Organizing For Brand-Building

Viewpoint by Jeff Smith, Partner

Many organizations today find themselves in an environment where their brand and marketing functions have been built through the piecing together of acquisitions and regional businesses, leading to a very flat, decentralized management function. The key risks associated with such a model are the inefficiencies of overlapping responsibilities and activities, little global control over the brand and its management, disparate levels of expertise/capabilities, and siloed mentalities. The structure that best suits an organization should reflect and support its unique global needs. Often times, in a global brand organization, the required capabilities go beyond traditional brand and marketing expertise. Instead, successful employees must also have the ability to influence the myriad of other communicators across all regions and businesses. We have found that developing a path to greater influence in the organization is a key success factor to effectively building and managing a global brand organization in complex global businesses. Building a structure that increases influence and cross-border collaboration will ultimately deliver a more consistent global brand—one where efficiencies are achieved both internally with employees and externally with stakeholders.