Innovation is essential for growth”: it’s a management phrase, along with “Innovation is the lifeblood of our business”, that we often hear — and it’s rarely called into question. Quotes such as Steve Jobs’ “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower” have only cemented the idea as an inalienable…

Since the start of 2022, it’s been nigh on impossible to skim through any LinkedIn post, job advertisement or business thought-leadership piece without coming across one word: empathy. The London Business School recently identified it as one of the top qualities needed by leaders today, following on the World Economic…

In a world where high inflation and economic volatility have become part of our reality, it’s abundantly clear that the next few months (and perhaps even years) are going to be severely difficult for many businesses. And if you’re in the business of selling, it has the potential to be…

In his 2010 book The Shallows, journalist Nicholas Carr argued that the internet was re-wiring our brains in negative ways. As Carr argued, our grey matter just wasn’t built for such a tsunami of stimuli. And ironically, despite having the sum of human knowledge at our fingertips, all this bleeping…

David Clayton on how embedding a culture which embraces and celebrates differing thinking styles benefits the whole organisation Like one in ten people in the UK, I’m dyslexic. Writing at school put my mind in a fog. I was given extra time for exams and today I often write words…

It may come as no surprise, that according to Demand Gen, in 2020, 30% of B2B Buyers brought forward some of their purchase plans due to changing needs. At True & North, we’ve seen this at play first hand. As they sought answers to unfamiliar problems, clients took a fresh…

Sales is all about the process, right? If you follow the leading methodologies (MEDDIC, SPIN, Challenger), or sell in the acronym-filled world of SAAS, you’d be hard-pressed to conclude anything else. Well, I’m calling bullshit. High performing salespeople aren’t process-obsessed. They’re client-obsessed. That relentless focus on their client means they’ll…

What if TV ad sales embraced a client-centred approach? The media market has never been more fragmented. There’s a huge downturn in committed advertising, with brands increasingly wanting measurable conversion over brand building. Despite offering the safety and conversion that brands want through a wealth of new digital touchpoints, networks…

Trust is society’s glue. For people to live and work together, to feel safe, and to feel like they belong, they need trust. When trust is absent or weak, things fall apart. And yet no matter where you look today, trust is being called into question. Whether it’s within government…