Developing Decision-Making Tools

Viewpoint by Andrew Flynn, Partner

Gut feel and intuition are valuable decision-making tools in some circumstances, but not when it comes to making strategy and investment decisions for a company's brand assets. So why do so many companies, both large and small, rely on intuition for their biggest decisions? The reason is that very few companies take the time to fully understand the role that each of the brands in their portfolio will play in achieving business objectives - they do not actively link their brands to their business strategy. When there is no link, the potential for brand decisions to be influenced by historical performance, local requirements or even internal politics. However, when there is a strong, clearly articulated link between brand and business strategy, both good and bad brand decisions stand out much more clearly.