What We Do

We are dedicated to helping companies and individuals win against any odds - using the discipline of our insurgent strategic approach. We developed this approach in our work with Steven Jobs and Mike Murray at Apple. It worked then and it works even better now. It works for individual leaders and for organizations of any size or shape.

So please buy our books on Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com. Write an outrageously positive review. Then, maybe, read them. You’ll be glad you did.

Fasten Your Seatbelts.

Today’s changing environment creates a constant state of crisis. Get used to it. Change will only come faster and faster. Losers react. The rule of this brave new world is simple: if you do not lead change, you will be changed.

Bigness Leadership is obsolete. The traditional and established models of incumbent strategy and bigness leadership training no longer work. Still, this strategy and this training are the standards in most businesses, even today. We have developed the model of Change Leadership for individuals, teams, and organizations meeting today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. It is a model that has worked for leaders of start-ups and Fortune 100 corporations; in politics, business, entertainment, philanthropy and the military.

Speed Wins.  Discipline Creates Speed.

All corporate and organizational challenges today are fundamentally communications challenges. These challenges are complex, but to be effective, the solutions must be simple.

Successful leaders must be effective in managing multiple conversations with multiple audiences, all at the same time.  Technology helps because speed wins, but technology is not enough. Speed is the result of strategic discipline in sports, warfare, politics, and business.

  • We believe in a research-driven strategy. This is the foundation of success. This can reveal the opportunity in any crisis.
  • We believe you must define yourself and your personal, product and corporate brands compellingly and credibly – or others will do the job for you.
  • We believe you must successfully define the “stakes in the election” for all key targets, internal or external to your organization. What’s the win-win?
  • We believe you must define the enemy of success.
  • We believe you must define the future your leadership will create.
  • We believe you must never play defense.
  • We believe that everything communicates: every detail is important, and no detail is neutral. It is either adding value or subtracting value. So you must align all details to your core strategy.

It’s that simple. And that hard. These principles are the basis of effective communications, brand positioning and business,
political or military campaigns.

Strategy-Based Solutions.

We preach and practice the principles of successful insurgent political campaigns, proven over time and geography: do the doable, move the movable, communicate inside/out and play offense. These principles guide competitive attack and response to attack.

We apply these principles to brand development and marketing, corporate communications, crisis, Change Leadership training and coaching. We apply them in any situation, anywhere.

In this information environment traditional incumbent strategies fail. Insurgent strategies succeed.  The “tried-and-true” has been tried and tried, and is no longer true.

Recent Articles

This is about the best endorsement of insurgent strategy that I’ve seen. Thanks to Bob Iger.

Chapter 7: It’s About the Future The challenge for me was: How do I convince the Disney board that I was the change they were looking for without criticizing Michael [Eisner] in the process? There had been some decisions I disagreed with, and I thought the company was in need of change given all the…

The Tariffs Are Bad. I’m for Them.

I understand that learned Republican economists know that tariffs are bad. Trade wars are terrible. I don’t understand much about trade economics, but enough to assume free trade is best. Many of you know that I supported President Trump in the 2016 Election. Like about a quarter of the electorate, I did so holding my…

How Underdogs Win

The Driving Force of Change Today On the afternoon of Election Day, November 8, 2016, the decision rooms of the major news organizations were buzzing with activity and excitement. In these huge rooms their pollsters, analysts, news producers and many of the anchor-people would be reviewing the last polls they had done, and the exit…