“The dead outnumber the living 14 to 1, and we ignore the accumulated experience of such a huge majority of mankind at our peril.”
— Niall Ferguson
Here are 3 articles you’d want to read this Sunday. And of course, you do not have to read all 3; even one of them read and assimilated well would be enough learning for the day!
Well-Behaved Bubbles Often Make History
Bryne Hobart writes about the upside of a bubble and how “the right kind of bubble, at the right time, can exert a powerful positive effect on the world.” Read this in conjunction with Hype as a Strategy.
Defensive Decision Making: What IS Best vs. What LOOKS Best
The article describes how many CXOs make decisions not because they were the most optimal for the company, but because they were the most defensible for them as the CXO. Once again, the principal-agent problem and the problem of misaligned incentives shines through.
Brand purpose. The biggest lie the ad industry ever told?
”So there are probably three types of purposeful brand: 1. Brands that are Born Purposeful, 2. The Corporate Converts, 3. The Pseudo-purposeful brands doing what’s recently been labelled ‘woke advertising’. And the likelihood of purpose driving a profit probably decreases from type 1 to 3.”
Tom Roach describes how having pseudo-purposeful brands that manufacture a purpose in line with whatever’s hot currently alienates more customers instead of attracting them.
That’s all folks! I’ll see you tomorrow with another edition of the Stoa Daily newsletter. Till then, share it with your friends and get some conversations going around the stuff you read here. Take care and enjoy your Sunday.
