zebra associates logo

Latest Articles

Stay ahead with our expert analysis and strategic insights. From market trends to operational excellence, discover how leading businesses are driving sustainable growth in today's competitive landscape.
Go early or get left behind: four lessons for the agent economy

Go early or get left behind: four lessons for the agent economy

I've been digging into ChatGPT's new 'Agent mode' and have been thinking about what it may mean for brands, and for eCommerce specifically. While nascent it’s pretty clear that ‘Agent mode’ is here to stay, and from here user expectations for how it should feel are going to grow.

The Listening Gap: how brands forgot their customers, and why AI is about to call their bluff

The Listening Gap: how brands forgot their customers, and why AI is about to call their bluff

Users are starting to bring AI agents into commerce that actually listen to them. Those agents have access to context, history, intent — everything brands would kill for but never bothered to earn. I see two paths ahead: Build for efficiency (make yourself machine-readable for AI agents) Build for experience (offer something worth choosing over delegation) The deadly middle ground? Pretending you're experiential while delivering commodity UX. The reckoning isn't coming. It's already here.

Webinar - Delivering commercial growth; keeping it simple with Kevin Styles, CEO at The Jamie Oliver Group

Webinar - Delivering commercial growth; keeping it simple with Kevin Styles, CEO at The Jamie Oliver Group

Webinar - Experimentation as a growth engine: 'If it disagrees with experiment, then it's wrong'

Webinar - Experimentation as a growth engine: 'If it disagrees with experiment, then it's wrong'

Zebra's approach - combining accuracy and precision

Zebra's approach - combining accuracy and precision

The Marketer’s Dilemma

The Marketer’s Dilemma

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.”

5 things I’d tell my corporate self

5 things I’d tell my corporate self

I’ve been lucky enough to have had a fantastic corporate career; I’ve spent over 25 years in commercial roles with some of the biggest and most iconic brands, so it’s no great surprise that I’ve learnt a lot along the way.

3 simple steps to combining Media Mix Modeling (MMM) with Incrementality Testing to unlock cost effective growth

3 simple steps to combining Media Mix Modeling (MMM) with Incrementality Testing to unlock cost effective growth

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.” Kush Shah gives his insights in how he leads brands to marketing success by combining Media Mix Modeling (MMM) with incrementality testing to create effective and measurable marketing campaigns.

Top 3 reasons why operating model changes fail

Top 3 reasons why operating model changes fail

Having a clearly defined target operating model (TOM) can be a critical component within an organisation's transformation journey. But defining a TOM, and changing it, is often fraught with complexity and friction.

Why everyone should hire an entrepreneur

Why everyone should hire an entrepreneur

In a corporate world that’s often cautious about unconventional paths, entrepreneurs can be overlooked in the recruitment process or seen as risky hires. At Zebra, we think this is a big mistake.

Has ‘trading’ become a dirty word?

Has ‘trading’ become a dirty word?

On a macro level, business is a pretty simple process, isn’t it? Money comes in, you have bills to pay, and what’s left is your bottom-line profit. Of course, you know this — it’s business 101. But somewhere along the line, ‘trading’ seems to have become a dirty word. Unsexy at best, and a dying discipline as businesses grow.

Top 5 mistakes to avoid when in-housing digital

Top 5 mistakes to avoid when in-housing digital

Bringing digital skills in-house is often the goal of any business that relies on digital for a significant amount of revenue. But some ways of going about it are more successful than others...

Experimentation is the Greatest Science

Experimentation is the Greatest Science

Why you should introduce experimentation in to your business

The rise of the Generalist

The rise of the Generalist

Its a conversation we have with many clients. The truth is that delivering commercial growth in a digital world seems to become ever more reliant on technical specialists – CX, UX, paid channels, SEO, social, hypotheses and modelling, optimisation, CRM, testing, and increasingly AI… The list seems endless and the MD/CEO confusion understandable. Some of the very biggest organisations can afford to contemplate in housing everything they need. But most leaders can’t, or don’t want to. So how do they balance the conundrum?

88 miles an hour, Marty!

88 miles an hour, Marty!

The role of silos in the failure of big projects, and what you can do to mitigate against it

Build or Buy? Criteria to help leaders make technology choices

Build or Buy? Criteria to help leaders make technology choices

As organisations have improved their internal engineering capabilities, the choice of how to best approach technology choices has become less clear cut.

The problem with business cases (and a better way to make decisions)

The problem with business cases (and a better way to make decisions)

How are big projects decided on in your business?

Mind the skills gap

Mind the skills gap

How organisations can effectively assess capability to build better teams

2023 in Review - and what's in store for 2024?

2023 in Review - and what's in store for 2024?

Ready to realise the true commercial potential of digital for your business?

Get in touch