When you have a question, don’t settle for the first answer, even if it feels like it’s the right one. When you accept the first answer in a rush to move something forward or get to the next step, a whole world of detail that can launch understanding and clarity...
Over the break, I plunged into Walter Isaacson’s expansive and illuminating look at Leonardo da Vinci’s life and work. While many gems are sure to find their way into my thinking over the coming months, the following passage felt like an excellent place to start 2018. Isaacson writes: “What prevents perpetual motion,...
All the things on the list below, and the thousands of others I haven’t included, are things you need to work on if you want a robust, resilient brand. So let’s dive in. Brand is a result of … Building a viable strategy that everyone knows their part in. A plan for how...
Cruising through my LinkedIn feed last week, a post caught my eye asserting customers now have their own brands that need catering to. I shouldn’t be surprised. Everywhere I look ‘brand’ is tacked on to other words. I’ll just add customer brand to brand experience, brand values, brand purpose, brand...
During a conversation with a new acquaintance, our talk turned to values, actively using them in the organisation and why it’s time to free them from the musty constraints of employee guides and company offsite days. I’m always looking at whether organisations have the will to incur the (sometimes real) cost...
It will be no surprise to anyone who reads this blog that the incessant discussion of the brand as a subset of marketing sends me round the twist. So, here are some questions to ask that will help expand your horizons when thinking about your brand. 1. Do you know what your...
The dance of promises made by an organisation and the experience it delivers can be everything from the smooth glide of Fred and Ginger circling the floor to the awkward missteps and sore toes of a first waltz. Experience and promises circle each other in continual motion. Where one begins and...
We live in more enlightened times when it comes to brand and while it is finally seen as more than a logo, it remains bedeviled by a project mentality. Many of you have been down the path. Things start feeling a bit ho-hum, the thrill is gone. And so as night...
“Set your goals” is a clarion call organisations faithfully follow. Goals as part of a strategy, goals for projects, goals for meetings and yes, even brand. Yet, the effort to develop goals goes to waste if it is not supported by the right habits. A recent article delved into the under...
The business is starting out and needs a foundation to build on. Or it’s been around a few years and is growing, fast. A venerable family-owned company is going through a changing of the guard. Or the not-for-profit organisation is trying to stay relevant. The reasons to gather around the...