Airlift Brand Story Telling

Strengthening Brand America: An Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:26:00 PDT

Interview with Shelley Rosen - Global Branding Expert

1. Question: How would you articulate Brand America's promise?

I believe there are three key words that best describe America’s brand promise: ‘inclusively’, ‘better’ and ‘freedom’. Immigrants left their homelands with everything on their backs and did so for a better life. They sought a better life for generations to come in education, income and experiences. There was hope, a belief and a yearning to achieve that fueled our country. Many made it so.

Based upon the founding principles of our nation ---where ‘all men are created equal’ ---these people were given a chance to be included in the American Dream. They were offered a clean slate and fair chance to compete. Just the feeling of being included in a chance to achieve is the very foundation of achievement.

Finally, we offer freedom; freedom to think, to practice, to live and to be. Our democracy believes in her people. We can express ourselves, we can create and we can live a freely. Iconic brands like Chevrolet, Levi’s and the infamous Marlboro Man best depicted American dream of freedom.

The American Promise can be best expressed as a place where “all people belong” When immigrants arrived by boat and saw our stunning Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island they must have said, “I belong here.”

2. Question: What are the challenges that Brand America must address to consistently be seen as "walking the talk"?

The first thing we need to do is to put our egos in check and increase our humility factor. We do not have all of the answers. We can’t change and we can not win if we think we are already doing so. We are not first in technology. Markets like Israel lead the world in software development. Japan leads in electronics and France in food and wine. Our children are not leading in math and science. Leaders lead. We need to redefine the areas in which we seek to compete and the ones we want to lead. And as any good CEO would do, then must we need to put the best and brightest leaders and give them resources to get the job done. Hold them accountable to help reclaim that leadership position. One of the many smartest things President Obama has done was to put a new job function in the White House, a CTO (Chief Technology Officer). He will lead us through cyberspace, regulation and boundary setting. Innovation will come of this post.

3. Question: What are the traits of Brand America that people around the world are likely to find appealing?

Prosperity, quality of life, access and opportunity. We used to be optimistic. We need to gain that emotional attribute back. People want to believe again.

4. Question: What are the different ways Brand America can keep its promise?

For clarity, a brand is a promise. Every day leaders should wake up and do everything they can to make that promise come true. It’s about how we operate, it’s how we deliver our services and it’s what we believe in. The promise never changes, only the communication around the promise changes so we can stay relevant. The Walt Disney Company will always stand for ‘magic’. When Walt created his mission to “Make People Happy” he and his successors spent the next fifty years of their strategic efforts making that promise come alive through magic at every turn. It’s consistent, predictable and timeless. No one beats The Walt Disney promise. (Record profits this quarter, up 40%!!!)

Our founding fathers wrote the US Constitution providing the guiding principles of our nation. The Bill of Rights amended some of these ideals for clarity and frankly relevance to what going on in our country. I say we revisit the ideals written in this timeless document because things are out of whack. Our ethics have been tarnished; our leaders are letting us down. The notion that “all men are created equal’ is at risk. We seek ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. These are now being blocked by greed, hatred and selfishness. When leaders of world class companies lose their way, the successful ones go back to their roots, to their original brand promise as a beacon of focus. They revisit the values that founded the firm and find new meaning to stay relevant. Let’s s do the same with America.

5. Question: What is the importance of Brand America in the world?

For the most part, I have been traveling globally for 30 years. Working at McDonald’s, one of the most recognized brands in the world because of its community presence, was a privilege and a wake up call. In the early 8o’s when I met people from foreign lands, they were always so curious about America and Americans. I remember thinking how embarrassed I was that knew all about our President, politics and issues whilst I was unaware of their leaders, governmental politics and brand character. Carrying the US Passport was and still is a privilege. However, since so many people look to America for hope and leadership. When we were not performing as a nation I have evidence that you have felt it in the room. By far the worst sentiments from the global economy were under the leadership of George Bush. Anger and tension in business meetings from our international partners ensued because we, as Americans were letting people down. When our economy is bad, just imagine the global ripple effect.

I can’t help but think about the world as it watched and waiting to see who would be President in 2008. People were glued to the TV, cheering, crying, and singing around the world as they waited the outcome. They did so because they knew that if America could be better and rebuild, they would too. There was hope.

Finally, great brands earn and keep their reputation every day. They do not rest on historical performance. We need to pay more attention to what matters, learn from winning economies and apply best practices in health care, education and lifestyles.

6. Question: Who benefits from a strengthened Brand America?

Everyone. From all those living in the United States through additional opportunities for growth and prosperity to the international community that can use our democratic ideals as a means of changing and bettering their own communities.

7. Question: Do you believe Brand America has a relevant, competitive and authentic promise?

I think we did. I think the leaders of Brand America, The President of America, needs to revisit the promise and do everything in his power to realign Americans to making it come true. A CEO would hold his direct reports accountable for delivering their stake in the turn around brand plan. The American people need to play their role in this as well.

Washington could do a better job of reminding the American people of the pillars of the brand turnaround plan through story. Update us on each aspect of the plan. Look at Detroit. Thanks to the bail out money, all the US auto makers have made a profit for the first time in decades. Yet, all we hear about are lost jobs in Detroit. Communicating what is working is step one of a recovery

The best evidence that this can work in Washington is Michelle Obama’s idea called “Let’s Move”. She branded this childhood obesity message “Let’ Move.” She explained her plan with clarity, she talked about how she was going to hold school lunch reform accountable and she created metrics. It is exactly what great brand leaders do. The media raved about this news. Let’s take a page out her winning brand promise approach for each of the various brands within the Administration: Health Care, Education, Tax Reform and more and this will help ladder up to reignite America’s Brand Promise. Make the message simple and hold people accountable in private and government sectors. It will happen.

In closing, Abraham Lincoln warned during the secession era, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Change happens within. Let’s dust off America’s Brand Promise, a promise our Founding Father left us and lay claim to what it means to be truly American today….to live the American Dream.

Visit Strengthening Brand America http://Interview with Shelley Rosen - obal Branding Expert with Shelley Rosen - Global Branding Expert

What more can restaurants do to help address the ever growing obesity epidemic?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:36:00 PDT

Consumers are looking for solutions.

During the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. Data from 2008 shows over 64% of the US states have a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 25%. Colorado continues to be the only state with the lowest levels of obesity. Today, over 32% of children and adolescents-- or 25 million kids--are obese or overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. BMI is calculated from a person's weight and height. This provides a reasonable indicator of body fatness and weight categories that may lead to health problems such as cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes. Today over $147 billion a year is spent in weight-related medical bills in the US alone.

Progress has been made:
• $28 billion worth of products have been reformulated with lower fat, salt, or sugar

• Ms. Michelle Obama started “Let’s Move” to create awareness on obesity and further promote school lunch reform and fitness in schools

• Restaurants offer heart healthy menu items. Portion size alternatives such as 100 calorie pack snacks and mini-foods are now in vogue.

• Television programming such as “The Biggest Loser” and Jamie Oliver’s Show, The Food Revolution raise attention to this matter.

Yet, the data on overweight and obesity continues to rise in the wrong direction.

What can a restaurant chain do to help consumers and to‘do their part’ on this ever growing topic?

