Strategy & delivery / Selected essay
Why recommendations fail
(and what to do instead).
A good recommendation is a proposed change. What gives it somewhere to land?
Read the essayInsights / Jay Mandel
Question the promise.
Look at the evidence.
Writing on the gap between what organizations say and what people experience—and the decisions that can close it.
Explore the articles
A place to start
Thinking you can put to work.
Why recommendations fail
MarTech / Growth & Innovation
The cost of silence in marketing is too high
Read on MarTechMarketing Accountability Council / Data & AI
How Bad Math and Synthetic Empathy are Ruining Customer Service
Read on Marketing Accountability CouncilThe article library
Find your next useful read.
Search a question, choose a topic, or filter by publication.
Topic
Publication
12 articles in Leadership & Culture
MAC · August 6, 2026
A Tale of Two Gas Stations: Ownership, Empathy, and the Hidden Cost of “Not My Job”
Last weekend, my car engine started steaming and smoking in Tuckahoe, New York.
MAC · July 7, 2026
Why Big-Box Retailers Must Align Corporate Margin with Consumer Health
Walking to the public-facing order pickup Lowe’s retail location in Yonkers, NY, one is greeted by a brightly decorated internal dashboard celebrating the store’s “Service & Sales Leaders.” Adorned with cheerful beach-themed cutouts and smiling employee photos, the board tracks localized key performance indicators (KPIs).
MAC · July 2, 2026
This Is My Story
Why my personal life, my professional career, and my creative output aren’t three separate compartments—and why lazy assumptions miss the mark.
MAC · June 10, 2026
How B2B Leaders Forgot What Marketing Is. A Historiography
For decades, executives relied on marketing to understand customers and markets. So how did it become the department responsible for defending pipeline, and proving its existence every quarter?
MAC · May 31, 2026
These Are the Breaks
Kurtis Blow and the Lost Art of Passing Culture Down
MAC · April 16, 2026
Why Burnout Isn’t a Personal Failure
Burnout Isn’t a Workload Problem. It’s a System That Stopped Seeing People
MarTech · April 14, 2026
Marketing looks successful, but misses what matters
Marketing’s drift toward optics and internal validation disconnects teams from revenue and the fundamentals that create growth.
MAC · March 11, 2026
Why B2B Marketing Feels Seen Yet Invisible
This article unpacks how modern, hyper-targeted marketing made B2B marketing departments feel invisible, why this frustrates marketers and confuses leadership, and what it takes to fix it.
MAC · March 1, 2026
The Backflip Economy
How the Savannah Bananas Perfected Spectacle and What Their Success Reveals About Our Dopamine-Driven Culture
MAC · January 27, 2026
What a Kitchen Table Conversation Taught Me About Career Resilience
Why the right traits matter more than titles, tools, or resumes.
MarTech · July 8, 2025
Why marketers are leaving and what it takes to stay
What pushes marketers away and what could help them stay.
Popular on MarTech
MarTech · September 12, 2024
The fading third place: A reflection on Starbucks and society
What Starbucks reveals about shared social spaces.
Popular on MarTech
Full publication archives
Marketing Accountability Council ↗Clean Data Alliance ↗MarTech ↗Interviews & media appearances ↗
The book / Kogan Page · 2023
Brand Strategy
in Three Steps.
Identity. Intention. Implementation. A framework for connecting your values, your offer, and the way you deliver.
Explore the book and sample chapterKeep exploring
From reading to doing
Bring your question
into the room.
Tell me what you are working through. We can decide together what needs to happen next.