Jez Frampton once summarised great retailing as the perfect mix of finance, space and brand. I find that such an excellent crystallisation of the inherent tensions in that sector – the need to pack enough of the right branded product into an environment displacing the right number of square feet to deliver customers a great experience and achieve the requisite return.

Fascinating to take that trio idea and apply it to other sectors, especially if you believe that every business is about money and therefore finance should always be one aspect and brand/reputation is an inherent value-maker within most sectors and therefore it, or an expression of it, will always be the third factor. The airline industry embodies Frampton’s format unchanged. Fashion combines finance, beauty and brand. Consulting might be a combination of time (finance), insights and reputation (brand).

Personally I’m a huge fan of this sort of arrangement because it gives a concept limits (not too much one way or another) and perspectives (combinations of emotion/value).

What would the three tensions in your sector be?