Potluck

Hear the full feast of our conversation with Peter Smyth, a man of many talents, analogies and stories! We follow his cycle from Toronto to Hong Kong, onwards to Tokyo – and now back. Where his career has spanned both big agency life (BBDO) and the world of luxury marketing with Louis Vuitton and latterly Van Cleef & Arpels.

We lift the lid on Asia and particularly Japan via his deft tips for navigating Japanese culture (it’s all about finding your role in the play), the Darwinian approach to biz and marketing strategy and a comparison between Western and Japanese strategic thinking.

With the pot fully boiling, part 2 sees us uncover Peter’s modus operandi for understanding people and culture, whether it be ‘thinking in bets’, the role of insight to illuminate (vs validate) and balancing gut instinct with ‘what the data is saying’.

Before we finish with an eclectic flurry – from Honda motorbikes and the bullshit of ‘linear’ strategic thinking, to the quirks of young ad executive life.

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In the third and final part of our conversation with Peter Smyth, we have the usual conversation for this segment around three main areas:

Flavour of the Month, where we travel back in time to Honda motorbike's entry into the US in 1962.

In Brand Bullshit, Pete takes on the linearity of decision making in business and marketing strategy.

Fortunate Failures draws the curtain on Pete's experience as a young account exec carrying boards for the BBDO creatives in Toronto and how that experience had taught him to embrace randomness.

Another title Pete mentions:
Call Sign Chaos, by Jim Mattis

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In Part 2 - ‘Hacking Humans’, we fold in the next layer of our conversation with Peter Smyth.

This time, Drago and I enjoy hearing his modus operandi for understanding people and culture…

·       ‘Thinking in bets’, and how life is far more poker than chess

·       How great insight boils down to great people illuminating the opportunity ahead…

·       Balancing gut instinct vs. ‘what the data is saying’, both-ism and the art of integrated thinking (why the separation between art and science?)

·       Case-study writing: how the reality of the work isn’t captured by a template for linear thinking

·       Managing people: applying parenting principles, the importance of encouraging ‘self-agency’ and instilling not only motivation – but creating opportunities to initiate change

 Plus a selection of thought-provoking books, namely:

·       Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts,  Annie Duke

·       Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky

·       The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell

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Drago and Scott are stirring the pot - with Peter Smyth, Head of Marketing & Comms at Van Cleef & Arpels Japan.

A strategy legend in Japan, Peter is with BBDO for 16 years - in Toronto, HK and Tokyo.  He then moves to client side to become VP of Comms and Marketing at Louis Vuitton Japan before joining Van Cleef. Peter has been in Japan for 16 years until his recent move to Toronto with his family.

In part 1 Lifting the Lid on Asia you can hear: 
- How far Pete can take a dish analogy - being Canadian and all
- His shorthands for navigating Japanese culture and learning the script of the Japanese 'play'
- The Darwinian approach of Japanese business and marketing strategy
- The Japanese concept of choice: is it a good or a bad thing?
- Differences and similarities between Japanese, French and American approach to strategy
- What the responsibility of the marketer is in telling the brand story (Pete doesn't mean to sound grand!)
...and more

A few books mentioned: 
Annie Duke's Thinking in Small Bets
Maria Konnikova's The Biggest Bluff
Barry Schwartz's The Paradox of Choice

Tune in for part 2 Hacking Humans where we hack into Pete's brain to learn about learning.

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Settle down to hear the full feast of our conversation with Vasuki Shastry, author of 'Has Asia Lost It? Dynamic Past, Turbulent Future'.  
Vasuki is an inspiring writer, thinker and leader; formerly of the IMF and Standard Chartered Bank, building on his earlier experience in journalism and academia. Today  he’s an Associate Asia Pacific Fellow at the thinktank Chatham House, and Senior Fellow for the US Chamber of Commerce.

We discuss his book through our usual three segments...

Lifting the Lid on Asia:  the inspiration and premise behind his book,  defining the 'dysutopia' of Asia, his concerns for the future of developing markets, especially around social mobility, and how it his argument has been received in the West. Plus the crucial role that the market research community can play in bringing the realities of people in the region to life.

Hacking Humans: how human stories power the narrative of his book, and an exploration of two key of the 'circles of hells' it portrays: The Middle Class Trap and 'To be a Teenage girl in a Rising Asia'

Brand Burns:  must-read literature, the struggles between China and America and how a false start to his career in advertising and film set Vasuki up for success.

