C3Centricity

05/03/2026

Some trends create panic. Some trends create leadership opportunities.

Anti-Algorithm is the second kind.

Consumers want more control and less manipulation. Teams inside companies are trying to keep up, and many are stuck in old thinking: “more personalisation” equals better marketing.

The leaders who stand out will be the ones who ship practical improvements that make the brand feel respectful again. One “consumer control moment” at a time. Those wins build company momentum, and they also build the kind of credibility that accelerates careers.

New article is live today: The Anti-Algorithm Consumer: How CPG Brands Win Trust and Repeat Purchase.
Link in the first comment.

If you’re working in CPG, feel free to message me the category you’re in. I’ll suggest one control moment that typically delivers the quickest trust lift.

03/03/2026

A small moment, yet it says everything.

Someone buys a product once, then gets followed around the internet for weeks as if they never bought it. That’s not relevance. That’s noise.

Consumers are starting to push back more visibly against this whole feeling of being managed by invisible rules. Mintel calls it the Anti-Algorithm Consumer.

Brands can respond by trying to be “even cleverer.” That often makes things worse.

A better response is giving people control. Simple choices, simple settings, clearer reasons, easier resets. That’s what builds trust, and trust drives repeat purchase.

I published a new blog post today: The Anti-Algorithm Consumer: How CPG Brands Win Trust and Repeat Purchase.
Link in the first comment.

01/03/2026

New post published on C3Centricity , and it’s one I think many CPG teams will feel in their bones.

The Anti-Algorithm Consumer trend is growing. People don’t hate convenience. People hate feeling nudged, tracked, and steered without clear choice.

That creates a fresh opportunity for brands. Growth doesn’t have to come from “more personalisation.” Growth can come from more respect.

Respect looks like simple, human improvements: clearer settings, calmer ad frequency, transparency around “why you’re seeing this”, and faster proof behind claims. Small changes, big trust impact.

The article is live: The Anti-Algorithm Consumer: How CPG Brands Win Trust and Repeat Purchase.
Link in the first comment.

If you’d like, share one experience that made you feel “that’s a bit much” from a brand. Real examples make this topic far more useful.

28/02/2026

Want to know what I spoke about at in Bangkok?

Listen to this pre-event interview with for a quick idea.

Comment "APAC" and I'll send you the full presentation and script.

You can then take advantage of the offer I gave attendees to grab a free leadership assessment and short masterclass.

20/02/2026

The One-Slide Strategy That Wins Meetings

A long deck often creates a long discussion.

A clear one-page choice creates a decision.

A regional lead I worked with replaced a 22-slide update with one page.

On the left: the consumer problem in one sentence and the baseline number.
On the right: the choice, the expected lift, and the single risk.

Then she ended with: “Decision needed this week” and a date.
Approval came in twelve minutes.

Most strategies hide the choice.
If everything is important, nothing moves.

If you want to try this, keep it simple:
One sentence problem. One baseline number. One choice. One risk. One date.
Send it before the meeting so leaders arrive ready to decide.

More of these practical moves are in The Glass Ladder Substack. Subscribe for free here: https://theglassladder.substack.com/

And if you want to move your career momentum faster, take the free LADDERS Assessment on .

What’s the decision you wish your leadership team would just commit to?

Teams that document decisions with context reduce rework and increase speed.

19/02/2026

Here’s the simplest way I’ve found to think about synthetic consumers:

Use them for speed.

Never use them for truth.

They are brilliant for early-stage exploration: pressure-testing ideas, finding gaps, generating hypotheses, improving briefs.

They are dangerous when you use them as proof: consumer behaviour, repeat purchase, willingness to pay, emotional meaning, cultural nuance.

CPG success lives in the messy last mile.

Real kitchens. Real budgets. Real habits.

I wrote a practical blog post on about how to use synthetic consumers without losing direction, confidence, or credibility in front of leadership.

Comment “TRUTH” and I’ll share the “Where Synthetic Breaks” checklist.

https://c3centricity.com/blog/synthetic-consumers-human-truth-firewall

17/02/2026

Synthetic consumers are about to become the new default in research.

Not because they’re better.
Because they’re quicker.

That’s exactly why they’re risky.

CPG is full of decisions where the cost of being wrong shows up later:
launches that don’t repeat, pricing moves that quietly erode share, innovation that looks exciting but fails at shelf or at home.

