Should We Revive Dying Brands and Companies?

Or are we better off creating new ones? Does “The Circle Of Life” apply here?

by Idris Mootee

We make assumptions that it is the management team responsibility to extend or prolong the life of any companies even they have fewer reasons to exist. Management is different from practicing medicine, although sometimes I am called the strategy doctor. Instead of wasting resources and energy to save a company or a brand, should we just take whatever assets and redeploy them? In life, the cycle of life is the natural order of things.

Although we do live longer now, death is inevitable. Technology is the same. Should corporations be the same? Saab is at the end of life. Should it deserve a second life? Apple had its near death experiences and came back stronger. Many argued at that time Apple should be sold to Sony. Wang Computers thought they were beating IBM and could become the next IBM. IBM was also close to disappearing from the scene just 15 years ago.

Management consultants usually have a keen preference for prolonging corporate life. I guess to keep them spending. The pharma companies don’t want patients to die, just stay sick. Why do we care about extending the life of large companies or big brands? Is it because they can afford our fees? Or we have a love for them. Yes, build to last. Business schools love transformation stories because they make great business cases, and portray CEOs as heroes. For many large companies, transformation and renewal is the only source of survival.

The world of fashion has a lot of comeback stories, although they are generally not sophisticated from a management capability perspectives compared to the GEs of the world. Think how Burberry, Adidas, Dior, and Abercrombie & Fitch all have found prosperity in their new life. Many business school case studies have been written about of how brands were “brought back from the graveyard.” Unfortunately, however, the lessons are often so idiosyncratic. There 100 times more cases where companies tried revitalizing old brands by hiring new CMOs and advertising agencies and throwing big money towards advertising, hoping to rebuild a great brand even when there wasn’t a relevant product or service or a sound business model behind it.

For those fashion companies, it is about hiring the right designer (call Tom Ford or Marc Jacob) and for other businesses, whom do you call? The designer is often viewed as the critical component to reengineering a brand, and total attention must be paid to the brand in an effort to return to its essence and reason for being successful in the first place. It used to be case that you could recruit a top CMO and things will work out. This is not working anymore. You need a master strategist, a great storyteller and a change agent, all in one person (call Indra Nooyi or Steve Jobs). In fashion, you go back to the essence of the brand. In other business what do you do? How do you rediscover your core or find a new core?

Successful transformation and re-invention rests on two major premises: first, that our time is characterized by a rare confluence of new behavior and economic disruption, and second, that the “new global reality” is turning toward a “whole new emphasis on innovation”. I was speaking to a group of graduating Ivey MBAs on global strategy. You can check them out at slideshare below:

Idris Mootee is the CEO of idea couture, a strategic innovation and experience design firm. He is the author of four books, tens of published articles, and a frequent speaker at business conferences and executive retreats.