To most people, the chocolate and toilet paper categories have little in common. But to Ben Black, and to the team at Verlinvest, the areas are in fact closely linked – not by their product offering, but by the...

August is a big month for football. The English Premier League kicked off last night, and in Australia, the quarter finals of the Women’s World Cup take place today. Against this backdrop, it feels like the right time...

In the past ten years or so, there has been a notable shift in the perception and power of Chinese brands. I grew up in mainland China, and I can still recall the excitement that swept through my school when Nike Air...

At MBS, we’ve been advising founders and hiring into challenger brands for nearly thirty years. In that time, it’s been impossible not to notice a shift in the industry: when once the consumer goods and grocery...

When Glossier launched in 2014, it felt like a new era for the beauty industry. The brand popularised the now-ubiquitous “skincare first, makeup second” approach, and became the first cosmetics label to gain a...

This Thursday is Cinco de Mayo – an annual celebration of Mexican culture, heritage and cuisine across the globe. It’s also a chance world-over to have a drink, and for me to dedicate a Weekend Edition to my tipple...

In many ways, not much has changed in the core pub proposition in the last few decades. The combination of a welcoming environment and good choice of drinks, often accompanied by a decent food menu, has been winning...

I made my first visit to Russia in the early 2000s – about a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and shortly after Vladimir Putin became Prime Minister for the first time. My host took me on some store...

How many fashion brands consistently generate over $5bn in revenue and $3bn in profits each year? Reading through the list of the top ten fashion retailers in 2020, Nike, Inditex and H&M are predictably top –...