{"id":1270,"date":"2024-01-31T09:40:10","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T05:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/?p=1270"},"modified":"2024-02-01T10:01:42","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T06:01:42","slug":"brand-leadership-an-easy-act-to-follow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/31\/brand-leadership-an-easy-act-to-follow\/","title":{"rendered":"Brand Leadership: An Easy Act To Follow!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If I am sounding audacious, it is because I want to. Sorry, if I am not apologetic about it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Branding<\/span><\/em> and <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Leadership<\/em><\/span> are Siamese twins. The <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Brand Promise<\/em><\/span> is a vibrant, living, changing saga called&#8230;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Things We Care About<\/em><\/span>. It requires <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Passion<\/em><\/span>(ideally in all caps!)- the variety that only <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Inspired Leaders<\/em><\/span> can project.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Franklin Roosevelt<\/em>, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>America&#8217;s Brand Manager of Dignity and Freedom<\/em><\/span> during the <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Great Depression<\/em><\/span>( remember &#8221; The Only Thing We Have To Fear is Fear Itself &#8220;) and <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>World War II<\/em><\/span>( &#8220;December 7, a date which will live forever in infamy&#8221;), said, &#8221; <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>it is necessary for the President to be the nation&#8217;s number one actor. &#8220;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That said, in fact <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>all of leadership is an<\/em><\/span> <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Act<\/em><\/span>. It is an act called conveying the <em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Brand Promise<\/span><\/em> via demonstrated <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>High Conviction<\/em><\/span> in pursuit of <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Great Purpose<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That Great Purpose can be Democracy, Peace and Prosperity or it can come in various hues- be it the provision of the finest Indian cuisine in Dubai, the coolest business processes in the mortgage-banking industry in the US, or the Best-Ever Employee Independence Day picnic at your local organisation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In any event, to carry it off, leaders of all descriptions must live and look the part. Some years ago, John Peers who was CEO of Technology Inc had said &#8221; You can&#8217;t lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse &#8220;. In fact, Roosevelt, no horseman as a result of his polio incapacitation, was careful never to be seen as incapacitated, what people saw about him was a consistent air of tenacity and confidence( like <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Churchill&#8217;s cigar<\/em><\/span>, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Roosevelt&#8217;s cigarette holder was an Oscar quality prop<\/em><\/span>) during a time of mortal trial.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, the <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Oscar<\/em><\/span> goes to a certain <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Mohandas Gandhi<\/em><\/span>(Father Of The Nation as he is remembered in India) who dressed brilliantly for the part of non-violent nation builder and chose his prop, the humble spinning wheel, with care. Mr G: &#8221; <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>You Must Be The Change That You Want To See In The World<\/em> <\/span>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Brand Leadership: A Great Story To Tell<\/em><\/span>. Harvard Leadership Guru <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Howard_Gardner\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Howard Gardener<\/em><\/span><\/a> writes in his fascinating book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ae\/Leading-Minds-Leadership-Emma-Laskin\/dp\/0465027733\/ref=asc_df_0465027733\/?tag=googleshopp09-21&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=406737736039&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=14167788141477365137&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=1000013&amp;hvtargid=pla-488769688264&amp;psc=1&amp;mcid=e28edc78e9c83407997d2d9a8a433dd6\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership<\/em><\/span><\/a> &#8220;Stories have identity. They are narratives that help individuals think about and feel who they are, where they come from, and where they are headed. They constitute the single most powerful in the leader&#8217;s arsenal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1271\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Leadership-Bold-V-S-Brave.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2187\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Great Leadership is Great Storytelling<\/em><\/span>. <em>Stories create the emotional context people need to locate themselves in a larger experience<\/em>. Great enterprise leaders take on the &#8216;role'(read: the brand) of their company or product. Thus:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Steve Jobs is Apple, Bill Gates is Microsoft, Larry Ellison is Oracle, Andy Grove..is Intel, Sam Walton is(was)..Walmart, Richard Branson is Virgin Group, Anita Roddick is Body Shop, Giorgio Armani is Armani, Charles Schwab is &#8230;Charles Schwab, Oprah is..Oprah<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Real competition no longer revolves around market share. We are competing for attention&#8230;<em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">mind share, heart share, gut share<\/span><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; If I am sounding audacious, it is because I want to. Sorry, if I am not apologetic about it. &nbsp; Branding and Leadership are Siamese twins. The Brand Promise is a vibrant, living, changing saga called&#8230;Things We Care About. It requires Passion(ideally in all caps!)- the variety that only Inspired Leaders can project. &nbsp; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/31\/brand-leadership-an-easy-act-to-follow\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Brand Leadership: An Easy Act To Follow!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1272,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270\/revisions\/1272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}