ABOUT
I kept watching good teams lose to worse ideas. I wanted to know why.
The rooms where the expensive decisions get made are rarely short on talent or budget. They are short on a way to choose. Two good options, a clock running, everyone certain, and no rule for cutting one. That is where I kept seeing smart teams pick wrong.
So I stopped collecting tactics and started collecting the decisions behind them. What separated the calls that held from the ones that fell apart. Over thirty years that became a set of principles, sharpened against real client work and six years of MBA students who would not accept an answer without proof.
The pattern first revealed itself during an early campaign for a national tech launch, where my boss at the time forced us to kill our favorite creative because it didn't solve the core objection. It was a brutal, objective cut that saved the launch. That moment fixed my focus on the rules of the room, not just the quality of the craft.
A strategist by instinct. A contrarian by habit.
Values Inspire.
Principles Decide.
Values matter, but under pressure, teams need decision rules that make trade-offs clear.
Efficiency Is Not A Strategy.
Execution is easier to access. Judgment is harder to find.
WHAT CHRIS BELIEVES
The thinking behind the work.
The Goal Is Not To Be Better.
It is to be the only logical choice.
People Decide With Emotion.
They explain with logic.