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David Kincaid

The Brand-Driven CEO ft. Hugo Powell: Part 3 – The Value of a Promise

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This video series is comprised of seven parts, which are structured to support the principles developed in David Kincaid’s The Brand-Driven CEO. Click here to watch the previous part.

You will often hear us at Level5 discuss the “Value of a Promise Consistently Kept™”. In Part 3 of our latest Brand-Driven CEO series, David Kincaid and Hugo Powell discuss the former half of that phrase in the context of Hugo’s experience leveraging disaggregation to understand a brand’s consistency and value. Hugo also outlines Apple as an example of a brand that invests for the long term to remain relevant and create value.

“Disaggregation is the grunt work of getting down to more detail than your competitor will pursue to better understand the situation and what needs to be different in the future to realize brand consistency and value.”

The Brand-Driven CEO ft. Hugo Powell: Part 2 – Creating Business Value

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Click here to see part one of the seven-part series.

Brand is a value-driving agent. In Part 2 of our latest #BrandDrivenCEO series, David Kincaid and Hugo Powell exchange ideas about the creation of business value through brand. Hugo provides first-hand experience and insights based on his time managing Labatt and its acquisition by Interbrew SA.

“Doing transactions allowed me to think about why I would want to buy that company, or not want to buy it. What are the values created? And of course, the brand and its trajectory are a very big part of that.”

The Brand-Driven CEO ft. Hugo Powell: Part 1 – Life Story

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Meet Hugo Powell, a seasoned CEO, David Kincaid’s former boss and mentor, and the latest guest on our next segment of The Brand-Driven CEO series.

Part 1 in the series provides a snapshot into Hugo’s upbringing, life, and rich career. He speaks about his fascinating journey from humble beginnings to building success for multiple businesses. He outlines his favourite poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling, and how it has been a guiding force throughout his life and career.

This video series is comprised of seven parts, which are structured to support the principles developed in David Kincaid’s The Brand-Driven CEO. Click here to watch the next part.

Unbundling the Business Value of a Promise Consistently Kept

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The concept of “brand” is one of the most misunderstood assets on a company’s balance sheet. It’s often used interchangeably with marketing, a misperception that we have both worked on throughout our careers. While they are related, they are very different. In its simplest form, a brand is a promise made to the marketplace by your organization, your people, the products you make, and the customer experiences you design. Essentially, it’s a promise made to your customers, and at Level5, we describe this foundational philosophy as the ‘value of a promise consistently kept™”.

Here, we share why this is a transformative business principle for organizations to embrace.

Traditionally, CEOs and business leaders understood the concept of brand as the marketing or tagline. But a brand is not a logo, campaign, or packaging design. This is all marketing – and marketing is a cost that’s often reduced when budget cuts or circumstances change. At Level5 Strategy, we see the brand as a tangible business asset that creates value that can be leveraged on the balance sheet. It’s a very measurable and powerful tool that’s still mainly being under-utilized and misunderstood.”

The Power of The Brand Promise

Brands all make a distinct and proprietary promise to the marketplace. But a brand’s strength depends on how well it keeps this promise to their users. The most powerful and effective brands can make you believe in their promise because they keep it and communicate it to you 24/7.

From Apple to Starbucks, the strength of these brands is built on the customer’s confidence that their own experience reflects the brand’s promise. This in turn deepens customer loyalty, enables higher premium prices and in turn directly drives and grows the business.

But this approach isn’t just for business. All organizations, from hospitals, to non-profits, and governments, make a promise to their users. Their ability to effectively achieve their mission depends on the ability to articulate their brand promise and then keep it.

The Emotional and Rational Drivers

Twenty years ago, people would have struggled to believe that lining up to buy a coffee for double the average price would become a regular habit for large population segments. Similarly, who would believe that people would camp overnight in front of an electronics store to be one of the first to own a smartphone, mainly when two months later, you could walk into that same store and make that same purchase at the same price, if not cheaper? The drivers here are not rational reasons but emotional ones. Apple has no tagline but is one of the most influential global brands on the strength of its promise consistently kept. Starbucks isn’t just selling coffee; it’s selling indulgence.

These are two examples of how highly effective brands leverage their customers’ rational and emotional drivers.

