Our Monthly Round-up of the key pieces in Marketing for August – we’ve chosen five key articles, and a podcast this month – if you missed any of them, have some time they are well worth a catchup. All our monthly reviews are available on our website. http://haiconsulting.com/category/views/

Our August highlights:
1. Our Top pick, this month is a piece from the Harvard Business Review August. Written by Rebecca Zucker ‘Managers are Burned out, here’s how to help recharge them.’ Rebecca offers six strategies to help recharge the burned-out managers on your team: 1) Recognize and acknowledge their burnout; 2) Create opportunities for personal connection both in person and virtually; 3) Re-assess, re-prioritize, and re-distribute their work; 4) Revise team agreements about how you all work together; 5) Touch base one-on-one with your leaders on a regular basis; and 6) Set the expectation with team members that they use all of their holiday time — it can be easy to put off or skip vacation when there’s so much to do.
Here is the link: https://hbr.org/2023/08/managers-are-burned-out-heres-how-to-help-them-recharge

2. Secondly, we are a great fan of the podcast Off to Lunch. This episode looks at the economy and in Business Studies a piece on Why a business fails and what can we learned from it. Wilko is the latest retail example of a business going into administration. Why does a business that was previously thriving end up failing? What tips a struggling business into insolvency? Graham Ruddick interviews Retail Veteran Ian Shepherd and discusses what it was like being chief executive of a ailing company. A summary of the bankruptcy discussion: “Gradually, then suddenly.” Ian now writes the superb Moving Tribes newsletter on business strategy. Here is the link: https://offtolunch.substack.com/p/off-to-lunch-is-back-04c?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

3. Thirdly, it’s a piece from Mckinsey on the future of work in America. Which jobs will be in demand? Which ones are shrinking? And which ones could be hardest to fill?
Here is the link: https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/generative-ai-and-the-future-of-work-in-america

4. Fourthly, it’s a piece from Mckinsey on the future of the CEO. Every chapter of the CEO journey comes with a unique set of challenges—and opportunities. Whether you’re a senior executive who aspires to the top job or you’re a celebrated CEO who’s preparing to pass the baton to a successor, check out this series from the McKinsey Quarterly articles.

Here is the link: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-guide-to-excelling-as-a-ceo/how-to-be-a-high-performing-ceo-at-any-stage-of-the-ceo-life-cycle

5. Fifthly, it’s the year of Generative AI and we had to include another article on this hot topic by Mckinsey. As organizations rapidly deploy generative AI tools, survey respondents expect significant effects on their industries and workforces. Which jobs will be in demand? Which ones are shrinking? And which ones could be hardest to fill?

Here is the link: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai-in-2023-generative-ais-breakout-year

6. Sixthly, we pick a piece from the Digitalnative substack and a really interesting study by the Bank of America on what consumer categories are growing and where are consumers spending money.

Here is the link: https://digitalnative.substack.com/p/follow-the-money-categories-of-consumer

Media: Fake ads? Omar Oakes, gives his view on the GymBox debacle. https://the-media-leader.com/why-gymboxs-fake-ad-crossed-a-line/

Time for the Work: We’ve gone for Mondelez and the new Ritz work by VCCP this month. So it’s congrats to them for an ad that simply made me smile. https://www.vccp.com/work/ritz/ritz-ready-when-you-arent

New Books: McKinsey special, back from Summer, Top 10 business books, there is plenty to read here. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/summer-reading-2023

Back to Henley: Our weekly column in the Henley Standard continues where we interview local entrepreneurs – it’s called Let’s Get Down to Business. We were delighted this month to interview Joe Thomas of local digital production studio Wondervision. https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/henley-on-thames/182287/lgdtbjthomas.html

We are here to help you with your agency resourcing structures, agency reviews, and benchmarking to improve your marketing performance, do give us a call with anything we can help you with.

Kind regards,
Will