What Is the Mow Test?

A Staffordshire Lesson in Resilience

The view from Mow Cop — where bright ideas meet real weather.

The Hill on the Horizon

When I was a child growing up in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, life looked a lot like Coronation Street. Terraced houses, backyards, kids playing out till dark. We lived in a valley, so the horizon wasn’t far away — except to the north.

If you looked between the rows of factories and chimneys, you could just make out a grey silhouette on the skyline: a tower on a hill. That was Mow Cop Castle.

I had a simple notion back then — if you can see something, you can get there.

So one day, aged about nine or ten, I led an expedition: my two brothers and the Hoskins lads from down the road. Five and a half miles doesn’t sound far now, but it’s a marathon in Wellington boots when you’re four — as my brother Liam still reminds me 55 years later.

We trudged, complained, slipped, and laughed our way there. But when we finally reached the top, everything changed.

The View That Changed Everything

From up there, I could see everything. The whole sweep of the Cheshire Plain, the valleys of Staffordshire, and my small world back in Tunstall — tiny, contained, almost toy-like.

That day, my mind opened up. I realised how big the world was, and how small my street really was. It was a proper Bright Blue Banana moment, seeing the bigger picture, not just the patch in front of you.

Moving Closer to the Weather

A few years later, our family moved to Newchapel,halfway up the slopes of Mow Cop. What had once been a distant landmark became part of daily life.

That’s when I learned something new: from afar, Mow looks majestic; up close, it’s brutal.

The weather had a mind of its own, snowdrifts, gales, and rain that arrived sideways. Down in Stoke, people talked about winter being over; up at Mow, it had only just started.

Locals had a saying:

“If you can see Snowdon, it’s just stopped raining. If you can’t, it’s raining.”

And they weren’t joking.

Lessons from the Snowdrifts

One winter, my brother Mark and I were walking through the village when a local farmer stopped us. His cows were stuck — the snow was drifting across the fields, and the herd refused to walk through it.

So we spent the afternoon helping him move them, one by one, through knee-deep snow. It was cold, slow, wet work. But it taught me something important: when the weather turns, you find out what you’re really made of.

Down in the valley, the pavements were clear, no sign of struggle. But up here, the conditions were different. That’s resilience. You don’t learn it in the sunshine; you earn it in the snowdrifts.

From Mow to Meaning — The Birth of the Mow Test

Years later, I came across that famous Mike Tyson quote:

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

I’ve always liked the truth of it — but I prefer a less violent version.
Hence: The Mow Test.

The Mow Test asks a simple question:

Will your idea still stand when the weather turns?

It’s easy to dream up a strategy when the skies are blue, cash is flowing, and everything’s going your way. But real life, like Mow Cop, has its own climate. Wind, resistance, and horizontal rain.

The Mow Test is about seeing whether your plans, systems, and people can hold their shape when visibility drops and the temperature changes.

If they can’t, they weren’t built for the real world.

How to Put Your Ideas Through the Mow Test

Here’s how I use it in business:

1. Check the altitude.
   What assumptions are you making from the valley? Things look simpler from a distance — but have you climbed high enough to see the full terrain?

2. Forecast the weather.
   What could go wrong? Not in a doom-and-gloom way, but in a practical one. What happens when customers push back, budgets tighten, or the market turns cold?

3. Look for drift.
   Like those cows, teams can freeze or drift off course when conditions change. Do you have habits and systems that keep people moving?

4. Build for Mow weather.
   Design your plans to work when it’s hard, not just when it’s easy. Simplify, strengthen, and stress-test before you commit.

As I like to say: Don’t guess — test.

Ready to Test Your Next Big Idea?

The Mow Test isn’t a theory. It’s a mindset — born from the hills, shaped by the weather, and proven in real business life.

At Magnitude, we put every new idea through it before we roll it out. Because business isn’t a desk job. It’s an adventure — and not every day is a clear view from the summit.

If you’ve got a plan you believe in, let’s put it through the Mow Test together. Better to find out now than in a blizzard.

“Put Your Idea Through the Mow Test” Click the link to book a virtual CuppaFAQ:

Q1: What does “The Mow Test” mean?
The Mow Test is Magnitude’s metaphor for resilience — a way to see if an idea, plan, or strategy can survive the messy, unpredictable realities of business life.

Q2: How do you apply The Mow Test?
You ask: will this still work when conditions change? Test your assumptions, simplify your plan, and make sure your systems and people can handle real pressure.

Q3: Why is it called “The Mow Test”?
It’s named after Mow Cop, a Staffordshire hill known for its beauty and brutal weather. It’s a reminder that ideas — like people — need to survive more than sunny days.