Creativity is considered THE leadership skill of the future, but why isn’t it valued today?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:08:00 PDT

Forbes along with IBM conducted a global study with over 1,600 CEO’s on the subject of managing complexity in today’s economy. Part of the causes of complexity are related to speed and changes in the digital world while other are related to the new, Gen Y collaborative work force and the changes in how they communicate.

The Forbes/IBM Study highlights three imperatives to future revenue growth:

1) Embody Creative Leadership
CEO's now realize that creativity trumps other leadership characteristics. They see that creative leaders are comfortable with change, ambiguity and experimentation. But how can we teach creativity?

2) Reinvent Customer Relationships.
Customers have never had so much information or so many options. CEO's are making "getting connected" to customers their highest priority to better predict and provide customers with what they really want.

3) Build Operational Dexterity.
CEO's are mastering complexity in countless ways. They are redesigning operating strategies for ultimate speed and flexibility. They embed complexity that creates value in elegantly simple products, services and customer interactions.

What should CEO’s do today to begin to first value and build a creative leadership capability in their organizations?

Subscribe to our blog and please comment.

Source: Forbes Visionary Leadership

How was your first quarter? Did you achieve your objectives? Why or Why not?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Mon, 03 May 2010 13:03:00 PDT

All we hear is that the economy is in park, that companies are bleeding and things are bad. But for leaders that know how to hold themselves accountable, things are so bad. What is business performance and why is it so important?

Business Performance is a set of management and analytic processes that enable the performance of an organization to be managed with a view to achieving one or more pre-selected goals. What do leaders need to do to achieve their business performance?

1. Select the right goals. We call these ‘realistic stretch’ goals
2. Manage a consolidated scorecard of metrics against these goals
3. Have leaders coach, intervene and help the team improve future performance against these goals or take action

So who were some of the winners in the first quarter of 2010?

Apple
Amid an ongoing recession that has dimmed prospects for consumer companies, Apple said that it saw record revenue and profit during its fiscal first quarter for the first time in its history. Apple reporting sales of $10.17 billion in Q1, up 6% from the revenue of $9.6 billion Apple recorded during the year-ago quarter. For the quarter, Apple sold 22.7 million iPods, up three percent from year ago. Doesn’t everyone want a product from inventor Steven Jobs? Talk about innovation and relevance!

Coca-Cola
The big red is changing to meet the ever growing needs of their customers with nonalcoholic ready-to-drink beverages and here is the proof. CEO Muhktar Kent said, “Coca-Cola’s worldwide unit case volume growth of 3% in the first quarter, in line with their long-term volume target, and driven by international volume growth of 5%.”The continued power of the global "Open Happiness" campaign combined with the initial roll-out of our FIFA World Cup program and an increased focus on Coke with Meals drove growth in brand Coca-Cola, with unit case volume up 3% in the quarter. Leaders lead. Stay tuned for more innovation from Coca-Cola.

Intel
The company recorded net income of US $2.4 billion for the quarter, an increase of 288 percent compared to the first quarter a year ago. The net income beat estimates of $2.13 billion from analysts. "The investments we're making in leading edge technology are delivering the most compelling product line-up in our history," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO, in a statement. "We're optimistic about our business as Intel products are designed into a variety of new and exciting segments,"

Even the US government got things done in the first quarter with health care bills, nuclear arms treaties and aiding in the Gulf oil spill crisis. If they can do it, you can too.

How are you doing on your business performance? Contact Airlift to talk about how you can achieve your business performance and growth goals.

Please subscribe to our blog or contact Airlift at Shelley Rosen at srosen@airliftideas.com
(01) 312. 492.7772

What Returning E-mails and Calls have to do with your Corporate Reputation?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:45:00 PDT

As the CEO of your business, you know how important reputation is to your current and future success. Some CEOs go so far as to claim that their brand is EVERYTHING and everything is the BRAND. They spend millions of dollars on advertising and create public relations campaigns to enhance corporate reputation and strengthen connections with customers.

And yet, the investment gets inadvertently undermined when your employees don’t promptly respond to calls or e-mails from customers, suppliers, shareholders and peers.

We all talk about how pervasive this bad behavior has become. As consumers, we question whether or not these organizations have cultures with a bias towards service versus a mentality of “customer as nuisance.” We believe every employee move is in essence a public relations move.

As leaders, there is no excuse for not leading by example and returning calls and replying to e-mails within 24 hours. We need to train and inspire employees to have positive and meaningful customer encounters. You want those calling your organization to tell everyone, “This is a great company that I enjoy doing business with now and in the future.”

Ask yourself a few simple questions to prevent complacency from creeping into your firm:

•When was the last time you called into your own number as a customer?

•How long are customers kept on hold? Do you know? Has it gotten longer or shorter, and why?

•What have you learned from the customer responses? Are you taking action on this?

•Have you reminded employees of company values and how they translate into prompt replies to customers and peers?

The answers to these questions can help your organization design a more user-friendly customer experience that will engender greater brand loyalty and translate into better sales.

At Airlift Ideas, we know how critical culture and service are to a positive customer relationship and strong bottom line. We help leaders remove barriers and implement processes to help employees create and sustain strong relationships with customers and other key stakeholders. We have experience, tools and methodology to enable your employees to become heroes, and profitably differentiate your brand from the competition. For more information on corporate reputation, contact Anna Rozenich, Leadership Communications at arozenich@airliftideas.com.

Why Change? Why Bother?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:16:00 PDT

Let’s face it. Flat was the new growth in 2009. Leaders sought to hold the line on spending, innovation and growth in the most uncertain economy in our modern times. But it can’t last. Wall Street will demand returns and shareholders will want their value.

One of the greatest challenges of achieving growth is realizing you may need to change. Companies don’t change. People do. Employees know the leadership sets the tone for change. They can tell if you are serious about change or not. We believe articulating an inspiring vision is a key element of any successful culture. So is having a culture where trying to news ideas is accepted.

Is your company set up to allow employees to bring forward new ideas without fear? Probably not.

On one end of the spectrum, leaders may be cautious optimists about growth--where slow and steady wins the day. This mindset can be good for a slow to no growth market segment. However, in market segments with mid to rapid growth, leaders must instill a culture of growth by instilling a culture that is willing to try new ideas.

Here is what can happen when leaders do not dedicate resources to exploring change. We all loved the United States Postal service. Our moms talked to the mail man as though he were our family members. We used to buy and collect stamps, write love letters, send greeting cards and pay our bills once or twice a month, almost in a ritualistic fashion. With the onset of email, on line bill pay, the cost and overhead of the postal worker and the speed of life, Americans have reduced spending on the US Postal Service $7B this year. The projections by year 2010 are to reach $238B. The mere fact the United States Postal Service was not looking at the changing consumer; their behavior and needs, was a sure fire was to become obsolete in 5 years.

Why change? Well, if we don’t we die.

The Core Opportunity: People
The most widespread problem in change management is winning hearts and minds throughout the organization on the importance of change. In a survey conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit, they sited three top three barriers to change:

• Igniting the culture ranked (54% of respondents).
• Lack of buy-in from local management (31% of respondents)
• Active, visible sponsorship from the leadership ( 31% of respondents)

In other words, companies are struggling with a very basic people issues; motivating them to abandon old ways of working for something new. Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter states, “In a typical large change program, it is not a matter of sending out the new organization chart or the new budget or the new strategy with a few projects. It is about changing people’s behavior, often a lot of people, and this is not trivial.”

