We are entering an era where we can create almost anything.And we are losing the ability to keep anything.Our culture is obsessed with creation. The new product…

If you built a brand using today's conventional wisdom, you wouldn't build Costco.The stores aren’t beautiful.The logo isn’t iconic.The shopping exp…

Apple’s Think Different campaign is one of the most iconic advertisements ever made. It celebrated the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemak…

Think about the normal world.Military power is asymmetric.Economic power is asymmetric.Technology power is asymmetric.The United States, China, and a handful of…

What happens when power grows faster than our ability to govern it?Part 1 → AI Is Changing the Deal (and No One Agreed to It)Part 2 → When AI Wins, …

The environmental sector does not have a passion problem.It has a focus problem.We have world-class scientists, urgent missions, extraordinary commitment, and f…

In many organizations, this is the only sentence that survives the conversation.In strategy sessions, the moment Patagonia gets mentioned, the response is almos…

I say I’m a New York Times reader.I subscribe. I value it. I tell people I read it.Foreign Affairs. The Paris Review. The Surfer’s Journal.Long-form…

PART 2 OF THE SERIES: THE UNSIGNED CONTRACTPart 1 → AI Is Changing the Deal (and No One Agreed to It) Last week, I argued the deal has already changed.We…

PART 1 OF A NEW SERIES: THE UNSIGNED CONTRACT I use these tools every day.I recommend them. I build with them.And if I’m honest, I don’t actually kn…

The American brand is currently a study in decoupling. On one side, our political ‘soft power’ is self-combusting in a way that is no longer just a …

The era of the “logo swap” is dead.We are currently witnessing the collapse of the shallow brand collaboration. This is the kind that generates 48 h…