Too often business leaders put a key fact on their mental backburner – their business is surrounded by a “containing system” that shapes their company’s opportunities, risks and outcomes. Not only should leaders align their business models with external market trends, they should try to influence or shape their containing system to best support their [...]

All too often the rationally best alternative comes with subtle trade-offs that reduce the emotional benefits of your purchase. Take the Accura I purchased owing to the high service costs I had experienced with my Audi. Within hours of driving out of the Accura dealership, I grieved the Audi’s zippier feel and realized that I [...]

Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio demonstrates one of the most important qualities of a strategic leader – an honest assessment of the status quo. “We know we’ve got a problem, which is starting pitching. We as an organization need to face that reality and address it, as opposed to shrink from it or excuse it. [...]

Baby carrot farmers are attempting to transform their vegetable into a daring, naughty snack food.  The tiny orange roots are now branded Baby Carrots Rock.  New packaging, bold ads and social media are part of a $25M marketing campaign. Two young entrepreneurs start College Hunks Hauling Junk, differentiating the experience they offer from what you’d [...]

I spent the weekend in Scotland, where one cannot escape RBS’s logo, RBS standing for The Royal Bank of Scotland. Its brand imagery stands out exiting the airplane, passing city billboards, and reading or listening to local media. Today, the people of Scotland own close to 70 % of RBS because the former (duly fired) [...]

A new client asked me a good question today. “You talk Kay about helping us find our value promise, but my communications agency is totally focused on our brand platform. What’s what and why does it matter?” The answer rests in understanding communication challenges. The internal communication challenge Employees need a shared and actionable aim [...]

“You’ll find the style you want at the optometrist store on State Street,” my most stylish girlfriend advised. Sure enough, I walked into rack after rack of brands and styles upon entering the shop. While the amount of choice was reassuring at first glance – surely there is a look here for me – I [...]

From Oslo I attended an economic briefing from the Chief Economist of a major European bank yesterday. It was fascinating to hear the financial crisis and recession described from the perspective of the OECD, where the recession has been much worse than in North America. For example, Germany’s GDP fell 6.5% from its peak, with [...]

If P&G can’t get it right, what will the rest of us do? P&G the master of consumer branding recently reported a 11% year-over-year revenue decline, more than analysts expected. The maker of Tide, Pampers, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, and Olay blames market share losses for part of the drop as more consumers switch to lower-priced [...]

One window into the nature of the current recession and the uncertainty that it’s causing is through the fancy curtains at the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. The revenue per available room (the hospitality industry’s key financial measure) is down 25% year-to-date and for the first time in its history, the hotel management company has [...]