Look, even we are changing. In the years passed we may have mailed a brochure, taken an airplane to give speech or clipped an article from the newspaper on our clients .Today we are sending e-blasts, using web-ex to present documents to large groups of people and going to social media blogs to find out what consumers are really saying.

The world is changing. Are you ready?

We help create a winning culture of sustainable growth through strategic, inspiring stories. Let’s get growing.

Call Airlift at (01) 312.492.7772 to talk about your growth plans.

Why Change? Why Bother?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:23:00 PDT

Let’s face it. Flat was the new growth in 2009. Leaders sought to hold the line on spending, innovation and growth in the most uncertain economy in our modern times. But it can’t last. Wall Street will demand returns and shareholders will want their value.

One of the greatest challenges of achieving growth is realizing you may need to change. Companies don’t change. People do. Employees know the leadership sets the tone for change. They can tell if you are serious about change or not. We believe articulating an inspiring vision is a key element of any successful culture. So is having a culture where trying to news ideas is accepted.

Is your company set up to allow employees to bring forward new ideas without fear? Probably not.

On one end of the spectrum, leaders may be cautious optimists about growth where slow and steady wins the day. This mindset can be good for a slow to no growth market segment. However, in market segments with mid to rapid growth, leaders must instill a culture of growth by instilling a culture that is willing to try new ideas.

Here is what happens can happen when leaders do not dedicate resources to exploring change. We all loved the United States Postal service. Our moms talked to the mail man as though he were our family members. We used to buy and collect stamps, write love letters, send greeting cards and pay our bills once or twice a month, almost in a ritualistic fashion. With the onset of email, on line bill pay, the cost and overhead of the postal worker and the speed of life, Americas have reduced spending on US Postal Service $7B this year. The projections by year 2010 are to reach $238B. The mere fact the United States Postal Service was not looking at the changing consumer; their behavior and needs, was a sure fire was to become obsolete in 5 years.

Why change? Well, if we don’t we die.

The Core Opportunity: People
The most widespread problem in change management is winning hearts and minds throughout the organization on the importance of change. In a survey conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit, they sited three top three barriers to change:

• Igniting the culture ranked (54% of respondents).
• Lack of buy-in from local management (31% of respondents)
• Active, visible sponsorship from the leadership ( 31% of respondents)

In other words, companies are struggling with a very basic people issues; motivating them to abandon old ways of working for something new. Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter states, “In a typical large change program, it is not a matter of sending out the new organization chart or the new budget or the new strategy with a few projects. It is about changing people’s behavior, often a lot of people, and this is not trivial.”

Look, even we are changing. In the years passed we may have mailed a brochure, taken an airplane to give speech or clipped an article from the newspaper on our clients .Today we are sending e-blasts, using web-ex to present documents to large groups of people and going to social media blogs to find out what consumers are really saying.

The world is changing. Are you ready?

We help create a winning culture of sustainable growth through strategic, inspiring stories. Let’s get growing.

Call Airlift at (01) 312.492.7772 to talk about your growth plans.

Lessons from Tiger & Toyota: When defending corporate reputation and brand, speed is critical to success

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:34:00 PST

Businesses and brands build trust with every action they take and or don’t take. This is especially true when they are beneath the microscope of public scrutiny.

Two events have come together this week that give us reason to reconsider conventional methods of public response to reputational crises – the long-awaited apology by golfer Tiger Woods and the begrudging agreement of Toyota Motor’s President Akio Toyoda to come to the U.S. to testify before Congress.

About 90 days ago, the carefully crafted public image of the world’s greatest golfer began to unravel and spiral downward when revelations of marital infidelity began to surface and were confirmed.

We saw thousands of photos of his wife, children, homes, fellow golfers, countless women claiming to have been involved with him, but we never saw or heard from Tiger himself in a timely manner. The world was clamoring to hear directly from him, a trusted and deeply admired world-class athlete. Because we didn’t hear from him immediately, the story kept getting bigger, wilder and with others jumping in to fill in (fabricate) the missing information in the continuing story. All of this resulted in huge public disappointment in their sports hero and the subsequent loss of major sponsorships. More importantly, his reputation lay in tatters.

As it relates to Toyota CEO, Akio Toyoda, until the recent disclosures of deaths caused by accelerating gas pedals and numerous recalls, Toyota was viewed as the global automotive leader whose cars were reliable, dependable and trusted. And yet, in the unfolding global news story, we have learned that months and months went by before Toyota took action. Their lack of urgency in getting the facts or grasping the severity of the situation resulted in fatalities and a reputational fall from grace. Their silence resulted in an epic public relations disaster…one for the case history books. Was the silence worth it? At last count, Toyota’s has a $3B loss on their balance sheets.

Yes, building or maintaining trust is about transparency. However, in today’s 24/7 world, speed of disclosure is as important, if not more important, as transparency. Embattled leaders and companies must not underestimate the power of moving quickly to communicate and have their voice heard. If you don’t start to tell your story, others will speculate and fill in the blanks.
So what should leaders do if an unfortunate event happens to erode your trust bank?

1. Gather the facts quickly and try to buy time by putting a stake in the ground on what you know or don’t know.
2. Tell the media and other stakeholders how long it will take to get the facts, the process and why
3. Admit guilt and give an authentic apology. People are human and we can and do forgive leaders and businesses when sincerity is expressed with a promise of action
4. Talk about impact and repercussions publicly. CBS let David Letterman offer an apology on-air for infidelity with a co-worker. His brand may be bruised, but he is still on- the- air. What does that say to your employees?
5. Reiterate your moral compass and ethical code in an internally as well as externally. Your employees want to know where you stand.

Rebuilding trust is not difficult to do when you do right by your customer, people and shareholders. It takes years to restore reputations. Don’t forget that speed in disclosure and a timely and genuine apology go a long way to help stem the negative impact to your business.

Contact Airlift today about your reputation. We help leaders craft sustainable growth through inspiring stories. arozenich@airliftideas.com or (01) 312.492.7772

Getting Results From Processes, Systems, Procedures. It used to be so simple!

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:04:00 PST

The New Moment Of Truth. This is not the usual definition of where your Brand intersects with the Customer. This is where your company’s activities intersect with your results. You look at your sales, profit, market-share and customer satisfaction scores. Are you looking at how those numbers are achieved?

Each system and process is designed to a particular result depending on how well it is used. In times of high change it is much easier to work on the systems you have rather than create and educate your system on new ones. It’s time for some diagnostic work.

1. Make a simple list of your key metrics. Call out the systems or processes that feed into each metric.

2. Look at your most critical metric first and detail the people who drive the processes. Pull them together and ask a simple question. “What do we have to do differently for this process to generate different results?”

3. Engage your people to find the gap, the missing piece, the wasted effort and they will own the results. And you will get the returns the process is designed to deliver.

4. Take work-out of your processes so you don't pile on more work while you have the right business-driving process.

Larry Bossidy, former CEO of Allied Signal, learned about productivity. “So it was a shock when I got to Allied Signal. I wasn't prepared for the malaise I found. The company had lots bright people, but they weren't effective, and they didn't place a premium on getting things done.” When a company’s systems and processes are working well, stellar business results can be achieved.

At Airlift Ideas, we are experts at diagnosing systems, processes, the results they produce, and the people involved. We help teams achieve greatness through their brand story and improved process efforts.

CEO’s: Is there Gender Parity in Your Firm?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:31:00 PST

The topic of women in leading roles in business has resurfaced in a major way in 2010. This year on of the key topics at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland was gender parity. Women and their role in corporate America are on the minds of global leaders. Today in the UK, pay for women is -22% below their male counterparts. Women in the US are -13% below men for similar jobs and account for only 2% of board posts in the us. If over 50% of today's college graduates are women, why aren't they staying in the work force at the executive levels?

While we are making progress, we need to do more. So what's the problem?

The Insead Global Leadership Center conducted a robust research project to drill down on the issues. Here are some headlines:

Women have had to make trade -offs of family over jobs

For this trade off, they loose speed and power on the fast track

Women hesitate to go out on a limb alone as their prefer to network

Women are visionary but in a different way

Women are reluctant to be assertive due to stereotyping

Women don't put much stock in vision as they do getting things done

All in all, 22,244 observers contributed and evaluated the 10 dimensions of leadership: emotional intelligence, empowering,,, energizing, envisioning, global mindset, organizational design, outside orientation, rewarding and feedback, team building and tenacity.

So what are leaders doing?

Google, Coca-Cola, WPP, Bain Consulting, Nissan responded with the insights that question conventional wisdom and have been successful in their firms.

Make Women and women leaders s a strategic imperative
Develop a women's leadership council that has a voice to the CEO
Listen for understanding
Break the rigidity of your rules
Set metrics and hold people accountable

While it will be challenging to change the mindset of today's work force, leaders must lay a foundation for the next generation of women to success in your business.

What ideas do you have to begin to make the changes needed to create more gender parity?

Let us know or call 312.492.7772

CEO: Is Flat the new Growth?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:10:00 PST

Is ‘flat’ the new ‘growth’? Let’s face it, 2009 was a year of holding the line and hiding a bit. The fear of bankruptcy, acquisition or dramatic sales decline may have left many leaders in a state of corporate rigamortis; a stalling of growth. So it’s 2010, a new year and new decade, what can you do to reboot your growth?

There are three growth horizons for leaders. Deciding how much to invest and when is your key challenge. Here are some screens you can use as a way to stage and gauge your growth:

1) Extend and Defend your Core Business
· If you are in a highly competitive market you need to align the organization to defend your core business and ‘stop the bleeding’. If you are looking to extend your core business clearly define who your customer is, what they need and how you can meet those needs. Here we look at growing sales incrementally, 1-3%
2) Build or Acquire Emerging Business
· This growth phase can take significant capital. If executed properly a strategic acquisition can elevate your growth in a way competitors can not match. Insure you have an integration strategy for this acquisition so the cultures can merge with ease. Building a new business is more closely related to innovation growth.
3) Fill Tomorrow’s Pipeline through Innovation
· The best way to decide if you should undertake an innovation effort is to ask yourself, “Are we meeting or exceeding the needs of our customers today?” If the answer is ‘no’, assign someone in your firm to look into emerging trends that can bring you more growth by being a more relevant company.

Developing the right strategic plan and meaningful growth platforms can help you achieve your growth goals successful. Crafting a new brand story can help.

Airlift helps leaders create a sustainable culture of growth through inspiring brand story telling. Contact us to find out how: srosen@airliftideas.com or (1) 312.492.7772.

Source: The Alchemy of Growth

Do your people matter in this economy?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:26:00 PDT

Do your people matter?

You might be thinking, “They are lucky to having a job in this economy!” Think again. Your people matter most. Every day, they show up to work so they can contribute to a greater good-your growth. They seek to deliver a quality product or service; one that should delight your customers with each transaction. They are your chief brand ambassadors. Yes, they matter!

McKinzie and Company outlined some tips for securing great people. The headline that leaders must create a an “extreme” EVP, employee value proposition by delivering a compelling reason why a talented person would want to work for your company.

Clearly, the Gen X and Y work force will make us think differently about how they work. Deloitte has a point of view on the distinct differences between a Boomer work force and Gen X and Y. Boomers put a heavy focus on work as an “anchor to their lives” while Gen Xers are concerned about “work/life navigation” They are willing to do the work, but not as interested as being seen sitting in their cubicle as a Boomer would.

Price Waterhouse conducted a global study stating “recruiting and integrating younger workers was seen as a challenge by 61% of chief executives globally. Less than a third (30%) believed they had a good understanding of their employees' needs and views.
What are you doing to hire, train and inspire your greatest asset, your people?

Let us know at http://www.airliftbrandstorytelling.blogspot.com/

Source: Fast Company, McKinzie and Company, Price Waterhouse

CEO's Are you Achieving Brand Longevity?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:16:00 PDT

We are a world obsessed with staying forever young and living longer. Can the principles of life-longevity be applied to business? Yes, longevity, the length of one’s life or career, can be applied to business. Here are some things to think about:

In a book, “Seven Principles for Living in Balance”, they articulate driving principles of a well-balanced life that can be applied to business.

Attitude-Change is an opportunity, not a threat (Can do)
Accountability- Holding an accountable point of view brings our life into control and balance by focusing on where we can get leverage and where we can make a difference.( Results)
Commitment-A meaningful role to fulfill and hold a strong inner belief in its importance. (Passion)
Supportive Relationships-We are social creatures who thrive on meaningful, caring, and affirming contact with others. (Teamwork)
Service-Highly change-resilient people view service as their true mission in life, and hold material wealth and success as secondary to helping others
Personal Mastery- Personal energy management is that people are able to maintain optimal energy levels throughout the day without dependence (Well-Being)
Faith -See their lives within a larger perspective and gives them a sense of belonging to a greater whole. (Community)

Is there an example of a brand that really does that? Yes!

Let’s look at Danone.

When you create products that you believe in passionately as a force for good — in this case, generating health and well-being — you too can live to 103 and build a global empire! Founder Daniel Carasso did both. In 1929, Carasso, having studied business and bacteriology, established the Danone brand in France.
Along the way, Carasso remained dedicated to yogurt no matter what happened. He ignored the beginning of the Great Depression because he was too busy trying to find dairy stores for his product in France. Yogurt rose from obscurity and niche markets into the mass consumer mainstream when adding fruit jam to the sour product proved a marketing breakthrough. In 2008, the Danone Groupe had worldwide sales of $20.48 billion.

Carasso lived though a century's worth of turbulence and destructive change, some of it much worse than anything happening today. He persisted when others gave up, reached out to partners to help him implement his vision, remained true to his values, and never lost his passion for yogurt.

Each of the principles of longevity and balance can in fact be applied to business. What principles should you deploy to improve the longevity of your brand? Let us know your thoughts by commenting in our blog.

Source: Bloomberg.com, Seven Principles for Living in Balanceby Joel Levey and Michelle Levey

Why Buy American?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:30:00 PDT

Buy American? Why?

Do you remember when “Made in Japan” meant low cost, low quality and cheaply made product? I do. Today, Japan brings us world class products like Toyota/Lexus, Sony, Canon, Nintendo, Panasonic and more.

Do you think that the “Made in America” has the same meaning as that Japanese label did in the 50’s? I fear it does.

Americans are so enamored with all things foreign. We aspire to buy foreign cars, luxury fashion brands and technology from Europe and Asia. We are proud to be American, so why aren’t we buying our own products? Did you know employees at major US car manufacturers were known to have purchased Japanese cars like Toyota and Honda? These were the very people making the American cars for the American people. If we ourselves are not buying our own products who will?

What can we do to have the “Made in America” label stand for leadership, quality and prestige? If are ever to help turn around the brand "America" we all have to do our part and buy the products and services the people of our country make. We need a new brand story.

Send us your comments on how we can instill the quality, pride and value in buying products that are made in America. srosen@airliftideas.com

CEO's Less is the new More

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Mon, 18 May 2009 08:03:00 PDT

Every day we hear about down-sizings, lay-offs and reductions but are they really all that bad? In good economic times, an enterprise can get too large, too cumbersome and have too much bureaucracy. Now is good time to ask, “How can we do less and still win?” This economy may force your management team put a tough lens on the productivity of the work we do to improve ROI.

Clearly our auto manufacturers are in the midst of media crisis headlines. General Motors announced the closing of 1,100 dealer locations and Chrysler is announcing the closing of about 1,900. But is that really a bad thing? Do consumers really need so much choice? The proliferation of choice may sound good but it can confuse the customers.

Here are some times to “skinny-down” in this economy:

1. Define your core competency and do everything you can to protect it. Insure the resources and competencies of your firm are intact so you can grow profitably when the economic downturn turns-around.

2. Review all of your systems and processes. Ensure the ones in place are effective, needed and critical to getting high quality products out the door profitably.

3. Take work out. Do you really need all those reports? Jack Welch created the famous “GE Work-Out Program” in his pursuit to make GE a better company. The goal of the Work-Out program was to "clean up" GE, to make workers more productive and processes simpler and more clear-cut. "Work-Out" was also designed to reduce, and ultimately eliminate all of the wasted hours and energy that prevented GE from performing day-to-day operations.

4. Offer less choice to your customers. Food companies create value through three business levers: improving unit margins, volume growth, or market share. Too often, product proliferation doesn't help any of these. The number of new products introduced in 1980 almost doubled the number introduced in 1970 --1,030 intros in 1970, 2,016 in 1980. The number of new products introduced in 1990 (9,192) was more than three and a half times the 1980 total and almost nine times the 1970 total!

There are many benefits to a lighter enterprise. Being less cumbersome can free your employees to think of new ideas, work on teams more productively and be more customer-centric. Less is the new more.

What are you doing to take work out, trim down and streamline so you can be ready for growth? Let us know. Send your comments and thoughts. srosen@airliftideas.com

CEO's:Make a plan. Execute a plan. Modify the plan

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:04:00 PDT

This economy makes leaders skittish about planning. What does the future hold? How do we prepare for the future in this volatile economy? How do we know what the right strategic investments are? The 2010 planning season is around the corner. Airlift knows it is better to have a plan and modify the plan, than to have no plan at all.

Here some planning principles you can deploy today to help you achieve your goals?

1) Engage a Cross-Functional thought leadership mantra
The best way to achieve a plan is to have your direct reports all play a key role in the planning process. Have a vision and some key metrics you want to achieve. Then allow the team to come together with their best thinking to develop the plan. After all they need to execute. Remember people help support what they help create.

2) Grow from your core strengths
Grow because you know who you are in the market and how you are going to compete to win. It might feel a bit scary to focus. Fear a competitor is gaining share is normal. But if you keep your team focused on the reason you are in business, new ideas can come from this thought.

3) Hold leaders accountable for their function and cross functional role in making the plan come alive – metrics
While success has many inventors and failure has none, the success of your plan will be the leadership team’s ability to make it happen. Establish quarterly reviews to check progress. Reward a job well, done, new ideas and even failures. It is the failures that will take the firm to the next level because we learn from our mistakes.

4) Keep your eyes wide open. Listen to new voices. Get outsiders in to help.
Once the plan is underway, it is possible a competitor comes out with a shiny new penny that can be distractive. Stay the course. If you assessed the market right going in, you can still achieve the plan despite a competitive entry in the market. However, when we get complacent and think we have all the answers, we may miss a new insight or idea. Stay open minded but keep the team focused to win. Brands like Daily Candy help leaders see first hand what consumers look for in new ideas.

5) Be ready to change the plan on a dime
A year ago, none of us would have predicted GM would be in this financial situation or a brand like Pontiac would seek to exist. We must be ready to change if the market presents dramatic new market conditions.

Finally, make time to celebrate even the small wins. Executing a plan is a marathon and even your senior people need to know you notice their contributions.

What are some best practices you have deployed for planning?
What works? What does not work?

Give us a shout so we can share your great planning tips. Comment in our blog, e mail at srosen@airliftideas.com or give us a call.

CEO’s: New brands can pop up over night

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:38:00 PDT

Be positive. New brands can be born overnight even in this economy. In this down economy, optimism is still a brand people want to buy.

Amidst crisis after crisis in the world news, we got a dose of optimism last week with the fastest growing brand in the world “Susan Boyle.” Who is she and where did she come from? Susan Boyle is a Scottish spinster who surprised the delighted Simon Cowell at last weeks Britain’s Got Talent. She walks out on stage to sneers from the youthful audience and eye-rolling from the famous judges. Then, after a meek introduction she belts out in perfect pitch one of the most difficult songs to sing, “I’ve Dreamed a Dream.”

If you haven't, then take a minute and look at the clip to understand the pure power of what a never give-up on your dreams spirit looks like. How do we know Susan Boyle brand story is worth watching?

1. Overnight, out of nowhere, people are searching the virtual world to be part of this optimistic sensation called Susan Boyle. The search has warranted over 12.5 million Google hits in one week. Instant brand power.

2. The brand, Susan Boyle has a quality product- perfect pitch

3. She has a loyal fan base of people that want her to win. They want her to win so much so, they created a website for her. http://www.susan-boyle.com/

4. Susan is authentic--her look, values and humble beginnings make Susan a brand worth loving. Susan is the real deal.

5. She had a cause. Upon her mother’s death bed and recent passing, Susan told her mom she would try to sing in front of others. It was her dream. Dreams really do come true.

Stop letting negative economic news get in the way of developing inspiring new brands. Growth is right in front of you. Let’s talk about the brand story of Susan Boyle. Send us a note in our blog. Call us to chat or jot us a note. 312.492.7772

CEO's: The Importance of Social Networks

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:46:00 PDT

Take a few seconds to reflect on the communication tools used to accomplish your daily routines. Phone and email are most likely included as the primary outlets for communicating with clients and employees. This provides a comforting sense of “privacy” – information will only reach the intended parties. However, social communication platforms like Twitter and Facebook promote easy sharing - making information less likely to remain confined to the original email or phone silo.

Looking at a longitudinal study conducted by the University of Massachusetts between 2007 and 2008 demonstrates the communication shift from “privacy” to “sharing” even at the executive level. The study examines social media involvement among executives at companies listed in Inc. Magazine’s popular “500” list. Companies included in the “Inc. 500” – the fastest growing private enterprises – experienced tremendous increase in social media adoption, boasting the following numbers:

· Social networking adoption increased from 27% in 2007 to 49% in 2008
· Blogging use reached 39% from a 19% level in 2007
· Corporate online video use grew to 45% from 24% in 2007

The increasing importance of adoption is evident but a number of questions still remain for executives before the sharing frenzy commences. For example, questions such as “What does an effective social media campaign look like for executive?” or “How much time will “sharing” consume and what types of information are appropriate?” need to be answered upfront. Examining the Twitter accounts of investor and Amazon co-founder Steve Case or Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh – there is an obvious emphasis on distributing news and resending tweets from other users. This practice demonstrates executive “listening” while avoiding the inevitable confrontation occurring from direct conversation.

Below are some considerations for effectively incorporating social media into daily communication practices.

How Can Social Media help C-Level Executives?

1. Decisions require data. All Executives are deciosn makers. Aggregating customer and employee feedback into a single location makes analysis and monitoring more efficient.
2. Reach everyone. Your “State of the Union” should reach the entire union. Corporate wide updates should not die a slow death on intranets or email. Duplicate the message via video, audio, or a blog post if for no other reason than because President Obama does the same.
3. Crowdsource decisions. Nothing establishes corporate and customer loyalty more than allowing all levels to participate in the decision making process as you are developing ideas.
4. Capture and distributing knowledge. Building a corporate blog is not feasible for every CEO but some form of participation increases humanity. Check out ExecTweets to see what other executives share with customers and employees.
5. Business expansion. Participating in an online community allows your network to grow. Common sense but overlooked as valuable tool for expanding your business.

Airlift Ideas relationship partner in social media; Get Talked about. Contributors Andy Angelos and Marty Hitzeman are co-founders of Get Talked About – a Chicago based firm dedicated helping companies create, execute, and manage creative online conversations.

CEO’s: How fast can you change?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:42:00 PDT

Last week, NATO World Leaders met in London to discuss the global economy. Expectations were high as the world waits for the secret answers to the economic turn-around.

Some skeptics say, “But what did they do there?” The Leaders knew they accomplished a lot. When was the last time you led a meeting with 20 people from 20 countries whom you had never met and by the way, all speak different languages?

Reports say that after three days together, these world leaders only spent 8 hours in total in meetings. So what did they achieve in the eight hours?

~~Agreed to change the rules of regulation and compliance on capitalism
~~Agreed to develop an organization to serve as a watch-dog (not a regulator) against reckless investments
~~Agreed to regulation on Executive Pay that is deemed reckless and out of sync with average company pay. For example, CEO’s who earn 500 times their employee should only earn this if they created huge new markets and great wealth for an enterprise. This level of pay should not be earned just because of a job title. For example, the case of AIG where some Executives received high bonuses even though they were leading a failing organization – we’re glad most of them returned the dough.
~~Agreed to monitor tax haven products and level the playing field for tax shelters.
~~Agreed to give One Trillion Dollars to stimulate the global economy by selling gold reserves. Did you know One Trillion is 10 to the twelfth power - That is how big one trillion dollars is!!!

President Obama called for “unprecedented coordination” to make the changes occur. From all accounts, it looks like the success of the meetings did in fact achieve this.

Fareed Zakaria of CNN had a QA to address many of these questions and more. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/03/zakaria.g20/index.html

What they did not accomplish in this three-day meeting? Was a single answer to the global economic downturn problem or a clear architecture address? No...but they are well on their way through team work, open dialogue and a will to solve it together. Sound familiar?

Since metrics are paramount to any change management effort, we can analyze consumer confidence level scores and the “market” to understand the impact of decisions coming from this meeting. The market responded favorably last week and rallied up each day the leaders met. Obama’s approval rating is high as well. Clearly, people seek confident, optimistic leaders in these times.

So how does this apply to you?
A new brand story drives strategic change. In this example, Leaders from the top 20 nations are gathered to work together to improve lives, economic stability and revitalize the world, together. This IS THE strategic shift --20 nations coming together on global issues, fast.

Similarly, as markets shift and your organization finds a need to be nimbler to compete in this economy, what are you doing to collaborate on crafting a new and more relevant brand story for your firm.

1. When was the last time you accomplished all that in eight hours?

2. What three things should a leader do to collaborate and make critical change happen, fast?

3. What are the barriers to achieving real lasting beneficial change in your organization?

Any ideas?

Let us at Airlift know. Comment on our blog.
Or you can reach us at srosen@airliftideas.com or call us at 312.492.7772.

Source: CNN International News

CEO's: Be Accountable or be Ousted

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:28:00 PDT

Leadership is a privilege. It is earned by the strategic decisions and actions you make every day and even by the ones you don't make. All the business school training in the world could not have prepared us for this economic environment with one exception; Accountability.

Have you ever met someone that promises to do something and does not follow through on his promise? Magnify this by 1,000x when leaders of an enterprise do not fulfill the promise of their plan to their people, their customers, and their stakeholders.

Accountability is "an obligation to account for one's actions". A person in a leadership role either accepts the highest level of accountability or does not. Barriers to leading an accountable culture range from; politics, blurred ethics, time, cost or…the fact that is really hard for some to hold themselves accountable.

This week's news reported General Motors CEO, Richard Wagoner was ousted by the Obama Administrations Auto Bailout Task Force. It is a signal Americans are serious about changing corporate cultures from their current lack of accountability to a corporate culture that thrives on accountability.

As a highly compensated leader, he is THE most accountable for the success of the GM enterprise. During his tenure, Wagoner made changes in cost reductions. He reduced the US workforce from 177,000 to about 92,000 today. He closed factories, stopped making the Oldsmobile brand, globalized engineering and made some progress with the rigid United Auto Workers on hourly wages. Making cost reductions for a multi-billion brand is easy.

Did Mr. Wagoner feel accountable to innovate at the core of GM's business-- to be a better company and compete in a sustainable way? Creating an accountable culture of innovation is the only way to compete in this category. GM needs a new brand story that inspires employees to design and manufacture cars that consumers want to buy.

Should he have been ousted? What three things would you do to turn GM Around?

Comment on our blog. Tell us your story about accountability.

Source: WSJ March30,2009, Websters Dictionary

CEO’s: When the market zigs, are you zagging?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:11:00 PDT

Building brand trust can be easy if you listen to the market and your customers. Being responsive says you are listening. Acting upon listening is the gateway to building brand trust. Be relevant. Remain Authentic. Move Quickly.

Your 2009 business plan has probably changed several times this year. No one could have predicted this economic downturn. The difference between thriving and surviving in this market is how your firm responds to the market conditions. While cost reduction is one way to insure you meet your plan, you also need ideas that signal you understand your customer’s needs today....and you are willing to show it with meaningful value.

So who is doing a good job of listening and responding in this market with real value?

