Social media influencers and AI platforms are changing the way we connect with customers; they are also changing the way we use brands. Today brands are not only marketing outputs and strategic inputs. They are – or at least they should be – cultural cornerstones. Here is why. related: Prepare Your Culture for a Recession […]
How do you build a great brand? Ever since I wrote the book What Great Brands Do, I’ve been on a quest to discover and share answers to this question. While all seven brand-building principles that I introduced in the book still are important and relevant today, the one that has risen to the top […]
Now is the time to prepare your business for the recession. In addition to the typical strategies of cost-cutting and cash flow management, add culture-building. A healthy, effective, and resilient company culture can help you not just survive, but actually thrive during an economic downturn. In my new Smartbrief on Leadership video, I explain how […]
I’m not a designer so I don’t have any expertise on this, but from the perspective of brand leadership. infusing your office design with your brand seems an effective way to turn your office into a magnet, inspiration, and guide for employees. Plus, when I reached out to my go-to expert on all things office […]
The age-old question – which is more important, customers OR employees – is a misguided, and potentially dangerous one. As a business leader, you shouldn’t prioritize one group over another. Instead, you should link employees and customers. One way to connect employees and customers is to use cultural tenets that are relevant and important to […]
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently referred to Meta employees in a new way: Metamates. Is this a good idea? Should you use a coined name to refer to your employees? The poll I fielded on LinkedIn yielded a definitive answer: It depends. 28% supported the practice of made-up names for employees; 32% voted against it; […]
How aligned and integrated are your external brand identity and internal organizational culture? Does your organization have the right core values that it needs to cultivate your desired culture and achieve your brand vision? How big is the gap between your existing brand identity and the one you aspire to? In what specific ways are […]
As you think about the coming year, I’m guessing are you don’t want another only OK, keep-our-heads-above-water, just-grateful-to-still-be-around year – you want 2022 to be a year of greatness! To help you turn your hopes and dreams for the new year into reality, I’ve just published “2022 Great Business Action Plan” – a piece that […]
The problem at Amazon is not simply that its culture has gone awry; more importantly, it has become disconnected from the company’s brand. Amazon’s brand has always been grounded in its aspiration of becoming “Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company.” And its leaders have used the organization’s core values, “Leadership Principles”, to guide the company in service […]
Customer personas — models that represent different groups of customers – have been a valuable tool in customer experience (CX) design. Now it’s time to apply the approach to employees and employee experience (EX) design. Employees personas can be used to develop completely new EX designs that bridge the gaps caused by a hybrid workforce, […]