The Discomfort of Planning
I’ve been a strategist and a brand planner for many years now. The kind of years that earn you labels like “experienced,” “pro,” or—my personal favourite—“seasoned.” But here’s a confession: working on any client strategy still makes me uncomfortable. Last year around the same time, I was working on a campaign proposition for a global logistics company. The brief was clear: From the current perception of a ‘shipping giant’ reposition them as a tech-driven solutions partner. Simple, right? Except I had no clue about freight forwarding, cross-docking, first-mile, middle-mile, or last-mile optimisation. My Google search history looked like I was preparing for a customs clearance exam. I had two weeks to figure out what mattered to CXOs, make sense of operational inefficiencies, and somehow string together a story that both the client’s C-suite and our creative team would find compelling. There’s an unease that never fully goes away - trying to become a customer I’m not, looking at their w...