Size is not the same thing as power.
You don't have to be the biggest to lead the pack
We help ambitious companies turn potential into presence — with sharper positioning, stronger stories and creative built to move the business.
No pitch. No obligation. Just a quick brief.
The tension
Big ideas spend a long time looking small.
Big ideas often sound like this
- “People don't quite get it.”
- “Traction is harder than it should be.”
- “The story changes depending on who tells it.”
- “Competitors half as good look twice as established.”
- “The product is more sophisticated than the brand.”
That's usually not a product problem.
It's a clarity problem.
The advantage
You don't beat giants
by acting like them.
Speed
Move before they can.
Focus
Know what matters.
Conviction
Choose a position.
Nerve
Commit to it.
Their size was never your advantage.
Your clarity is.
What we do
Three moves. In this order.
Position
Decide what you stand for — and why anyone should care.
Express
Turn the strategy into a story people remember.
Activate
Put it into the market where it can create momentum.
Work
One belief, named correctly.
Household care brand at Reckitt. Consumption up roughly 90% alongside revenue.
Fifth Stone is new. The thinking is not. It comes out of brand strategy at Reckitt and McKinsey, aimed at far bigger companies. More work lands here as it clears client approval.
How we work
Come in at the level the ambition deserves.
Sprint
One question, answered properly. A position, a story or a launch idea, taken from open to decided and handed over.
Build
Position, express and activate, end to end. The strategic and creative foundation for your next stage of growth.
Partner
Senior strategic leadership, ongoing. In the room for the decisions that set direction, at a scope we define together.
We lead strategy and creative direction. Larger execution runs through your in-house team, your agency, or collaborators we scope separately, so you are never paying us for work someone closer to it should own.
About
Big-company discipline, aimed at companies small enough to act on it.
Fifth Stone was founded by David Coyne, who ran brands at Reckitt and owned global brand strategy for McKinsey's flagship events, Davos and CES among them. The work was making an enormous institution sound like it knew exactly what it thought.
Engagements stay small and senior. You get the people who did the thinking, not a rotating bench. Current advisory work includes Northeastern University.
The name comes from David choosing five stones before facing Goliath. Preparation, not size.
Let's make
it matter
You've built something worth believing in. Let's make sure the market sees it.
No pitch. No obligation. Just a quick brief.