Through the years, Denise Lee Yohn has had the privilege of working on some of the world’s greatest brands and studying many others. She shares her insights, observations, and ideas about brands, businesses, and the people who work on them in articles, newsletters, videos, presentations, and more.
To Read:
Articles:
What Did You Do Last Week?
March 4, 2025
Topics: Culture, Employee Engagement, Leadership
Keywords: employee engagement, leadership, workplace culture, purpose, Mission, DOGE Email
The recent DOGE email controversy reveals a crucial leadership lesson about employee engagement and motivation.
Middle Managers Are Dead; Long Live Middle Managers – How AI Is Changing Organizational Structures and Priorities
January 3, 2025
Topics: Business, Leadership
Keywords: middle managers, AI, Organizational Structure, Workforce Automation, Leadership Evolution, Managerial Burnout
AI is disrupting traditional organizational structures, raising questions about the future of middle management. While some predict its decline due to AI’s efficiency in task automation and decision-making, others argue that middle managers are more critical than ever to translate strategy, drive team collaboration, and lead change. What’s clear is that this role must adapt—and with the right tools and support, middle managers can become the central force driving AI integration and organizational success.
Operationalizing Culture: Lessons from Hostelworld’s Innovative Performance Management
December 3, 2024
Topics: Corporate Culture, Culture, Employee Engagement, Leadership
Keywords: culture transformation, Operationalizing Culture, Performance Reviews, Organizational Change, Hostelworld, Gary Morrison, Incompass Labs
Operationalizing a new organizational culture is key to implementing a new strategic direction. Hostelworld’s story provides a compelling example of driving the cultural transformation needed to shift their business.
Customer Centricity: It’s More Than a Mindset
September 10, 2024
Topics: Customer Experience, Corporate Culture, Business, Culture, Customer Service, Strategy
Keywords: customer experience, customer centricity, customer culture, customer centric, customer obsessed
For your company to become truly customer-centric, it takes more than wanting, thinking, or talking about it. Customer centricity requires a completely different orientation to everything you do as an organization.
Newsletters: Brand-as-Business Briefs™:
[mailchimp_campaigns list_id=”2b350112e6″ apikey=”6e29a97554510c01f1cb4dfb71ccfde5-us2″ limit=”5″ order=”DESC” link_text=”subject”]To Watch:
Keynotes & Presentations:
A sample of prior speaking engagements.
Denise has been inspiring and teaching business leaders how to build their brands and develop exceptional organizations for over 25 years. From international conferences to CEO peer groups to corporate meetings, Denise shows her audiences how to compete and win.
Smartbrief on Brand Leadership:
Series of videos for Smartbrief on Leadership, a curated collection of innovative ideas and hard-to-find leadership content.
Brand Assessment:
Are you doing what great brands do? Take this 10 question brand asessment. One 60-second video takes you through each question. Take the assessment & view your results online here.
Brand Experience Briefs:
Brand Experience Briefs capture insights and analysis from Denise’s audits of new and interesting retail and restaurant concepts.
To Engage:
These tools and content provide a deeper dive into the brand-as-business management approach.
Brand-as-Business Assessment
Does your organization practice the brand-as-business management approach?
Slideshows & Presentations:
Denise’s presentation decks and slideshows includes notes and quotes from conferences and books and other valuable insights.