How does an engagement start?

With one of the best conversations you have had about your business. From there, Plan B scopes a proposal specific to the problem. No standard packages. Every engagement is defined by what the work actually requires.

Plan B works across brand strategy, positioning, creative direction, and market entry, for businesses where the stakes are real. The work starts with research and market understanding, not messaging. The output is a clear commercial position and the tools to hold it.

What kinds of organisations does Plan B work with?

Size matters less than the stakes. Plan B works with large corporates navigating transformation and ambitious founders scaling into new territory. The right fit is an organisation with a complex problem that needs genuine strategic thinking, not a template.

Does Plan B offer retainers?

The Right Hand is an ongoing engagement built around a clear set of goals. It operates like a full embed, not an advisory arrangement at arm's length. It is one of two at any one time. Beyond that, Plan B works on a project basis: scoped, delivered, and closed.

How long does a project take?

An Edge Study completes in 90 days or less. A Market Intervention is scoped to the scale of the idea, but urgency is built into how Plan B works: assembled fast, focused hard, delivered clean. The Right Hand runs for as long as the work requires. Timelines are always defined by what the problem needs, not what is convenient.

Why Plan B instead of a large agency or consulting firm?

Large firms are built to reduce risk, and the process shows: layers of approval, strategy by consensus, ideas no one hates. Plan B exists because the thinking that changes a company's trajectory rarely survives that filter. One senior strategist, accountable for the outcome, with a small assembled team when the idea demands it. You are not buying a methodology. You are buying judgement.

When is Plan B the wrong choice?

When the work needs a hundred hands, a global media buy, or a team on the ground in twelve markets at once — that is agency work, and good agencies exist for it. When what is really wanted is validation for a decision already made. And when nothing is genuinely at stake. Plan B is built for problems where the thinking is the bottleneck.

What is Ben Shipley's background?

Ben Shipley has twenty years of creative strategy experience across three continents. He led global brand strategy at Fortescue through its transformation from iron ore giant to green energy contender, across 90 countries and through one of the most complex repositioning challenges in Australian corporate history. Before that: building a brand and culture consultancy in Shanghai, leading creative and digital strategy across APAC at Hill+Knowlton, and running marketing and innovation for Australia's largest print company through a period of serious disruption. Curiosity built it. Curiosity keeps it sharp.

Ondunge yorutu ndji hingisa ozombanda, omiviro, novirongo vyozohonangu.

Kovahingire ovanene mba okukura kwavo kwa yenene okuza pu okurikuza.

Twa hanga omakambisi yevari otja orutu rumwe motjinginyo tjozohonangu vevari nomurongo nu twe ye tuma otjihonga tji re kehi yo US$10 milioni. Twa hinga otjikambisi tjomahurupa motjirongo otjo American pop culture nu twa yandja otji-hidrogeno otjizere ombunda oyahende popovasere vo United States. Twa toora otjikambisi tjomahurupa kotjirongo otjeuye otjoviretwa nu twe tji isa otjari otjikambisi otjihivi otjokutjapa motjirongelwa otjokutoresa tjokuhomba momayuva hambondatu.

Tu nongwa okuyakurwa tji otjirongo tja tjanguka nu otjirongo katji ya hiti kombanda. Omukurukwa omupe. Okuhangana okutjapa. Okuruka nokuhumbwa. Otjirongo otjipe. Tji tji ya, tji ya moondjo yotjirongelwa tjomarongo, nu otja pe oondjo yokuhinga otjikuravo.

Uta omahungiriro →

Twe eta Ben okuya tjita otjiungo tjondunge yorutu mu Education Perfect. Omakonakono yotjihena kombanda yotjiungo tji tjari kutja tji rikuparwa i omundu ngwa raverisa, na tjeya. Ozomueze pomunda, omariripuriro ye ngunda ye rikuvika otja matu tjere otjikambisi na apo tu ripura okatja koye ke ri.

Jonathan Morgan, CEO, Education Perfect

Otjiungo.

Oviposa vine. Ozombango vine. Otukatja tune. Omuano wu ngu.

Twa uta no tjipuriro tjimwe. Apa ka tji ripura kutja tji ri motjiungo? Otjipuriro otjinini tjikwao. Otjike otjinene tjihivi kombanda yotjikambisi hi, nu omirumbe vingapi omuhavano hi mu u ri? Omariziriro ya rumbi ye ripandja kotjipuriro otjivevari.

Uta omahungiriro →

Otja matu ungura.

Omakonakono yotjiungo hi ari kutja tji rikuparwa i omundu ngwa raverisa.

Edge Study

Edge otji-testable kotjikambisi tjoye. Momayuva vevari nomurongo poo omingi tjihari kehi.

Ondunge onene okurikareha otja matu tjivara otjikambisi tjipanga ehuni, ondunge oini okumakonako, ondunge otjihivi okutjitwa. Kai ri discovery yovyakuranga. Kai ri deck yozondunge.

U za nekondjo ryomeripuriro otjirongelwa katji nari. Otjihivi okumakonako ku-otjiungo tji wa tjere, otjirimumwe kutja ovi-teams mokati kotjikambisi vi tji rihake.

Kotjikuravo apa otjina tji matji sokurunduruka, nungwari kape na ngu ma tjiwa kutja otjikeṋa.

Otjisuta tjapamwe, tji tji zuvasanwa ngunda otjiungura atji hiya uta.

