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 articlesA 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
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16 articles in Accountability
MAC · August 30, 2026
I Wanted a Fishing Licence. New York Gave Me a Deer.
I wanted to go fishing for one day.
MAC · July 21, 2026
Is This Really the Best Starbucks’ CEO Can Do?
Last weekend at Fanatics Fest, I was handed a drink that looked less like coffee and more like the New York Knicks had been melted inside a clear plastic cup.
MAC · July 12, 2026
The Memory Trap: Why What Used to Be True About Booking, Expedia, Priceline, and Kayak Is Now a Corporate Illusion
The Mirage of the Open Web:
MAC · June 29, 2026
The age of the lazy assumptions is over.
It’s time to build for the reality of who people actually are.
MAC · June 26, 2026
Why Modern Mail is Broken and Needs an Overhaul
During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, bluntly titled “Reforming the U.S.
MAC · June 13, 2026
The Syracuse University Deficit and the Great Higher-Ed Extortion
My alma mater, Syracuse University, simultaneously purged 93 academic programs, hiked total annual student costs to a staggering $95,676, and then admitted to faculty and staff that it had missed its enrollment targets and entered a formal budget deficit.
MAC · May 11, 2026
GameStop's $56 Billion Prank:
How CEO Ryan Cohen Got Banned From the Company He is Trying to Buy
MAC · April 8, 2026
The Decade Meta Stopped Thinking and Started Copying
Does a company that has to buy or steal every new idea it deploys actually deserve to lead the next era of human connection?
MAC · March 22, 2026
Accountability in the Age of the One-Way Mirror
Afroman and the Moment Surveillance Became Accountability
MAC · February 21, 2026
You Found the Loophole; Congratulations, You Still Look Petty.
There is a version of winning that should make you embarrassed.
MAC · February 8, 2026
Bad Bunny, the Big Game, and the America That Refuses to Listen
Bad Bunny isn’t some performative diversity booking. He’s the most-streamed artist in the world for multiple years in a row. He’s already mainstream. The Super Bowl is just catching up.
MAC · January 30, 2026
The Death of a Thousand Fees Economy
When Government Gets Cornered and Everyone Else Gets Petty
MAC · January 11, 2026
Thirteen Years, No Half-Stepping: What Jacob Sanders, Big Daddy Kane, and MAC Have in Common
No half-stepping shows up over time
MAC · January 9, 2026
Careless People Gave Me PTSD
But Not for the Reason You Think
MAC · January 7, 2026
The Teleprompter Died and So Did CBS News
Tony Dokoupil’s Debut Didn’t Fail. The CBS News Model Did.
MAC · January 5, 2026
Can Mamdani and Khan Prove the Public Still Has Power?
Behind the scenes, they mapped forgotten statutes and buried authority. If it holds, New York could become a model for rapid, people-first governance.
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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.