When growth stalls or decisions splinter, the reflex is to park brand with marketing. The real problem is muddled trade‑offs and diffused ownership. The turn comes when the CEO makes the non‑delegable choices and sets a few simple principles to steer product, pricing and hiring. That coherence lifts margins and speeds execution.
→ Watch more videos in this playlist on YouTube
What this means for leaders navigating growth, change or transformation in their organisation.
When brand sits as a marketing workstream, strategy gets diluted in the execution. You see the symptoms quickly: discounting creeps in because the value story isn’t crisp; decisions slow as product, sales, and delivery chase different goals; reputation drifts as competitors define the narrative. None of this is about a logo. It’s about coherence.
The chief executive officer (CEO) is the only leader with the vantage point to make the hard trade‑offs across ambition, audience focus, and positioning. If those choices are delegated, you end up harmonising decisions after the fact rather than directing them at source.
Treat brand as a handful of non‑delegable choices the CEO owns: what you’re building towards, whom you serve, the problem you solve uniquely, the promise you make, and the proof you will stand behind. When these are explicit, they anchor product, pricing, service, and hiring in one story.
McKinsey reports that leaders who weave marketing into core strategy are roughly twice as likely to achieve growth above 5% a year, underlining that brand stewardship is a growth lever, not a communications task.
Structure matters. McKinsey’s analysis also finds organisations with a single customer‑growth leader reporting to the CEO grow up to 2.3 times faster than those splitting the brief across multiple roles, which suggests clarity beats diffusion.
Translate the non‑delegable choices into simple rules:
There are a few moments only the CEO can credibly own: the board narrative, pivotal client pursuits, and senior appointments. Show the choices and the evidence—don’t outsource the conviction. We often see that when the CEO voices the promise and backs it with proof, the organisation converges faster and with fewer detours.
Practical cues help:
When brand is recast as the system that carries strategy into every decision, you reduce friction, protect margin, and speed up execution. The result is compounding: clearer choices, stronger proof, and a market story competitors struggle to dislodge. Over time, alignment isn’t a workshop output; it’s how the organisation thinks, decides, and grows.
If today’s topic resonates, we invite you to continue the dialogue — sometimes one conversation reframes the challenge. Start the conversation.