Where am I?

Welcome to the Moving Tribes newsletter. This is the place for anyone interested in commentary on matters of business strategy, in particular for consumer, retail and hospitality businesses.

In weekly full length posts and more frequent bite-sized bits I will explore a wide range of topics relevant to growing profitable and successful consumer businesses. I’ll offer commentary on business news stories, explore important and current issues facing businesses around the world and, through regular “part-work” posts dive deeply into areas I know are important to business leaders.

What are you going to be writing about?

This is the place for you if you are interested in:

• The role that data, insight and analytics can play in driving profit growth for your business

• The ‘mega-trends’ shifting consumer behaviour over this decade and how you can turn them to your advantage

• Why most strategic change programmes fail, and how to ensure yours don’t

• The core truths of marketing and promotion, and why so many businesses spend so much money getting them wrong

And, obviously, much much more.

And who are you, anyway?

Over the last 25 years, I have served as Chairman, CEO, COO and in senior commercial roles for a variety of leading retail, hospitality and media brands including Bensons for Beds, Odeon, Game, Vodafone, and Sky.

In that time, I’ve seen the seismic transformation from analogue to digital in multiple industries. The changing environment for consumer businesses has killed off some, and led to remarkable growth and transformation in others, and I’ve spent my career trying to learn from both success and failure.

I am the author of 2 books on retailing (Reinventing Retail and The Average Is Always Wrong) and I regularly advise retailers, investors, and technology start-ups.

Indeed, the purpose of this newsletter is to try to bridge the gap between writing short-form and very public content on platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn on the one hand, and providing in-depth advice to boards and writing full-length books on the other.

OK, how much?

The core of this newsletter is, and always will be, free.

For those of you interested in a more tailored approach, I plan in future to use Substack’s paid features to create a space where I will explore real case studies, host discussions and offer feedback and input on your own business and its specific business challenges.

For now, subscribe for free and you’ll get weekly doses of insight both on this site and delivered to your inbox.

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