For most organizations and leaders, the challenge is effectively discerning what those drivers – particularly the emotional ones – actually are. Research shows that there are more than 184 personality types and 96 emotions. It’s overwhelming. And yet, to build your brand and organization, you need to identify one or two that are the right drivers at the right moment. To help address this need, Level5 developed BrandMap™, which enables clients to effectively know their optimal rational and emotional drivers and operationalize this across the team and customer experience.

Brand As a Business System

Placing the brand at the organization’s center is a game changer. It is a hugely profitable and incredibly effective decision to manage the brand as a business system, one that sits at the center of organizations.

In contrast to the traditional approach, which saw the brand as the responsibility of the marketing team, when the brand is a business system, it becomes operationalized across and throughout all the functions and teams. This cohesive approach amplifies the ability to keep the brand promise.

Great organizations engineer the brand promise into their full operations by building their entire business system around its delivery. They makes sure that front-line workers, procedures, and core capabilities of the organization, are all designed and engineered to deliver a great brand or customer experience.

Level5 2022 Summer Reading Roundup (Part 2)

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As we‘ve shared recently, books play a vital role in our lives at Level5, and we love sharing our recommendations with each other. This week, we have book recommendations curated by Founder David Kincaid, who is the best-selling author of The Brand-Driven CEO, Managing Partner and President Michael Carter, and Managing Partner Hua Yu, who also hosts the popular Chinese language podcast “Turn Lemons Into Lemonade.”

Our Toronto team has a regular office book club, and during the pandemic, shared reads were how many of us stayed connected. This edition of our summer reading roundup offers a look into thought-provoking issues and ideas our team has been exploring as of late, enjoy!

David Kincaid, Founder & Chair

David Kincaid

Founder & Chair

Nine Lies About Work by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall

My most recent summer read has been Nine Lies About Work by strengths guru and bestselling author Marcus Buckingham and Cisco Leadership and Team Intelligence head Ashley Goodall.

I picked this one because it deals with the importance of creating a company culture, recognizing the individual strengths and the cohesiveness of your team. And the question of which comes first?

It’s very relatable and it called to me because it’s very applicable to Level5 as it moves on to its next chapter. Ultimately, it’s a call to leaders to align to people’s sense of purpose and meaning.

Hua Yu, Managing Partner

Hua Yu

Managing Partner

The Image – A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America by Daniel J. Boorstin

First published in 1962, this book provides a fresh and relevant insight into today’s celebrity culture and how the use of manufactured “pseudo-events” shapes our world.

It’s an interesting and insightful diagnosis of our image-laden world and how mass communications and media saturation tell us how to see and listen and think. The book examines the self-obsession of modern America and the whole empire of image building, from influencers to advertising to PR.

Michael Carter, Managing Partner & President

Michael Carter

Managing Partner & President

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

Entertaining, thought provoking, funny and perhaps a little bit crazy are all words I would use to describe this book. Reading a book written by Matthew McConaughey would have been at the bottom of my reading list, but am I ever glad my daughter told me to move it to the top. His perspective on life, himself and his surroundings is quite refreshing. I found myself rereading many passages and writing down several pearls of wisdom for future consumption. That’s right, pearls of wisdom from Matthew McConaughey.

One of my favourites:

“We are not here to tolerate our differences; we are here to accept them. We are not here to celebrate our sameness; we are here to salute our distinctions. We are not born into equal circumstances, or with equal abilities, but we should have equal opportunity. As individuals, we unite in our values. Celebrate that.”

McConaughey is a great storyteller that forces you to think about your own ups and downs as you join him on a wild ride of his own. I am a huge fan of patience, perseverance and perspective, all things this book speaks volumes about. The title says it all. Life is about catching more green lights and realizing that you have a say in how the yellows and reds turn out. This book will surprise you, I promise.

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Promises, Kept Episode 1 – The Value of a Promise Consistently Kept™

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In this new season of Strategy Lounge by Level5, Managing Partner Matt Kelly speaks with David Kincaid, Founder of Level5 Strategy and best-selling author of The Brand-Driven CEO, about Level5 Strategy’s foundational business philosophy – that the most successful organizations embrace the ‘value of a promise consistently kept™’.

In this first episode, David discusses the surprising origin of the concept, what it means for leaders and how it can create sustainable competitive advantage. Whether you lead a B2B, B2C, government or not-for-profit organization, David and Matt discuss a very fresh and unique perspective on how to leverage your brand and the promise you make to the marketplace to drive growth – enhance your reputation, drive financial results, build culture and organization alignment and deliver a better customer experience.

