Let me tell you about Roger Federer* (and me)

In 2017, Roger Federer won his (then record-breaking) 18th grand slam at the 2017 Australian Open, at the age of 35 and having just returned from a 6-month injury layoff, and 5 years since his last grand slam victory. In the years that followed, he would go on to win two more grand slams at the twilight of his career.

What’s interesting about this is that all of his achievements prior to this had already led him to be labelled the Greatest Of All Time (#GOAT).

But despite already being regarded as the #GOAT, Federer was very aware that the things that brought him success in the early parts of his career, were not going to be the same things that would bring him success in the latter stages of his career. He worked on his backhand, he changed his equipment (opting for a bigger racquet head size for you tennis and racquet nerds like me), and brought more variety into his game.

He transformed.

While I’m no #GOAT at anything, what got me here today is not what is going to get me ‘there’ in the future.

I need to transform.

For me personally, there’s a second variable in the story I’ve recently discovered: the meaning of ‘success’. My definition of success to today is also not likely my definition of success into the future. So with that, after 5.5 years leading and building 贝恩公司 's marketing and e-commerce practice across APAC, today I wave ‘Goodbye for now’ to my time at the firm, and moving forward with a new definition of success.

So what's next?

So what’s next? I’m excited by the possibilities in the conversations I’m currently having:

1. Where my expertise, experience and what mentally stimulates me is front and center:

a. Commercial and general management

b. Marketing and e-commerce

c. Taking on business building and transformation missions - and the diversity of vision/strategy setting, execution, operations, demand generation and commercialisation, partnerships (and more) it entails

d. Continuing to have a platform that enables me to coach, guide and mentor - continuing to move away from 'accumulation' to 'contribution'

2. In topics that are sparking my intellectual curiosity:

a. Gaming: a huge and growing industry where the consumers of today and tomorrow (kids) are spending most of their time. Is gaming the new ‘social network’(?)

b. Web3: for gaming and other use cases, I see signals such as resurging crypto prices, a range of crypto ETFs taking it more mainstream, and new and emerging business models making this one to watch (which in recent times feels overshadowed by g. below....)

c. Retail media: growing aggressively, in areas beyond retail (travel, banking and financial services, and more), and where studies show that half of marketers are investing in retail media with incremental budgets

d. Influencer marketing: I don’t think this is going away; yet I just don’t believe very many marketers are doing this correctly - over-relying on organic influencer content with unknown on target accuracy and really low reach, and with lack of direct measurement again real business results (versus engagement and likes)

e. Streaming: the global giants are aggressively expanding into gaming and shopping malls(!); and growing ad monetisation presences in the APAC region. At the same time there are local market streaming players making the space interesting to watch in how it evolves here in the region

f. More broadly, marketing (including commerce): consistently underestimated as a significant contributor to to driving business revenue and profit growth; commerce in APAC is highly fragmented and a pioneer in evolving models (social commerce, live commerce) making the space dynamic here, and placing APAC at the forefront globally

g. AI: need I say more; I mean what article would be complete without the mention of AI? :P

3. In places that are aligned to the continued pursuit of working towards my December 2024 vision:

I’m excited by the conversations I’m having in

4. Full-time capacities; and in parallel in

5. Advisory roles and board opportunities.

Watch this space; and I’d love other ideas, conversations and coffees for other ways I can transform and bring to bear my version of success.

PS: for sale – burgundy suit, lightly used for hosting gigs and random short dances. DM for details

*And if you haven’t done so do yourself a favour and watch this:

And read this: