The idea that you can change a brand by changing a name and logo returned to the headlines last week (did it ever really go away?), with the ‘Big Australian’, BHP, the latest company to peddle the myth, dropping the Billiton and updating its logo. The new veneer makes for a...
The experience employees have becomes the experience customers have, which circles back around to employees in a loop. It can be a doom loop or a boon loop, and the identity of the organisation provides the energy.If the employees of your organisation feel caught in a mire of draconian decisions, disconnected...
In general, I don’t participate in the good values, bad values judgment game. I’m not here to tell you what they should or shouldn’t be. But I do believe it is essential you know what they are. There’s a chapter in the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#@k in which the author...
At every point in the recent United Airlines debacle, people were following policies. Policies that had no flexibility, treated people like cargo to be displaced and sent later, and made physically dragging a passenger off the plane seem like a reasonable response to him refusing to give up his seat. And while...
Earlier this year I was following links from one article to another and found myself on a blog by James Clear where he talks about an idea he calls deliberate practice. In the blog he says: “Deliberate practice refers to a special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice...
In the process of trying change to renew or invigorate an organisation a lot of things get ignored. In the rush to move forward what gets left behind is the legacy. Every organisation and the resulting brand has a legacy; the result of promises kept over time, the cumulative wealth of...
“You get what you incentivise”Peter Diamandis Building a brand, engaging team members, delivering a consistently good customer experience, and ensuring the back office and front lines work in sync. These things have much in common, yet one important element they share is often ignored or given short shift—incentives. Today it seems like...
After a recent brand workshop for the Women in Digital Group, I received a lovely message from Jenny Lindsay: “I’d been overthinking how to ‘create’ my brand, when, by contemplating my values, I realised I knew it all along. Now I just have to live it. What a revelation.” At the event,...
“Spinoza knew that all things long to persist in their being; the stone eternally wants to be a stone and the tiger a tiger.” Captured in this quote from Jorge Luis Borges is the part of a person’s brand that to often remains unexplored. Who am I and what do I truly care...
Sometimes the deep work and everyday actions and decisions needed to build a brand can feel like a modern day equivalent of the Gordian Knot. The origins of the term come from the time of Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. and one of the earliest uses in modern language was by...