Check out David Kincaid’s book The Brand-Driven CEO on the University of Toronto Press website. You can also find it on Amazon.

Building a Successful and Sustainable Consulting Career

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“Here’s how to build a successful and sustainable management consulting career – and why it’s a profession for the current moment.”

It’s likely that the current pace of change will ever be slower than it is today. This is the new normal. For those looking to launch their professional careers, or exploring a mid-career shift into management consulting, the opportunities and pathways have never been more numerous – or more exciting.

Management consultants help organizations solve problems, improve performance, create value and maximize growth. At Level5 Strategy, we work as business partners supporting our clients on their growth and transformational journey, building tailored solutions designed to enhance market performance, achieve their growth aspirations and seize the competitive advantage in their chosen industry and market. We do this across sectors and functions. It’s a need that public sector organizations, governments, SMEs, enterprises, and high-growth start-ups all rely on to successfully navigate transformations, leverage opportunities and solve industry challenges.

Management consulting is a career filled with opportunities to learn about new sectors and businesses, and work closely with dedicated and smart teams from all over the world on challenging problems and in high-impact moments.

And the demand for these skills remains strong. For management consultants and analysts, the rate of job growth in 2022 is expected to grow by 14% (much faster and higher than the average).

Together, the three of us have 52 years in consulting – although we took different routes into the profession. We have hired and mentored hundreds of consultants across their careers and these are our top insights on planning for and building a successful consulting career.

Learn To Love Change:

As one Level5 client, the current CEO of a crown corporation recently shared, “it’s essential to intentionally recruit people comfortable with change and uncertainty and then create an internal culture which fosters their ability to find and capitalize on the opportunities in flux.”

Like our clients, we are also increasingly looking at how to adjust our recruiting criteria to increase the value and weight placed on experiences that speak to the candidate’s ability to be comfortable with and embrace an accelerated pace of change. This means being able to handle projects with constantly shifting scopes, clients dealing with rapidly shifting market conditions, accelerated timelines and rapidly evolving stakeholder demands.

For prospective clients, cultivating the emotional and mental tools to be able to thrive in this environment is essential.

There’s No One (Right) Pathway Forward

Traditionally, business administration, finance, accounting, economics or marketing were the accepted pathways into management consulting – but this is no longer the case, and this development is one of the most exciting components of the profession.

Today, management consulting brings together people with a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives and expertise. At Level5 Strategy, we are hiring graduates with a broad range of academic experience (including bioscience, engineering, English, and technology among them). This is also true for mid-career professionals. Our team at Level5 has come into consulting as a result of academic and sector expertise, operational experience and after having been entrepreneurs and founders of other businesses. This broad range of backgrounds brings an incredible diversity of thought and perspective to our clients, enhancing creativity and our ability to find new impact opportunities.

Be Clear on Culture

Consulting firms come in many forms. There are the well-known global firms (McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte and KPMG), boutique firms that focus on specific industries (such as health care) and midsize consulting firms like Level5 that have unique skills, tools and processes, but intentionally keep their size small and their cultures more personal.

Never before have organizations within the same sector varied so much when it comes to culture – from office policies to social values and importantly, expectations of what success should look like and how it is rewarded. To build a sustainable and fulfilling career, it’s essential to spend time researching and understanding what you are looking for from the work culture. This choice will influence how you work, when and with who – and what it means for your professional development and personal life.

At Level5 Strategy, our competitive advantage is our people, and their well-being is the foundation of our culture. It shapes how we work, train and collaborate. From new recruits to experienced teammates, our approach to professional development is action-orientated. We are looking for people who want to be part of building our business and shaping our brand – all while growing their careers and experience. We want to retain people who are inspired by our vision and we look for people who take a long-term perspective on client growth and performance and most importantly, their professional relationships.

If you might be interested in exploring life at Level5, we’re always looking for strong talent across all levels of the firm and invite you to get in touch. Email to career@level5strategy.com, or go to this page to submit your resume or inquiries here.

Authors

Michael Carter
Managing Partner & President
Ian Madell
Managing Partner
David Kincaid, Founder & Chair
David Kincaid
Founder & Chair

What Have Leaders Learned from the Pandemic?