A synthetic consumer can give you a confident answer.
It can’t give you reality.

The question for leaders isn’t “should we use them?”
The question is “where do we draw the line?”

My latest article on lays out the line clearly, and how to keep your insight work decision-safe.

What would you NEVER trust a synthetic consumer to decide?
https://c3centricity.com/blog/synthetic-consumers-human-truth-firewall

15/02/2026

Synthetic consumers are seductive.

They’re fast. They’re cheap. They give you an answer even when you don’t have time to find a real one.

Yet CPG leaders need to be careful. Because synthetic consumers don’t buy your product. Real people do.

The danger is not that synthetic consumers are “bad.”
The danger is that teams start treating them as truth, instead of treating them as a tool.

Used well, they can help you test ideas quickly and explore scenarios.
Used blindly, they can make you very confident… and very wrong.

I wrote a blog post on what synthetic consumers are useful for, where they break, and how to protect decision quality when AI makes insight look easy.

Comment “SYNTHETIC” and I’ll send you my do’s and don’ts checklist.

https://c3centricity.com/blog/synthetic-consumers-human-truth-firewall

13/02/2026

Build Your Evidence Bank Before March.

Promotion rounds don’t reward effort. They reward proof.

Performance stories backed by artefacts land more strongly than narratives without evidence, and the proof that travels best is the proof that’s easy to forward and easy to skim. (LinkedIn Workplace Learning; calibration norms)

A category manager kept it simple. She created an evidence bank with three folders: charts, stakeholder notes, screenshots.

Every week she added one item and labelled it with the date and the outcome moved.

By Q2 she had a clean set of proof points and a pack her sponsor could reuse instantly. Her review landed harder because she wasn’t trying to “remember” her impact. She could show it.

Good work disappears when proof is built the night before calibration.

If you want to start, do this this week:
Create three folders. Add one chart, one note, one screenshot before Friday.
Then set a 15-minute evidence sweep every Tuesday.

What’s one win you know you created, but nobody else could easily prove?

If you want regular tips on getting your next promotion subscribe to The Glass Ladder Substack - it's free!

And check out the LADDERS Leadership assessment - it's free on .com.

https://theglassladder.substack.com/

11/02/2026

The Weekly Boss Brief That Buys You Air Cover

One of the biggest hidden career problems is expectation fog.

Gallup reports fewer than half of employees strongly agree they know what’s expected of them at work. That’s not just a workplace issue. It’s a career issue. When expectations aren’t clear, performance gets misread.

A product manager I coached fixed it with something simple: a Friday “boss brief.”

Three lines only: the result with the number, the choice just made, and the risk being watched.

Her manager started repeating her words in leadership meetings because the message was clean and easy to carry. When calibration arrived, the brief had already built the story week by week.

Most mid-level leaders wait for direction, then feel frustrated when priorities change without them.

A weekly brief flips the dynamic. You set the frame and make it easy for your manager to defend your work.

Try it this week:
Write your first brief today. Keep it to 60–80 words. Send it at the same time every Friday for a month.

https://theglassladder.substack.com/

Want help choosing the right three lines? Take the free LADDERS Assessment and use it to focus your March updates.

https://c3centricity.com/ladders-assessment/

Question for you to think about: What outcome are you driving right now that leadership isn’t seeing clearly?

06/02/2026

The Decision Log That Builds Your Reputation.

One of the fastest ways to build trust is to make your judgement visible.

Teams that document decisions with context reduce rework and increase speed. Leaders who keep a record of choices earn more trust across functions. (HBR)

A product director I know kept a simple shared “decision log.”

Just a table with: date, decision, reason, input, owner, result.

Every Friday she added one line and shared it with leadership.

It stopped repeat arguments, made handovers smoother, and over time she became the person people asked when decisions got complicated.

Most of us rely on memory. Senior rooms rely on records. A good log becomes a career asset.

Try it today:
Write down three recent decisions.
Add the reason and the input you used.
Share it on Friday.
Keep it short so people read it.

Today’s reminder is from The Glass Ladder Substack. Subscribe for free and get regular tips on getting that next promotion.

If you want your next move this month, take the free LADDERS Assessment. Scan the QR code.

What decision in your team keeps looping because no one captured the “why”?