Market Intervention

Otjirongo otji munika. Omuezu umwe okuya komiezu hambondatu, okuza kondunge okuya kokutjapa.

Okupanga tji-otjihena kombanda yotjikambisi kutja otjirongo tji hi vasa okutapata, nu okamburuvi kanao ari omurumbe u u ungurisa yozomuviro. Otji-team otjinini otjo vahende va rikutera ngu tu vasa apa aviyeu, otja etero ryondunge nu tji tumwa nekondjo.

U za notjirongo, nu kai kampanya. Otjihaneno otjihombere kai omuviro. Otjari ovi-stakeholder mba ya okumuna ndji ma-ninga okuungura.

Kotjikuravo apa ondunge i ri po, nungwari otjirando katji i tjiwa nai.

Otjisuta notjirongo vi zikamene kondunge, nungwari kakohore ozoiri.

The Right Hand

Mokati kotjirongo pu CEO. Tji ya tjita ngunga ku nongwa otjirongo, omawiki hambondatu o minimum. Ovatwaera vevari rimwe.

Otjikaranga otjihe motjipangeye tjo CEO, kotjiposa mbi kavi rikuvike motjikaranga otjihe. Yiripo, yi ri notji-invest, yi ri nakukupura.

U za notjirongera, nu kotjiposa. Ovi-teams vi ungura no autonomy otjihena, ovi-structure mbi rikupwa, omirumbe mbi rikuvatera okukura, no orwao rwo management ru isa okurikuvatera pombanda.

Kotjikuravo apa otjiposa tji tji ri okambana oini, nu ka tji ri otjikamba.

Omakwizikiro omatwe, kominda aviyevari.

Uta omahungiriro

Omaandiko.

Okupanga otjirongera nga otjikero otjorutu tji rikupa otjapaha. Otjingombwa otji, no maandiko otji omarwa ngu ya wa motjihe.

Omaandiko yorwiha →

The medium is the metric

Every medium produces its own metric. When the medium shifts, the metric keeps running for about a decade before anyone notices it has stopped describing anything.

13 October 2026 · 2 ovituvayo vyokulesa

We've been scared by change before

Technology scares are ancient. Every one has got the compression right, and every one has missed what happens at the two tails.

11 October 2026 · 4 ovituvayo vyokulesa

The Death of Consistency

Consistency is not dead. The chorus has mistaken fragmentation for extinction, and told brands to relinquish control when the opposite is required.

7 October 2026 · 3 ovituvayo vyokulesa

Medium or middleman

The agent has a face now. Meta clipped a kawaii intermediary to a keychain, and most of the industry is arguing about the wrong question.

30 September 2026 · 7 ovituvayo vyokulesa

Grade the Fade

Aggregate reputation scores hide brand decline for years. The language on your own most recent surfaces already knows.

23 September 2026 · 5 ovituvayo vyokulesa

Room Temperature

AI has arrived and nobody can agree on what it is. So they thawed the man who could have told them: Marshall McLuhan, 1980.

18 September 2026 · 12 ovituvayo vyokulesa

Talk Is Cheap. Walk Is Behind a Paywall.

There are two versions of your company: the one you author, and the one you emit. The market cannot tell them apart for about a year.

14 September 2026 · 6 ovituvayo vyokulesa

The Intelligence Looks to You

The machine looks to you for authority on your story. If it can't find that quickly, someone else delivers your story.

11 September 2026 · 1 ovituvayo vyokulesa

Machine-Spun Misconception

The machine's summary of your results is being fed to buy-side analysts before you're in the room. If it drifts from your disclosures, the market prices the correction before you know it happened.

9 September 2026 · 2 ovituvayo vyokulesa

Nobody Told the Board.

46 per cent of your investors are reading a synthetic summary instead of your call. Nobody told the board.

8 September 2026 · 10 ovituvayo vyokulesa

Ben.

Ozomuviro mevari nomurongo yokurihupa okutjivara otjike ozombanda zinwi zi ungwa nu zinwi zi haungwa. Ari yauta otja ozondunge kuhupa otja ozombanda. Otjike ovakwao va kambura ozokwao mbozohivi, na tjike tjapiswa okuzeruna. Ozombanda za ya uka kombunda, apa mba tjivara kutja okumuna otjina otjipi otji u vasa okusutwa.

Global Head of Brand mu Fortescue mokutunga oruveze okuza ondjirakanga y'omahurupa wa hierro okukenda omuhipori womazere. Omakambisi yevari, orutu rumwe, ozohonangu vevari nomurongo, architecture rimwe. Advocacy ndja unguma mokumakurwo a a wa US Inflation Reduction Act.

Komurungu wanao, otjirongelwa otjokuungura no tjopo-digital motjipanga otjihe tje APAC mu Hill+Knowlton ko Coca-Cola, Roche, Air New Zealand na Optus. Okutwakuvika nokuyondja mu Ovato motjikuravo tjokakari. Otjirumba tjopobitye otjokuungura tji tjatungirwa okuza ko-kaha mu Shanghai. Omupangurire wo Cannes Lions, 2015.

Twa toora ovingine vyongatikire komuvya wumwe kutja etu yokuripura tji ri harikuvatera. Omundu ngwa tjita otjiungo pombanda ovingu omundu ngu ma tjita otjoye.

Apa motjirongo tji Sydney. Otjiungo, kako.

Etyiro otjihe →