These are the principles that define the Great Repeatable Models in business according to Chris Zook, partner at Bain and Co. (Thanks Chris!)
Digging a little deeper and looking through the window of brand strategy, I decided to ponder Zook’s principles of greatness and consider the implications for brand planning and design.
So here they are, a little dose of brain food for you.
Focus
The guiding principles of a brand, provides a spear head of focus for the business, a focus on how value can be created in a customer’s life. It builds alignment of effort and co ordinates the resources of the business into a single direction. By using narratives in the voice of the customer to explain how brand value is created at each customer touch point, a business can pull this focus throughout the business.
Embeddedness
Embeddness means taking the vision of the brand and making it a way of doing business that cascades down from leaders to the frontline. When a brand is embedded, the business has learnt to walk the talk of the brand promise. Using an internal employee brand, a business can ensure every individual can see the role they need to play to deliver on the brand promise. At Hearts and Minds, we like to tell our clients “when their employees can run their role in the brand promise like a movie in their head, they have clarity”.
Adaptability
When you open the bonnet on this, it is about taking the insights from customers and turning these into competencies. Zook claims this comes from a “strong self awareness and the ability to question core assumptions”. An adaptable business is willing to let go of the comfort of the status quo and create a new model. In a sense, adaptability comes from a constant state of openness, rigorous honesty and a whole hearted willingness to do things differently.
Louise Kelly
Managing Director
Hearts and Minds
Thought Leaders Circle 