Our Journey: The Connected Strategies Framework

I've been a branding practitioner for more than 40 years.

Since the beginning, I've always felt that the contribution we've made is necessary, but not sufficient.  I've come away from client engagements feeling they needed more from us for the solution to fully address their needs.

I've been on an ongoing search for how we could be better.  Two Augusts ago, I decided to talk directly to the CEOs I worked with or knew.  I spoke to 45 in all and learned some sobering facts.

First, most all were frustrated by their organization's inability to grow and sustain demand, but they didn't know why they couldn't fix that.

Second, they saw what I did as largely a commodity. "Brand strategists are a dime a dozen."  "There are lots of good ones out there, but the value they produce is limited."

Thirdly, they felt that strategists who could help shape business strategy and translate that into an enabling brand strategy were more valuable. "Those strategists are 3 for a quarter." But, they felt that even these strategists deliver less than 25% of the value they needed.

Fourthly, they universally agreed that a strategist who knew how to articulate a business-driving promise and then deliver that promise through a fulfilling experience were what they really needed.  "After all, the proof of any brand is in the experience."  The problem is, they saw this kind of individual - or firm - as a unicorn.  "Sure there's many who give lip service to this, but I know of no one who can actually do it."

I finally had my answer.  So, I took this as a wake-up call and went to work to figure out how to be just that type of resource.

I started by validating my learning.  I used my genius interns – ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude – to help me scour the available research and thought pieces by the leading management consultants.

Sure enough, upwards of 70% of small, midsized and emerging enterprise CEOs are disappointed with their organization's inability to generate and manage demand to fuel sustained growth.  The majority of the CEOs have yet to put their fingers on why.  Most all cast the blame on their marketing.

I went to work, exploring different methodologies – adding them to ongoing client relationships and pitching them to new clients.  I got kudos for the effort, won a string of new business pitches and saw improvements in the success of our efforts in client programs.  But, I still felt I was dealing with symptoms rather than the causes.

I went back out to the CEOs again last August and had a breakthrough.  We knew from the first discussions that there were key disconnects - business to brand and brand to experience.  Just maybe there were more.

That process helped us discover the linkages that were necessary to success, but were more often than not disconnected.  We knew that brand is most effective when it is designed to enable business strategy.  What we needed to uncover was how business and brand together could ultimately deliver a more fulfilling experience.

Our journey of discovery helped us see what should have been obvious from the start – successful experiences are delivered through a well-managed culture of service and very insightful innovation designed to deliver better products, services and processes.

From this, we realized that successful demand generation and management required the integration of six strategies:

1. Business - defining where to play and how to win

2. Brand - crafting and expressing the promise to attract, inform and engage

3. Culture - aligning the organization to deliver that promise

4. Innovation - fulfilling the promise through compelling products, services and processes

5. Customer experience - smoothing the relationship and delivering memorable moments in the fulfillment of the promise

6. Marketing - stimulating, converting, securing and expanding the resulting demand

The problem is that in most cases, these strategies are framed in isolation and are therefore not connected.  Only the CEO, and in some cases the CSO, have the mandate to work horizontally across the strategies.  Every other executive saw their own area as their sole responsibility.

We uncovered four important challenges:

1. The silo trap - departments protect their turf and resist integrating

2. The expertise trap - not all strategies are equally strong

3. The alignment crisis - disconnected strategies breed confusion and adversely limit results

4. The marketing burden - marketing is expected to bridge the gaps, without the tools or the authority

We found another problem – dealing with these challenges was seen to be tantamount to "boiling the ocean."  We needed to build an easy to apply diagnostic tool that would help C-suite leaders determine where and how to go to work to solve the problem quickly.

I drew on my fitness experiences to solve the problem.  Each time I embarked on a new fitness regimen, my coach would take me through a series of "FitTests" to understand my strengths and weaknesses and determine where to start working to have the most immediate impact.  I built a FitTest for each of the six strategies that could show us where to dive in.  All it took was a one to two-day workshop for leadership to know where to go to work.

With that, the Connected Strategies Framework was ready to be tested.  We integrated it into three ongoing client programs:

Dexian - creating a new company talent and technology company by successfully merging DYSIS and Signature Consultants

Brightstar Lotteries - spinning out a new pure-play global lottery company from the gaming company IGT

Oriental Bank - creating a digital-first, challenger bank to be #2 in the Puerto Rican banking market, dominated by Banco Popular

The results in each case were dramatic.  Our intended impact was confirmed. And now this framework will be core to any assignment we're asked to pitch for and awarded.

So, what began as an investigation two years ago August is now ready for primetime and will be rolled out in earnest this August.  Stay tuned for progress reports along the way.

I finally have the answer to my fundamental challenge.  Managed correctly, now our work will be not only necessary, but sufficient to move the needle for our client's success.

#ConnectedStrategies, #DemandManagement, #Demand, #BusinesssStrategy, #Strategy, #Brand Strategy