C3Centricity

12/10/2026

Careers are getting longer!

People increasingly expect to work into their 60s, 70s and sometimes beyond. Yet much of the career advice we still follow was built around a much shorter arc: learn in your twenties, climb through your thirties and forties, peak somewhere in your fifties, then begin winding down.

Harvard Business Review recently argued that this model no longer fits. As working lives lengthen, experienced mid-career employees are burning out just as their knowledge and judgment should be becoming most valuable.

That changes the maths.

Imagine being 45. You’ve already worked for perhaps 20 years. That feels like a long time. But if you work until 70, you’ve got another 25. You’re not approaching the end. You’re not even halfway finished.

Read the full article on The Glass Ladder Substack and sign you to get future editions.

https://theglassladder.substack.com/p/ai-may-be-breaking-the-first-rung

Suddenly the question, “Can I tolerate this for another few years?” sounds very different.

12/10/2026

Synthetic consumers can give teams insight faster than they can decide whether those answers deserve to be believed.

Qualtrics’ 2025 Market Research Trends report, published in October 2024, found that 71% of researchers surveyed expected synthetic responses to account for more than half of data collection within three years.

That’s an expectation, not a measure of their accuracy or current market share. But it shows why insight leaders need clear rules for using them.

The commercial attraction is clear: faster exploration, more routes considered and less time spent developing weak concepts. The danger is equally practical. A plausible answer can acquire the status of consumer evidence simply because it appears in a research presentation.

’s latest article on examines four risks, seven practical checks and a 90-day rollout plan to help insight and innovation leaders use synthetic responses without losing contact with the people whose decisions determine commercial success.

https://customerthink.com/synthetic-consumers-need-a-human-reality-check/

04/10/2026

Too many CPG companies run product renovation strategies that start with cost savings.

Procurement removes material, a pack gets lighter or a portion shrinks; then the change is relaunched as new and priced higher.

Consumers are noticing.

In 2025, Verbraucherzentrale Hamburg added 77 products to its list of hidden price increases, with an average rise of 28.4%, and almost 35,000 people voted on the worst offender. The risk is higher in 2026 for two reasons.

Deloitte classes 47% of consumers globally as value seekers who compare carefully before they buy. France and Austria now require retailers to flag shrunken products on the shelf, so shoppers increasingly compare before buying.

Short-term sales often hold while trust quietly falls, which is why so many companies miss the damage. The remedy is one extra approval in your product renovation strategy: someone has to sign off consumer value, with the old and new products side by side and both prices visible.

The latest blog post from C3Centricity shows how the four QC2™ lenses (company, customer understanding, brands and processes) can test a renovation before shoppers do.

https://lnkd.in/eGdDWXpT

01/08/2026

Je vis en Suisse romande, entourée de voisins francophones… avec un site qui, lui, refusait obstinément de parler français.

Oui, je sais. Pas très centré client pour quelqu’un qui passe son temps à parler de centricité consommateur.

Il aura fallu un projet avec un client francophone pour que je me dise enfin : « Denyse, il serait peut-être temps d’appliquer tes propres conseils. »

Alors voilà, C3Centricity parle maintenant français.

Le site, le blog, nos idées et nos méthodes sont désormais disponibles en français et en anglais.

Après avoir travaillé dans plus de 130 pays, j’ai enfin pensé aux personnes qui vivent juste à côté de chez moi. Mieux vaut t**d que jamais.

La version française vous attend sur c3centricity.com.

Alors, dites-moi franchement : français, anglais… ou un peu des deux ?

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