As part of our ongoing spotlight series, we’re profiling colleagues who inspire us.
With decades of experience in digital strategy, Nathan joins Athlon to provide the vision and leadership that will lay a solid foundation for our clients’ projects.
Tell us a bit about your career so far? What led you to pursue a career in digital strategy?
My path into digital strategy was more accidental than planned. I actually started out as a Geography Teacher, but that role wasn’t quite the right fit for me. Around 1995, I moved into a position at a university, working on a project exploring how “the internet” could enhance Geography fieldwork. That’s where I first picked up some basic coding skills. From there, I joined my first digital agency a little before the dot-com boom—and I’ve been on a bit of a zigzagging journey in digital ever since!
What are you looking forward to in your role as Experience Strategy Director?
I’m especially looking forward to mentoring the strategy team. It’s been a few years since I’ve had direct reports, and I’ve really missed that aspect of the role. After nearly thirty years in the industry, it feels like the right time to start passing on some of the knowledge and experience I’ve gathered along the way.
How do you approach creating a digital strategy that aligns with both immediate goals and long-term innovation?
My approach is straightforward—I work backwards from the vision.
I believe in starting with a clear picture of where we want to be in three to five years, then mapping out the steps to get there. Too often, businesses get caught up in daily tactics, making incremental tweaks and optimizations, which can cause them to lose sight of the bigger picture and hinder meaningful growth. By aligning day-to-day tactics with that long-term vision, each step has purpose and direction. The vision becomes the guiding framework, helping us stay on track while still allowing room for immediate goals and innovation.
“Bravest thing I’ve done?
I’m still trying to decide if this was brave, or foolhardy, but trying to launch a new business in a very large global company, that was a million miles away from its core business model, but that 100% delivered on its brand promise, would have created an entirely new revenue stream, and delivered actual genuine tangible benefit to people’s lives.
The CEO killed it because it wasn’t close enough to the core.
— Nathan Williams, Experience Strategy Director


What are some of the biggest shifts you’ve seen in digital strategy over the last few years?
I’d say the core principles of digital strategy haven’t really changed—it’s still about understanding the problem we’re solving, who we’re solving it for, how we’re addressing it, the value we’re creating, and the broader context we’re working within. These strategic questions remain constant, regardless of the technology involved.
The real shifts have come in the technology itself, and we’re at a significant inflection point with AI right now. It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve felt any excitement about new tech. The last time was actually with early mobile internet—I’m talking about the Nokia 7110 with its WAP browser, way before the iPhone. At that time, it felt like the beginning of something transformational, and I haven’t felt that same excitement again until now with AI. That said, while there’s potential in AI, particularly in how it could empower people with smart tools, I also see a lot of unanswered ethical questions, which tempers my excitement.
Come to think about it, if you asked me what drove the biggest shifts in the world we know today, from a technology point of view, I’d have to say it was the invention of the Internet (not the Web) with TCP/IP in 1983, and the mobile internet (firstly becoming available in 1996 in Finland on a GSM network – Sonera/Radiolinja, and probably more famously in Japan in 1999 on i-Mode – NTT DoCoMo). Of the two I’d have to pick mobile internet, nothing has come close to fundamentally altering the way we live from a technology impact perspective.
What do you think is key for clients to stay competitive and innovative in their digital presence?
Staying utterly focussed on driving customer value, period. Nothing else competes with this, if you have a laser-like focus on continually creating value for the end ‘customer’ that will by default drive innovation and ensure you remain competitive. However, to my point earlier around strategy vs tactics, you must take a holistic view of the ‘customer’, understand their context, the world they live in, and the dynamics of that world. Not doing that can mean you fall into the ‘tweaking trap’, focussed on day to day tactics as opposed to considering the bigger picture.
Career highlight so far?
Oh it’s always the people. Doing this has enabled me to meet and become friends with some wonderful people. You can’t beat that.
Finally, any predictions for where digital strategy in our industry might be headed in the next 5 years?
I think I’ve already answered this, I don’t really see strategy per-se changing, just the context of the questions we try to address: AI, Sustainability, Globalisation, Workforce, Ethics, Privacy, Truth and Transparency, Risk and Regulation all spring to mind. All the external factors.
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