Winners and how they succeed

The spin master has published his memoirs.  Now he turns his attention to winning and finding that winning formula. Alastair Campbell uses his little black book full of contacts (these days he can get to speak to pretty much anybody), to talk to captains of industry, sport and politics. About leading, winning, developing a winning mindset.

You get the picture.

In the first few pages I was convinced that this was going to be standard airport business fare. Actually it’s better than that. The hypothesis that being a good team captain, building a business, winning an election and running faster than any other living human amounts to the same thing, is flaky.  What makes this book shake itself down and go somewhere interesting, is that Alastair Campbell knows how to win in the political sphere and trots round to his heroes to compare notes with them. Some are more insightful than others, but this book really shines whenever the spotlight switches back to politics.

Because as passionate as Campbell is about sport, it is politics that he really knows.

It’s a useful book for marketers because Campbell starts off in familiar territory talking about OST objectives strategy and tactics. When he tears Obama off a strip for lack of strategy in Syria I wanted to argue with him. How do you know what strategy Obama is following? After the two disastrous ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - and not much better in Libya - the last thing any president wants to do is to get drawn into a ground war in Syria. Not doing so might be regarded as strategic success.

There’s also an intriguing aside where he gets into an argument with Jose Maurinho about tactics and strategy. Maurinho is much more interested in making sure tactics are used constantly and followed to the letter but the strategy is secondary and used occasionally for particular occasions. That’s very familiar to many marketing departments however much Campbell may want to disagree with Mourinho! The book makes comparisons with sport far more than learnings from business ‘winning’.  Branson makes an inevitable appearance, but business learnings are thin on the ground. Anna Wintour makes an interesting interviewee but that is about the managing of her image and running a media business, again, territory familiar to Campbell.

Unsurprisingly, the best chapter is the one on crises where he can not only talk us through big political crises of his own (who would have thought John Prescott’s punch would have caused so much damage?), but he is able to detail Clinton’s coping strategy for getting out of Lewinskigate because Slick Willy talked him through it personally and Campbell has his own perspective from his time in Downing Street.

The oddest chapter is the one dedicated to the Queen, though Campbell is careful to tell us that he has always been - and still is - a republican. When the survival of the house of Windsor preserves the class distinctions which Campbell has spent much of his political life trying to erase. Clearly the Queen’s media strategy is formidable if she has managed to call Campbell to heel!

So what is the verdict?

If you’re interested in politics or sport then this is a treat. If you are interested in PR and image management this is also a good read. The book does the trick of sitting squarely in motivation/airport publisher territory, while giving you wisdom from some extraordinary achieving individuals. And it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

How can you when Usain Bolt eats chicken nuggets before running and is still a winner?!

John Griffiths is the barefoot insighter! He runs his research and planning consultancy Planning Above and Beyond. Read more from John in our Clubhouse.

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