A New Way to Think About Your Organization: The New 4Ps

The following is an excerpt from Level5 Strategy Founder and Chair David Kincaid's book 'The Brand-Driven CEO'.

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Most CEOs lead organizations structured according to vertical functions. The CEO delegates strategy and tactics to the appropriate C-level executive, such as the chief marketing officer (CMO), chief financial officer (CFO), or chief operating officer (COO), who oversees one or more of these vertical functions. Unsurprisingly, these functions become autonomous, siloed units, especially in larger organizations. As we’ve discussed, most CEOs delegate responsibility for brand management within such a structure to their marketing department.?

In a brand-driven organization, this changes radically. Instead of delegating responsibility for the brand, the CEO assumes responsibility for managing the brand as an asset.

To do this successfully, you can no longer think of your organization as a structure of vertical functions. Instead, you have to take a brand-driven perspective on the organization that encompasses the New 4Ps of brand management: people, processes, intellectual property, and partnerships. The New 4Ps form a framework for the brand-driven business system within which CEOs, their leadership team, and their employees can work together to unlock value and sustainable growth.

At Level5, we’ve worked with hundreds of successful world-class companies and studied hundreds of others that have generated consistently superior market returns. The closer we’ve looked at them, the more we’ve noticed a pattern to their success.?

In each of these companies, we’ve seen a defining quality: each is led by a brand-driven CEO who unlocks value and sustainable growth within the framework of a brand-driven business system.

The framework around all of these branded business systems is remarkably similar. Within this framework, all the people in each company, from the C-suite to front-line employees, acknowledge and commit themselves to new accountabilities and responsibilities: the New 4Ps.

1. People: Above and beyond training and development, the brand-driven business system inspires employees to become brand ambassadors, and customers and other stakeholders to become advocates.

2. Processes: Above and beyond efficiency, the brand-driven business system is aligned with the overall business purpose and brand vision.

3. Intellectual Property: Beyond creating value, the brand-driven business system creates, manages, and tenaciously protects intellectual property (IP), including digital IP, as a primary defense of the brand’s integrity and market value.

4. Partnerships: Above and beyond new revenue opportunities, the brand-driven business system identifies opportunities to expand and extend the brand through strategic collaboration that improves operating margins.

All the successful companies we’ve studied have built and consistently managed their branded business systems using at least two and, in most cases, all four of these New 4Ps.

Either intuitively or strategically, brand-driven CEOs regard the New 4Ps not only as strategic contributors to the brand but also as sources of substantial untapped value. By creating a business system within the framework of the New 4Ps, these CEOs no longer simply manage their organizations; they drive awareness of the brand into every facet of the company, aligning each facet with the strategy that unlocks the full sustainable value of the brand.

To maximize that value, CEOs integrate the New 4Ps – People, Processes, IP, and Partnerships – into a business system. Each of the New 4Ps becomes a brand-management practice area focused on delivering the brand promise consistently.

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The following was an excerpt from 'The Brand-Driven CEO', if you would like to check out the book, click the link below. https://utorontopress.com/9781442649859/the-brand-driven-ceo/.?