me a much more flexible work style which has […]
I’m a big podcast listener. It’s a priority of mine. I thought I would share what I regularly listen to. Also – if you haven’t upgraded from Apple’s awful podcast app, this is the time to do so. I like Breaker and will be linking through them. Always Desert Island Discs, from BBC: A genius audio format that has been running since 1942 (yes, really). Wonderful interviews and the music tells a parallel story along […]
It can be hard to understand what the big platforms´ incentives and interests are. This is partly why designing platform strategies for your business so hard. Are you aligning with what they are doing right now, or where they are going? Can you afford to be opportunistic in the short term, even if the long term outlook is bleak? This is such a complicated question that Jan Koum, WhatsApp CEO and Facebook board member, found […]