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From Dante's inferno, to Brand Burns...rounding off our conversation with Vasuki is our quickfire segment... 

Flavour(s) of the month: on a lighter note, we touch on the eclectic range of literature that’s on his summer reading list, and how fiction can play an important part in grasping cultural realities.

Brand bullshit: how the decoupling of the US and China markets is far from inevitable, and why the related talk of conflict is thrown around with too much abandon.

Fortunate failure: how fledgling careers in the worlds of advertising and cinema paved the way for a truer calling in the form of journalism…

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A 20-minute ride through Mumbai with an auto rickshaw driver, two contrasting realities, and a sudden epiphany for our author. In part 2, Vasuki discusses how human stories helped him anchor the heavy hitting challenges facing developing Asia today.

We zoom in on two of the eight ‘circles of hell’ discussed in the book:

1) The Middle Class Trap: how the path towards an aspirational and vibrant middle class in developing Asia is filled with obstacles, including:

-  Massification of education: how degrees are not translating into the expected opportunities, and the link to protests unfolding around the region

-  The Rise of Future Tech: the threat of tech suited to ‘powerful narrow’ applications on labor intensive industries, and the need for more vocational training institutes in building nimble workforces

2) To be a Teenage Girl in a Rising Asia: we discuss gender inequality against a backdrop of the ‘meta preference’ for sons, missing women, a bride shortage crisis and girls not getting their shot at a fair education.

- How ground-up citizenry will be most critical in delivering meaningful change

- The role of ‘womenomic’ policies in markets both within and beyond Japan

 And we round things off with Vasuki’s thoughts on how the impact of Covid-19 can be a ‘re-set’ for the region.

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Drago & Scott are stirring the pot - with Vasuki Shastry, author of Has Asia Lost It? Dynamic Past, Turbulent Future.  
He starts his career in journalism with Business India and India Today in Mumbai, then works with the Business Times in Jakarta and Singapore. After that Vasuki is in the press centre of the IMF, acting as their Asia Pacific spokesperson during the Asia financial crisis.  Vasuki then becomes Head of Public Affairs for the IMF and Standard Chartered Bank in London. Today, he’s an Associate Asia Pacific Fellow at Chatham House, a think tank, and is based in Washington DC and London. 

 Tune in for this delicious feast that is part 1 of our convo:

- The need to rethink the 'Asia' label: the 'dysutopia' of Asia
- What keeps Vasuki up at night, thinking about the future of Asia: the geopolitical, demographic and cultural challenges facing the region
- The role of consumption in future growth
- The limitations to social mobility here and the resulting social challenges in the future
- The role of the marketing and marketing research community in the region in helping to understand the 'consumer' in a more granular way: data and insight that are missing at the moment

 Dropping parts 2 and 3 later this week – stay tuned!

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As we enter a poignant summer of sport,  we have a timely conversation with Professor Simon Chadwick, Global Professor of Eurasian Sport at Emlyon Business School (based in Paris & Shanghai). As a writer, academic, consultant and speaker in the global sport industry, Simon  has particular expertise working at the intersection of sport, business, politics and technology, especially in a Eurasian context.

We stir the pot with Simon on a range of topics, including:
- What fascinates him about Asia through the lens of sport
- The sweeping impact of the 'Giga trend' of digitalisation
- The Chinese football dream: soft power and what football can learn from basketball
- Taxis, sports stores and constant vigilance: his hacks for human understanding
- 'I'm not a number I'm a free man'... losing sight of the person behind the fan in an industry consumed by data
- Dream team:  just who comes to study sport at business school, and why?
- The complex relationship between sport and brand purpose.

And as ever, we wrap things up with our quickfire round, Brand Burns.

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Top-down to Bottom-up; this full feast episode cover all 3 parts of our conversation with strategist Jocelyn Tse. Through the lens of a career that has spanned the big creative agency world in China and Hong Kong, and most recently as the founder of the independent collective MMSN, we get Joceyln's take on:

-  How both an outside-in and human-centred approach has brought her success
- Creativity in a Chinese context, and how it differs from Western markets
- The rise of the collective agency model
 -How China's digital explosion demands a bottom-up, more granular approach to strategy, but why it shouldn't be mistaken for 'tactical'
 - Brand 'mega collaborations':  why the hype is real, but the value to brands needs to be questioned...

Plus her flavour of the month (Perfect Diary), the bullshit of creative awards and how Jocelyn has learned to embrace mistakes. 
 
 

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