My guest today is Rory Sutherland. Rory is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Group, which is one of the largest and most renowned advertising agencies in the world. He’s also the author of one of my favorite recent books called Alchemy: The surprising power of ideas that don’t make sense. In this conversation, we explore many of his counterintuitive ideas about business. Rory makes you think as much as anyone, so I hope you enjoy this conversation.
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For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
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Show Notes
(2:12) – (First question) – Why spreadsheets and logic kill magic
(5:42) – What a product/service is vs how it’s delivered and makes people feel (regular moonshot vs psychological moonshot)
(13:22) – Psychological anomalies - doing things faster, better, cheaper (Red Bull vs Coke)
(19:54) – Swiss army knife that companies should avoid
(22:50) – Don’t design for average
(24:39) – How do people approach improving their business through marketing
(27:30) – Case for direct mail
(29:22) – Turning your weaknesses into a strength
(34:29) – The seven deadly sins and how useful they are as guideposts
(37:38) – Most powerful sin for marketing
(39:14) – Reaching intelligent answers from dumb questions
(43:25) – Why the opposite of a good idea can sometimes be a good idea
(47:30) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag