What I learnt from Alastair Campbell

I’ve been listening to Alastair Campbell on what makes a winner? And you are instantly struck by how clear thinking he is – nothing seems to get between him and winning – so I think he must have some good clever ideas I can “lift” and make my own. The clarity comes in waves crashing on us all sitting in the audience – “In the world of sport and business strategy is god” (and what makes this statement almost funny is we are sitting in a church on Piccadilly which is being used as part of Ad week! #AWEurope).

So what did I learn?
Alastair's fundamental message is that unless you stay focused on your strategy, tactics take over - and in a world where everyone is operating tactically the only way to win is being even more focused on your strategy. To start with you need to agree and be very clear about what you want to achieve. But the next stage is where the really hard work starts - it’s all the things you need to do to achieve it. And then tactics are what you use to put the strategy in action.  

Alastair also talked a lot about the difference between winners and losers (something for us that are involved in pitching is pretty important!) - and he feels that the biggest thing is winners break the journey into lots of little steps. Whereas the people who nearly make it find this process really hard.

The other plank of discussion was which is greater; the desire of success or fear of failure? And Alastair - for himself - it’s all about the fear of failure. For the book he has just written he met loads of leaders - all winners - and all but one say that fear of failure is the biggest driver. So remember this if you want to win - Winning isn't the ultimate achievement - it's the not losing.

Another area that was explored was do women win differently from men? Citing meetings he had with Angela Merkel and Anna Wintour - both women and exceptional people. He said they were the most focused people – and truly exceptional, with Anna admitting that she couldn't design anything or arrange a photo shoot but she intuitively knows what her readers want. Merkel – whilst not great on communications – is the antidote to all the tactics that spring up across politics; she is very steadfast and focused on what she is achieving. And what came as a surprise was she even has a personal stylist, their role is that she does not want anyone to write about what she is wearing. Hence the same look time and time again.
 
And finally to win you need to ask yourself…
“How can we lose this?”
“What could stop us winning?”
“What would your opponent do if they knew the stuff you know?”

It was a really inspiring start to Adweek Europe – and also backed my own favourite saying – winning isn’t everything – it’s the only thing!

Nina is CMO of Engine. Follow her @ninajas and Engine via @EngineLondon.