By Brenna Garrat – CEO
First article of an Ongoing Series
You know the saying, “they’ll never know what they’re not missing.” It’s a common phrase for a reason – because it’s true!
It’s fascinating the influence the CEO has on an organization. We don’t mean this in a naïve way, of course they have multiple areas of important responsibility which can greatly influence the success or failure of a business. What we are seeing is a serious blind spot when it comes to a topic that can genuinely pay dividends in ways like attract great talent, enlist terrific clients, grow market share, and fuel great results. Simply put, they don’t embrace and prioritize brand- and culture-building as a long-term and ongoing commitment. They don’t value and invest in their brands.
Instead, their brands are left to flounder or worse yet, they are victims to the market’s definition of how they define the business, which 9 out of 10 times is inaccurate, and probably driven by others who have a vested interest in the business faltering. And this isn’t just about unexpected turns of events – even when great things happen they aren’t captured, celebrated and banked for a rainy day.
Think of a brand as a “good will bank account” in which a business makes deposits like announcing new wins, capturing praise/testimony from their clients, and hiring great new talent. It is also there too if the business has to make withdrawals from it. When this happens, the deposits help to soften the impact and shore up unexpected situations. Mind you, this is still branding basics to us. The true business leaders take this idea many levels higher.
This is an important topic to explore further and to do this I will continue to post periodically to share other insights from well-respected people who also firmly believe that a brand is an intangible and under leveraged asset that CEOs can drive and reap its enormous business benefits.
