Laura Hawtin

Ask most CEOs whether their marketing is working and you’ll get one of two answers. Either a confident “yes” based on a gut feeling, or a more honest “I think so” that trails off slightly. Very few can point to a clear, structured answer — not because they’re not paying attention, but because nobody has given them a practical framework for evaluating it.

Episodic marketing - bursts of activity with gaps in between - rarely compounds. Each campaign starts from scratch. Brand recognition builds slowly, then resets. Teams spend more time reacting than building. And because nothing is connected to a consistent underlying framework, the results are hard to predict and harder to sustain.

Strategies don't fail in the boardroom. They fail somewhere between the boardroom and the people who are supposed to deliver them. Leadership teams invest significant time and resource into getting the strategy right - the positioning, the priorities, the plan. There's a clear direction. Energy is high. Everyone leaves the room aligned.