Hyundai’s Assurance Program
The idea behind the Hyundai Assurance program is that if a customer can’t afford the car payments, financed by Hyundai and within the first year of financial servitude, just drop it off and walk away. No charge, no debt and no impact to the customer’s credit rating. Of course there are requirements to receive the offer, but the essence is Hyundai, a car for the value conscious customer, offers you a real “break”. Provided the customer has made at least two scheduled payments on your loan or lease, they pay for the amount above the Hyundai Assurance benefit and any car payments that were due prior to you filing for the benefit.” This outrageous offer broke through the car industry and world news clutter in a meaningful way.

JetBlue introduced the "JetBlue Promise Program," aimed at boosting customers' confidence to book travel by honoring a full refund to anyone who experiences involuntary full-time job loss prior to their trip. Customers who book flights between Feb. 1 and June 1, 2009 and loose their job on or after Feb. 17 may be eligible for The JetBlue Promise Program. Customers must notify JetBlue and request a full refund at least 14 days prior to the first date of travel.

Dominick’s Grocery: During the gasoline crisis, they offered customers $6 of free BP Gasoline for every $100 spent on groceries.

Remember the long term success of your firm is made up of a series of short term moments. If you are seeking to build a more loyal customer base, think about a short term move that builds the trust bank. A short term hit on your margin may bring more to your bottom line long term. Offer your customers something meaningful if you want to keep them in your brand franchise forever.

Who else is doing a good job of offering great value in these economic times? Share your thougths in our comment section.

Call Airlift to talk about how to build brand equity and trust. Shelley Rosen 312.492.7772 or send us a note at srosen@airliftideas.com

Source: Hyundai website. Jet Blue website.

What is brand equity and why are CEO’s in charge of it?

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:23:00 PDT

The value of a brand is established in the C-Suite of an enterprise. Every day, the decisions leadership makes either build or detract from a brand’s value. The only way to achieve brand dominance in the marketplace is to constantly drive the value of your brand by building Brand Equity.

There is some confusion in the market over the terminology:

· Brand Equity is “a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand; its name and symbol that add or subtract from the value proved by a product/service to a firm and their customers.” (1) This is the true value of your brand (business).

· Marketing is business activity involved in moving goods from the producer to the customer through advertising, sales, packaging and promotion.

· Branding is a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods or services of one seller to differentiate them from those of the competition. Think about it. A logo or symbol is like an empty vessel. The only way to make it meaningful is to fill it with value in a compelling way.

Until you clearly define the meaning behind your mark, you have not differentiated your organization. And once you do, spend time increasing the value of that brand name over time with every action you take. We call it brand value.

The secret to building Brand Equity is to admit the long term is made up of a series of short term moments and activities. Every decision you make builds towards improving the Brand Equity of your firm. The components of Brand Equity include; pricing strategy, naming, assets, awareness, loyalty drivers and associations in a relevant, sustaining way.

Building Brand Equity successfully is linked to a clear strategy for your enterprise:

1) Define the drivers of brand equity--attributes that matter most to the satisfaction of your customers

2) Agree upon the role marketing leadership plays to build Brand Equity

3) Understand and communicate your core competency and Brand Equity with a unified voice

4) Deploy metrics for evaluating growth and improvements in Brand Equity through market share

So who is doing a good job in today’s economy of building and maintaining Brand Equity and why?

Airlift can help you build a clear roadmap to long term Brand Equity. Define your long term competitive advantage in a highly charged economic time with the right brand story.

Call Airlift today at 312.492.7772 or write us at srosen@airliftideas.com

Source: (1) Managing Brand Equity by David Akers. Webster’s Dictionary

CEO’s should protect their brand’s authenticity during challenging times

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:43:00 PST

“The highest wisdom is to know yourself,” ~~ Erasmus~~

Given the challenges of today’s economy, you are under siege to protect your business by cutting back your operating costs. Or you want to cut back so you can afford an innovation effort. All this might be true. However, be prepared to defend and protect the core competency of your company by remaining true to who your company really is. Protect and defend the soul of your business so the attributes that differentiate you remain intact when the storm is over and your business sky rockets again.

Authenticity is a much talked about word in business. Some believe it means to be an environmentally friendly company. Others believe you have to sell organic products. Webster defines authentic as, “that which can be believed or accepted, trustworthy or reliable.”

David Boyle, a noted British author, defines authenticity in a compelling way. “It's a new attitude that's discernable behind all this demand for authenticity - a new way of approaching business or culture or politics that's rooted in one that is tolerant of human failings. There is an emergence of people who are seeking real food, real culture, real politics, real schools, real community, real medicine, real culture and real stories. Are you keeping it real?

The best way to remain authentic to who you are, is to define and protect your organization’s core competency.

Core Competency is a deep proficiency that enables a company to deliver unique value to customers in a sustainable manner. Put your company under the litmus test of a Core Competency; a set of skills and assets that are hard for competitors to copy or procure. Understanding Core Competencies allows companies to invest in the strengths that differentiate them and set strategies that unify their entire organization.

Core Competency is something that a firm can do well: Here are three conditions:

Provides customer benefit
Not Easy for competitors to imitate
Can be leveraged enterprise-wide

When sales decline, you face job losses, key accounts evaporate and your profit margins are under siege, take time to find out who your company really is and what you are best at. Remain authentic to your heritage. It will become your guiding compass to weather this economic storm.

Airlift can help you find your authentic self. Call 312.492.7772 today or contact us via srosen@airliftideas.com. Sign up to receive this weekly at http://airliftbrandstorytelling.blogspot.com/

Sources: David Boyle. Authenticity, Brands, Fakes Spin and the lust for real Life, Gary Hamel, Strategos on Core Competency

CEO's to build a Culture of Creativity and Innovation. The Lifeblood of your Firm

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:06:00 PST

Unleash growth through creativity. Creative people are everywhere in your firm, not just in the marketing department. Sheer genius comes from brilliant, non-linear thinking, the ability to communicate a vision for a great idea and the courage to see big ideas to fruition. How many creative thinkers are working on your business today?

Inventing new ideas is a far greater challenge than replicating and improving on your current ideas and businesses. It is the difference between incrementalism and major business growth. Today’s economy demands that you deploy a creative process to your business to achieve growth. Doing so will reduce the likelihood that BIG ideas are a rare occurrence in your firm. Deploy a creative innovation process today and make growth a sure bet.

“Creativity” is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts. It is simply the act of making something new. Alternatively, the term “innovation” is the process by which an organization generates creative new ideas and converts them into profitable products and services. “Creative innovation” combines both: generating breakthrough business-building ideas and applying a process to vet them. Does your firm have a creative innovation process?

Richard Florida, author of “The Rise in the Creative Classes” stated that in the early 1900’s, creative jobs only accounted for 10% of the American workforce. In 1980, this rose to 20% and today, we see over 30% of jobs (or more than 40 million) with a “creative lens” in the USA.. However, this increase in “creative lens” jobs does not necessarily mean that companies which have increased focus in this area experience exponential growth. Richard believes there are three drivers of creativity that business leaders should embrace to create a pipeline of strong growth: Technology, Talent and Tolerance.

· Technology drives our ever changing landscape to improve efficiency.

