Alastair Campbell needs no introduction

Alastair Campbell needs no intro

I just came back from a great session at Advertising Week Europe, hosted by the Marketing Society and introduced by our very own Hugh Burkitt.

The guest of honour, interviewed by Richard Kilgarrif of Bookomi, was Alastair Campbell. Love him or hate him, he needs no introduction.

Alastair has just published a new book called – appropriately – “Winners”.

It’s an examination of what makes leaders, innovators and public figures succeed – in politics, in business, in sport and in life. It includes profiles of a broad range of successful leaders, ranging from Angela Merkel, through Jose Mourinho to Anna Wintour.  

No doubt the book has more detail, but key themes which emerged from the interview, were:

  • Planning: winners figure out in advance, ALL the steps which will be necessary to achieve success. Often (like Campbell himself) they don’t enjoy success when it arrives – they are too busy planning what to do next! Successful innovators are the same.
  • Focus: winners have a relentless focus on what THEY want to achieve. Campbell sees George Osborne – focused on his austerity policy – as more of a natural winner than David Cameron who “bounces around” according to the topic of the day. Companies need focus too: in a world of media fragmentation, companies who try to use all media, end up without a meaningful presence in any.
  • Clear objectives: to be a winner, you have to know what would be a “win” for you and your organisation: For Campbell’s team, Burnley, winning means avoiding for relegation whereas for the plutocrats of Manchester City, it means nothing less than topping the premiership.
  • Using data: too many companies use data to validate their own biases. Data needs to be used to drive innovation.
  • Surrounding yourself with people who will challenge you, not ‘yes men’ - the success of New Labour was built on a team who continually challenged the leader and never accepted second best for the sake of diplomacy.
  • Consistency: linked to focus, this means not letting other people’s perceptions cloud the message you want to get across (Campbell is definitely a message man, rather than a media man.) This led to perhaps the most interesting factoid of the presentation: Angela Merkel always travels with a personal stylist, whose most important role is to PREVENT her clothes being noticed.

A great interview, some challenging questions from the floor and just the kind of relevant and actionable insight which the Marketing Society is so good at providing.


Julian is a member of The Marketing Society board, a fellow of the Society and president of the network one. Read more from him in our Clubhouse.
 

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