Dave Trott is a man who’s made a good living from the fields of advertising and marketing. He’s not just some self-appointed thought leader. He’s walked the walk as a respected influencer and practitioner, so when it was time for us to take a look at another book that can help our clients and colleagues, he was the natural person to turn to.

But let’s be clear here: Predatory Thinking isn’t your typical marketing book that’s full of buzzwords but devoid of any substance. Instead, it’s almost like a series of fairy tales that teaches you everything you need to know about running and marketing your business through the morals that each story contains.

And the author is clearly a man who knows what he’s talking about. He was given the D&AD President’s Award for lifetime achievement back in 2004, and Gold Greenlees Trott, his former agency, was voted Agency of the Year by Campaign Magazine and Most Creative Agency in the World by Ad Age. This book basically takes that experience and turns it into something that you can read, absorb and use.

Predatory Thinking

The general concept in this book is that sometimes there are challenges that we can’t solve, and the only way to adapt and to thrive in this world is to think outside the box – like a predator – and to turn them into problems we can solve. An example of this is the classic tale of the two hunters and the bear, where one of the hunters says, “I don’t need to outrun the bear, I just need to outrun you.”

And the great thing about it is that the unusual format allows Trott to draw from all sorts of examples, from fighter pilots during the Second World War to ancient philosophers and modern businessmen. They don’t even need to be real people for them to come alive, and it’s rare to see characters in a non-fiction book that are this three-dimensional.

This format also helps in other ways. It means that while this isn’t exactly a ‘how to’ guide that you can just run with, it is the perfect source of inspiration when you’re facing a problem. It’s more like a mindset than anything else, and if you’re able to adopt it by starting to think more like a predator then you’re sure to spot a difference in the way you perform both at work and in life in general.

More on Dave Trott

The interesting thing about Dave Trott is that he seems to have a magic touch. That means that it’s worth keeping an eye on everything he gets up to, whether he’s speaking at conferences or spearheading new campaigns. He also has two other books out – called Creative Mischief and 1+1=3 – and so it’s a good idea to keep an eye out for them and to read the set if you get a chance.

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