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With cautious optimism, the world is starting to look to a post-COVID time and as they do, they are also starting to parse and reflect on how, as a result of the experience, their businesses, teams and own perspectives have changed. Perhaps forever.

At Level5, we’ve been doing that with our business as well. For our team, these past two years have been a time of explosive growth and the chance to work alongside our clients during a period of unprecedented transformation. We were also forced into different collaboration and delivery models, all of which required new skills and behaviour to make it work.

Shifting to a “new normal” brings with it questions on what can and should be retained and in what form. One CEO recently shared with us that, “COVID-19 forced our team to find new ways of engaging with our customers and connecting with each other and partners. And what we’ve realized is that many of these new methods are better than the practices we previously had in place. As life shifts back, we don’t want to lose these gains and are trying to figure how to navigate forward – so we don’t.”

From our experience working with clients across organizational size and sectors, we’ve noticed five components that are essential for organizations to effectively undertake this strategic reflection initiative – and then how successful they are in applying and institutionalizing the insights.

Prioritize Risk/Reward Assessment

The pace and impact of COVID resulted in condensed and hot-house levels of internal business innovations and experimentation.  It also permanently changed customer and client expectations.

To gain competitive insights requires leadership teams to implement an efficient and effective way to intentionally process the change and pull out these insights.

As a result, one of the most important choices that a leadership team can make is prioritizing an internal and external audit.  This should be designed to help teams and stakeholders most effectively reflect back on their experiences and then in turn, really understand how to apply those insights to the risk and reward choices the business makes moving forward.

Orient Around the Brand Promise

One finding we are hearing across industries, business sizes and verticals is that as organizations have gone through this dramatic amount of change, they’ve also gained a new appreciation for the role of brand in the business and with their customers.

“It’s really the North Star of the business.” says David Kincaid, “and what organizations are re-appreciating is that, in times of market and global turbulence, it’s strong brands that are best equipped to deliver for customers and employees in uncharted territory.”

“When decisions are being made quickly, assessing choices through the lens of your brand promise prevents decisions that take the business off course.  Many of the CEOs we have worked with over the last couple of years have come to realize a brand lens provides natural parameters which mitigate risk.”

“When decisions are being made quickly, assessing choices through the lens of your brand promise prevents decisions that take the business off course.”

Cultivate Agility

The concentrated and intense business transformation that navigating COVID required both uncovered and forced new levels of agility within organizations. Cross-functional teams made decisions faster, strategies were pivoted, and multiple scenarios simultaneously explored. Along the way, constructs and processes that were previously considered entrenched were upended. The majority of businesses’ success in the past two years has been driven by unprecedented levels of agility and it’s become the competitive edge that all organizations want to continue.

“Businesses are coming to us looking for how they can foster and capture more innovation and agility.” adds Ian. “And at the same time, they are looking at how to strategically plan, when internal and external pressures are changing so quickly.”

“One of the most direct and tactically applicable examples of this that we are seeing is the rolling strategic plan, meaning organizations are now reviewing their five-year plans on an annual basis or in some cases every six months, in order to adapt it to rapidly changing conditions. This has proven to be particularly true for our clients in retail and CPG where supply chain challenges have wreaked havoc on effective planning horizons. It’s a much more flexible, practical and responsive approach.”

Communicate & Engage

By necessity, COVID pushed leadership teams to communicate more frequently and with more vulnerability and empathy. At the same time, increased communications helped employees become more engaged in finding organizational solutions to challenges and working more collaboratively. And the results were overwhelmingly impactful. Employees were more engaged, adaptable and reported increased levels of purpose. As businesses shift into the reentry and recovery phase, this is something that across the board, employees and leadership teams are actively looking to continue.

“Across sectors, leadership teams we work with have overwhelmingly shared how a real priority for them is continuing to make the time and space to have difficult conversations directly and with empathy. And to continue making the leadership teams available for more personal and present communications.” reflects Michael. “You want to maintain and build this level of trust and purpose, since it’s the foundation of a team that can successfully pivot and adapt in the face of change and that has internal security to bring the innovations and provocative ideas to the table.”

