Mike Stopforth

I posed the question of what’s the single best piece of business advice you’d ever received to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn recently. There were some great answers, so I’ve collated and listed them here. Sorry if I didn’t manage to capture them all. If you have a gem that’s not here, please add it to …

Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything. Many would argue the inherent value of ideas. Personally, I believe ideas in and of themselves are worthless. An average idea with even the tiniest first step taken is immeasurably more valuable than a phenomenal idea coupled with zero action. Derek Sivers, entrepreneur and all-round smart human, has expressed …

Never settle. Businesses – and agencies in particular – mess up when they settle. The biggest enemy of innovation in any company is past success. When you think you have it made – when you think you’ve gotten it right, you’re already in trouble. Winning customers is tough. Keeping customers is tougher. Shaping the future of customer relationships is …

The toughest part of running Cerebra has been finding, hiring, losing, and firing employees. While client wins and losses and the ups-and-downs in between are emotional rollercoasters in their own right, nothing affects me as deeply as the highs and lows of staff relationships. It’s one thing I haven’t come close to getting right yet. …

It’s better to be safe than sorry, right? But, nothing ventured, nothing gained. You should never judge a book by its cover. But clothes make the man (or woman)? Winners never quit. But you should also quit while you’re ahead. Contradictory idioms pepper the English language. Almost every go-to adage has a rational, sensible comeback. I …

“I hate meetings.” The most frequently spoken words at Cerebra. Closely followed by “Let’s have a meeting.” Meetings are widely considered an abominable waste of time. And yet, we still have them. We still have them because, despite all the wondrous technology at our fingertips, we haven’t (yet) developed a comparable replacement for real human …

In Saving Private Ryan, there is a beautiful scene set inside an abandoned church that Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) and his squad seek refuge in overnight. In it, Captain Miller and Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore) discuss how many men died under Miller’s command: Captain Miller: You see, when… when you end up killing one of your …

I haven’t had a desk at Cerebra for just over five months now. Cerebra’s offices have a very open plan design to start with, and Craig and I deliberately resisted the temptation of closed-off offices (more about that here). I had, without much intention, occupied a desk in the far corner of the office behind the kitchen …