Our Perspective
What this means for leaders navigating growth, change or transformation in their organisation.
The Real Governance Gap
Brand governance isn’t a style guide; it’s an executive operating system that links promise to delivery. When it’s left to marketing after a launch, the organisation starts to fragment. Sales adapts messages, product roadmaps drift, and service teams improvise. The result isn’t dramatic, but it’s cumulative: complexity creeps in, decisions slow, and confidence thins.
In our experience with scale‑ups and mid‑market leadership teams, the organisations that move governance beyond marketing buy speed later by making a few choices earlier. Treat governance as how senior leaders decide, in the open, what the brand will and won’t do—and how those choices cascade into roadmaps, incentives, and measures.
Decisions, Not Decks
Governance earns its keep when it clarifies who decides what, on what cadence, and using what evidence. The focus is less “who owns the logo” and more “who owns the trade‑offs.” A simple, cross‑functional model works best, anchored on a few non‑negotiables and clear thresholds for change.
Useful anchors we see stick:
- Authority map: who can set, stretch, or retire claims and messages.
- Operating rhythm: a short, monthly council that unblocks decisions fast.
- Evidence standards: when a claim is allowed in market, and the proof behind it.
- Escalation path: how commercial, product, and service resolve conflicts in hours, not weeks.
The Growth Effects
Alignment is not a nice‑to‑have; it’s commercial hygiene. CMO Alliance notes that organisations aligned across functions see three‑year revenue grow 24% faster and generate 208% more revenue from marketing efforts. The point is simple: when promise and delivery move together, velocity improves and conversion follows.
There is also a cost to cutting brand discipline. BCG found that companies reducing brand‑marketing budgets lost 0.8 percentage points of market share and delivered six percentage points lower total shareholder return over 2018–2021. Strong governance doesn’t spend more; it ensures spend is coherent, provable, and sustained long enough to work.
Practical Leadership Moves
A light‑touch system beats a heavy process. Start with clarity, not complexity, and build muscle over quarters, not weeks.
What good looks like:
- Name a senior sponsor and a small council; 45 minutes monthly, decisions recorded in plain language.
- Codify the non‑negotiables (promise, voice, proof points) and the flex (how offers adapt by segment).
- Tie brand metrics—trust, preference, message recall—to planning and to go/no‑go gates for campaigns.
When governance becomes a repeatable leadership habit, brand stops being an argument about words and becomes a shared mechanism for accelerating growth as markets shift.
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