Guide, Coach, and Enabler
I spent a whole career – four decades - in global Corporate Branding, from being a hands-on worker to growing into a hands-on manager to then eventually a hands-on executive – from projects/programs of various depth and duration to important multi-year retainers (with Intel, Xerox, AT&T, Philips, and more). My ‘client’ was always the head of-something - Marketing, Sales, Brand, Operations, Communications, and occasionally I was given the opportunity to work directly with the people who then do the actual work.
Last year I started Masterbranded based on my firm belief in the indispensability of the key Brand Fundamentals (and I made an online Course about it), and to assist senior corporate managers with expert assistance to their teams on an ongoing basis – teams made of the people who after all is said and done, after the gurus have spoken and the theories have been espoused, once the consultants have set the toplines, and the expected outcome have been set at C-levels … actually have to do what’s needed in all the granular aspects. People who know their company better than a consultant ever will, who have no agenda other than serving their and their employer’s interest, day after day with no distractions nor interruptions. The people who have to apply the toplines, assess the real-life details, craft the approaches, test them, finalize them, connect them with everything else, make sure they become real in the marketplace, then control and refine them and make sure they stick. They are the real heroes of Corporate Branding.
I’m living my goal right now - for example, with a client I’ve had for the past five years: big things and small things, from a major repositioning to a major merger to visual re-identification to architecture and culture to naming. Recently they needed a number of different things, and as it was difficult to package them as ‘projects’ I agreed with the CMO on a relationship where I’d work directly with the workteams as a guide and advisor and occasionally, as needed, with actual work contributions. I am their (brand & identity-expert) colleague: we meet once or twice a week, have open channels of communications and a group chat plus a LinkedIn group; we scale breadth and depth together, frame and assign work, uncover dependencies that only their in-house knowledge can see, review and progress, finalize and codify – all with no delays as I live within their pace. Making things real, and making them work in the real world. And when they bring up an issue, more often than not I can refer to my Course and one of the Brand Fundamentals, explain the foundational philosophy and show detailed case histories as needed.
The issues are handled, in an aligned manner with everything else, and the team continuously gains skills and refines their approach – all at a monthly fee that’s efficiently reasonable for everyone. Win-win and more win, all around. It’s working well. Why? A combination of things:
- Executive Guidance and Support: I’ve known and worked with their CMO for many years, and there’s Trust in planning-at-large in concert with her C-suite vision
- Efficiency: no friction in any admin, cost, and executive support matters
- Effectiveness: real-time, no timing or operational delay
- Feasibility: no operational obstacles, either top or back of mind
- Articulation: I can offer experienced knowledge that’s easily shared to professionals who know the corporate applications better than I, and their upskilling is on daily basis
- Granularity: identification of issues and then their application doesn’t suffer from the typical Big Things Are Done and Small Things Are Ignored syndrome
- Focus: all is directionally aligned, no spills or leakage in intent; all of which engenders …
- Openness and subsequent Team Trust as individuals who previously didn’t have much interaction come to work together
I love this set up, as I can play an effective part from the inside, not top-down but inside-out, and the cumulative effect of what we’re doing together yields a great deal of real value to the companies and to their people.
And it makes me happy.
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