Wankernomics

10 Episodes

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Meta's Organisational Values Are Hilarious

2026-10-2734:03

At Wankernomics, we love corporate values – the four or five words that are chosen at an off-site meeting run by an overpaid facilitator, placed on a poster in the office kitchen and then never spoken about again. In this episode, James and Charles unpack the organisational values of social media giant Meta. Do Meta’s values match with reality? Were they written by a toddler? And what on earth does the word Metamate even mean? Sign up to our the free Wankernomics thought leadership program (our free email newsletter) at Wankernomics.comFull tour schedule: Wankernomics.com/live Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The original working titles for some of the world's best-known brands

2026-10-2037:00

Coming up with a brand name is difficult. Just ask James. When he was a branding consultant he named two television channels. Both have since been scrapped. In this episode, Charles and James reveal the original working titles for some of the world’s most well-known brands. Some are brilliant, some are incredibly weird. One could have totally changed the way we think about using search engines. James also shares his war stories about naming brands, and how senior people with no skills or experience always want to get involved. Plus, James and Charles start the process of renaming Wankernomics. Sign up to our the free Wankernomics thought leadership program (our free email newsletter) at Wankernomics.comFull tour schedule: Wankernomics.com/live Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why The Beatles never used Trello or Jira

2026-10-1337:33

Workplace productivity apps like Trello, Asana, Jira and Miro are everywhere now. But do they actually increase productivity, or are they just another thing to add to your workload, that actually ends up slowing everything down? In this episode James and Charles try to get to the bottom of what these collaboration tools actually are, and debate whether there is anything more boring that someone talking about Jira. More importantly, they explore how the world might have been different if Lennon and McCartney had access to workplace productivity apps. Would ‘Let it Be’ have benefited from more stakeholder input and alignment? Would the process of writing ‘Hey Jude’ have been simpler if it allowed for the tracking against key milestones. It would certainly have been more measurable. Sign up to our the free Wankernomics thought leadership program (our free email newsletter) at Wankernomics.comFull tour schedule: Wankernomics.com/live Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The onboarding episode: new starters, please listen to this first

2026-10-0631:01

Our People & Culture team advised us that we rushed ahead and launched this podcast without first doing an onboarding episode. What a disaster. How will people know how to listen to the podcast? Have they done the safety induction? Where is the kitchen? And are they even aware of the Wankernomics Mission and Vision Statements? Or Purpose Statement for that matter? In this episode, James and Charles answer all of those questions and more, so that new starters can confidentially settle into the Wankernomics podcast and feel right at home. Welcome aboard. Sign up to our the free Wankernomics thought leadership program (our free email newsletter) at Wankernomics.comFull tour schedule: Wankernomics.com/live Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How many buzzwords can you fit into a single job advertisement?

2026-09-2945:31

"When I grow up I want to manage the delivery of complex cross-functional initiatives and shape scope across business cases" said no-one, ever. Job advertisements have a language all of their own. Meaningless phrases like “Dynamic, fast paced environment”, “self starter”, “unlocking incremental value”, “key stakeholders”, “driving insights” and “our people are at the heart of everything we do” are used so liberally that it’s often impossible to tell what the job is actually for. So what do these phrases really mean? And why do companies use them? In this episode Charles and James deep dive into the meaningless language of job ads and the psychology behind them, unpacking an actual job advertisement line by line. Plus, Charles reveals how in his wedding vows he promised to unlock incremental value and nurture relationships within key ecosystems. Sign up to our the free Wankernomics thought leadership program (our free email newsletter) at Wankernomics.comFull tour schedule: Wankernomics.com/live Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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