· Talent is a mandate in this economy – the good news for you is that there are a lot of really talented people unemployed today and therefore available to fill key roles in achieving your company’s growth strategy. Hiring the right people can execute your business goals.

· Tolerance is needed most. It takes a long time to get the right creative process, and to foster an environment of innovation patience and open-mindedness. Without tolerance, exponential growth innovation can be undermined and stifled.

Why do some companies “get it” and others do not?
PIXAR is one of the most innovative new studios of our time. Steven Jobs invented PIXAR as a way to bring the most innovative ideas to the screen- where technology and story come together. PIXAR knows its viewers have come to expect something new and fresh each time they see a PIXAR movie. They set the bar and it is higher every time. The leaders of Pixar believe in three key operating principles to inspire creativity:

1. Everyone must have the freedom to communicate with anyone - Managers do not always need to be the first to know what is going on. Have confidence that you chose the right people to deliver your plans. Believe that everyone’s opinion at every level matters.

2. It must be safe for everyone to offer their ideas - Have a non-judgmental environment to share ideas. Give positive feedback about ideas or the germ of the idea so people see how easy and safe it is to express in front of your group.

3. We must stay close to innovations happening in the academic community - The transparency in sharing its ideals helps PIXAR recruit great talents. Some of the best thinkers are in universities and colleges across the globe. Their research and insights can help us see into the future. It reinforces that PIXAR values the power of smart people more than it values big ideas.

Don’t be fooled. You do not need to be in a creative business to drive creativity. Geico invented a better way to sell insurance in a highly regulated, risk averse industry. Home Shopping Network sells more jewelry profitably than mall jewelry retailers paying heavy monthly leases. Enterprise Car Rental is the number one car rental with its door-to door service model. These companies are winning because they had a better way of doing something and were willing to break paradigms and think differently.

Here are five steps to help you get started:
1. Identify a creative thinker who has respect in your organization - This person may be in the field, or in a managerial position. They need to have the skill sets and the confidence to try new ideas with a small team and run a process that is a bit messy. Make this a full time job.

2. Allocate a budget with gating - Just as a venture capital firm does, develop a budget with goals and hurdles for success. The team can earn more funds if goals are achieved. Creative innovation should not be a free-for-all.

3. Listen to new voices through a new lens - Force the Executive Management team to see new things and to be open to TRYING a new idea. This is the hardest thing to do. Most executive teams say, “we cannot take the risk”, “trying this may impact our core business” etc. Show your leadership team you are willing to take the risk – that’s often where the biggest business growth opportunities are.

4. Grow from your strength - Find out what your firm is really good at doing and then build and grow from there. If your firm excels in real estate development, then explore ideas that leverage that skill.

5. Mitigate your risks - Think about big ideas but pilot small tests. Reward the failures but find the nuggets that worked.

The most strategic thing you can do in this economy is start a creative innovation process. Keep an open mind to new ideas from new people so you can achieve your growth goals.

At Airlift, we believe creativity can be applied every day with or without a costly innovation process. A new brand story can help. Call today to find out how to bake creativity into your business model. Shelley Rosen 312.492.7772 or srosen@airliftideas.com

Source: Harvard Business Review, “How Pixar Fosters Creativity” Sept, 2008. Richard Florida’s “The Rise of the Creative Class.”

CEO's: Brand Trust is Job #1 in this economy

noreply@blogger.com (Airlift Brand Story Telling) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:21:00 PST

An organizational mandate for CEO’s in this economy is building and protecting brand trust. Your logo is a promise to your people, your customers and your investors. Every move you make either builds upon the trust of your brand or detracts from it. Is your trust bank where it needs to be to weather the economic storm? Your corporate reputation depends on it.

Why does it always take a “bad” incident for a company to develop a trusted brand? It took the demise of Enron to give us the Sarbanes-Oxley practices that all corporations are deploying today. Let’s face it. American icons, celebrities, athletes and corporations are letting us down. Americans want to be loyal to brands they trust and that meet their needs.

Here are some things you can do today to build your trust bank:

Be Transparent in all you do
Dan Amos, CEO of Aflac, inherited a company that was founded on ethical principles. “This company was founded with the premise that if you take care of your employees, they will take care of the company. One of the aspects that helps the company continue to thrive is Amos’ transparent leadership. “As a public company there is a responsibility to tell people what is happening regardless of whether the news is particularly good or bad,”

Have a meaningful Corporate Responsibility platform your people can be proud of
Giving back must be part of your business model today. The most relevant brands give back with every transaction. They share their story to their people and customers with pride and assurance that the dollars raised are going to the stated cause. Starbucks retail merchandising does a great job communicating their social platforms in every part of the facility. From the take one counter display to their Ethos Water bins, we know they give back and to whom. It makes us feel good and makes them a brand we can trust.

Lead by Example
The best way for your organization to build trust is for you and your leadership team to hold yourself accountable to an ethical leadership style at all times. The law is the law. However, within your organization there are rules that should not be broken. Make your rules and guidelines public and then insure compliance through rewards and when ethics are compromised.

Fad brands need to lead with ethics and trust in order to endure
Facebook inventor and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is one of the youngest billionaires in the USA at 23 years of age. He built a social networking brand called Facebook that is enjoyed by over 150 million users. People join the site to share ideas, stories, build friendships and business. Recently Zuckerberg revealed his philosophy on his data base. “In reality we would not share information in a way you would not want.” Perhaps Mr. Zuckerberg is too young to understand that brand trust is the number one thing he must protect. Building a base of 150 million loyal users is hard to do. Building a trust bank to keep those users coming back, safe and protected is easy to do when you realize your job is to build brand trust.

Regulatory Compliance
This seems like a given. Assign leaders in the firm that not only comply to national regulations but help blaze new trails so your brand can grow. This year Forbes named Noblis as the world’s most ethical company, Noblis is a dynamic nonprofit science, technology and strategy organization dedicated to science and technology to serve the public’s interest. “Our relationships are based on earned trust and our ability to provide scientific, technical, and strategy solutions to complex problems in an objective and conflict free manner. This recognition is a reflection of the teamwork and effort that everyone here put into building our culture, values and processes,” said Amr ElSawy, President and CEO of Noblis.

Select and Ethical Board of Directors
Your board plays a key role to help you achieve your business aspiration with the ethics and integrity you seek. Their advice and counsel helps weather the tough times. Each hand-selected board member should add to the trust bank by who they are and what they bring to the strategy table. Create a rock star board that extends your trust values.

Even in today’s economy, there are brands that have risen to the top in the financial sector because of their ability to understand, communicate and deliver a trusted brand. The Luxury Institute reports that high net-worth consumers rated Fidelity Brokerage Services the most trusted retail broker in the new 2008 Luxury Brand Trust Index (LBTI) survey. Respondents say they trust the firm that provided "excellent service and ideas for making money," "holds the investor's concerns as a priority," and has "your best interests at heart." Charles Schwab and Wachovia Securities rank second and third, respectively. Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute states, "Wealthy consumers agree it is not enough to outperform your competition; you have to out-behave them too.” That is brand trust.

Building your trust bank is done action by action, day-by-day. Over time, when done right it can put a shine on your brand to weather the roughest economy we have seen in forty years.

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Source: Luxury Institute, Forbes, Ethisphere