Build For Change

Whether a business struggled or was widely successful during COVID, positioning for 2022 has to come from the mindset that change is the chance for opportunity. Yes, it’s scary for individuals, business leaders and the organization overall, but it’s likely that the current pace of change will never be slower than it is today. This is the new normal, and recruitment needs to reflect this. As one client, the current CEO of a crown corporation stated, “it’s essential to intentionally recruit people comfortable with change and uncertainty and then create an internal culture which fosters their ability to find and capitalize on the opportunities in flux.” Like our clients, we are also increasingly looking at how to adjust our recruiting criteria to increase the value that we place on experiences that speak to these abilities.

As the first quarter of the year comes to a close, we are enthusiastic and optimistic about the incredible growth opportunities ahead. The pent-up demand for goods and experiences, the opening up and unleashing of customers and the ability to call on new innovations in business and for businesses to be able to meet them have us enthusiastic about what’s ahead.

Authors

Michael Carter
Managing Partner & President
Ian Madell
Managing Partner
David Kincaid, Founder & Chair
David Kincaid
Founder & Chair

The Brand-Driven CEO: A Behind-The-Scenes Look – Part 5 – The Brand

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Have you lost sight of what a brand is?

In Part 5 of his interview, Level5 Strategy Founder David Kincaid taps into his book, “The Brand-Driven CEO,” to remind business leaders why brands must be reestablished as business systems that drive profitable growth.

To run their brand as a business system they’re accountable for, CEOs must address the brand’s internal and external audiences, build its reputation and understand that everything related to the brand starts at the top.

 

The Brand‑Driven CEO: Embedding Brand Into Business Strategy is available from the following retailers:

University of Toronto Press: https://lvl5.ca/BrandDrivenCEO-UofT
Barnes & Noble: https://lvl5.ca/BrandDrivenCEO-Barnes
Amazon (US): https://lvl5.ca/BrandDrivenCEO-Amazon
Chapters-Indigo: https://lvl5.ca/BrandDrivenCEO-Indigo

Brand Stewardship: An Interview with David Kincaid

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Learn why social activism is the next frontier of consumer empowerment, what the golden age of brand management can teach today’s leaders and why the new 4Ps (People, Process, Partnership and IP) should be on every CEO’s radar.

Level5 Strategy Founder David Kincaid brings these topics into the open in his interview to Customer First Thinking Podcaster Stephen Shaw:

Click here for the podcast episode and the full podcast transcript.

The Brand-Driven CEO: A Behind-The-Scenes Look – Part 4 – The Purpose

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Is your brand in touch with the next generation of consumers?

In Part 4 of his interview, Level5 Strategy Founder David Kincaid shares another excerpt from his book, “The Brand-Driven CEO,” to underline the importance of listening to younger consumers who seek information to make informed purchases.

As shoppers become more informed, they ask better and different types of questions such as, “Does your company engage in child labour?” or “Do you have management diversity?”

If brands don’t listen to these questions, they’ll miss opportunities to grow, stay advantaged in the market and offer new products and services to consumers.

The Brand‑Driven CEO: Embedding Brand Into Business Strategy is available from the following retailers:

University of Toronto Press: https://lvl5.ca/BrandDrivenCEO-UofT
Barnes & Noble: https://lvl5.ca/BrandDrivenCEO-Barnes
Amazon (US): https://lvl5.ca/BrandDrivenCEO-Amazon
Chapters-Indigo: https://lvl5.ca/BrandDrivenCEO-Indigo

The Brand-Driven CEO: A Behind-The-Scenes Look – Part 3 – The Change

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In Part 3 of his interview, Level5 Strategy Founder David Kincaid leans on excerpts from his book, “The Brand-Driven CEO,” to emphasize the importance of shifting your value proposition during accelerated change and aligning with consumers’ evolving needs.

David highlights that COVID-19 is backing many CEOs into a corner where they’re compelled to ask themselves the following question: “Are we going to continue making our products in the same old way, or are we going to listen to the market and build a brand?”

The Brand‑Driven CEO: Embedding Brand Into Business Strategy is available from the following retailers:

University of Toronto Press: https://lvl5.ca/BrandDrivenCEO-UofT
Barnes & Noble: https://lvl5.ca/BrandDrivenCEO-Barnes
Amazon (US): https://lvl5.ca/BrandDrivenCEO-Amazon
Chapters-Indigo: https://lvl5.ca/BrandDrivenCEO-Indigo