YOUR 'Personal' brand

Clarity of Purpose
In simple terms, your ‘Personal’ brand purpose is the way others perceive your main reason(s) for existing and your main role in society and/or to them. So questions that they would have in mind regarding your purpose would be: why is he/she here? Are we all clear about the role and value he/she is bringing to society/ our organisation/ our community and us? Is this contribution enduring and positive? Are this person’s core intents simple to understand, straightforward and genuine? Exemplary ‘purposed’ leaders – Nelson Mandela, Thomas J Watson (IBM), Henry Ford (Ford Motor Company), Sam Walton (Walmart), Jamsetji Tata (Tata), Paul Polman (Unilever),
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Cultural Born & Authentic
Culture is who the person deeply is, what they fundamentally believe in and what can hardly be changed about them but rather only evolve. Do others view you as having a strong culture? Is this culture clear and can others express it simply? Would people say that your values, character and behaviours reflect your culture closely? Would people consider that your culture is aligned or at least compatible with that of your organisation? In the eyes of others, do you act spontaneously with a high level of transparency and cultural genuineness? Could they predict what you would do when nobody is looking at you? Exemplary ‘culture’ driven leaders – Winston Churchill, Kiichiro Toyoda (Toyota), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Steve Jobs (Apple).
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Functional & Emotional
Do people see you providing relevant, tangible, purpose-led and valuable functional benefits, which are clear to your stakeholders, valued and you continuously work on to improve? In short, do people consider you are a useful contributor to their needs? AND… do people see you imbuing strong emotions/emotional benefits to create an inspiring bond with them within the organisation, with stakeholders or customers – either personal (improving their lifestyle) or societal (improving society)? Are you somebody people respect and like/ love and are you clear about why and how? Would people say that you have charisma and a strong EQ? Ultimately, are people looking for, developing and keeping quality long-term relationships with you? Exemplary ‘functional & emotional’ leaders – Princess Diana, Abraham Lincoln, Indra Nooyi (Pepsico), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Philip Craven (IPC), Oprah Winfrey
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Joy
Do people find inherent, genuine and infectious joy in you? Do they see you as a glass half full rather than half empty person? Would they say you are an optimistic and a can do character? Would they say you create fun at work? Do they ‘like’ you because you believe in and live joy as a natural important start point to enhance their experience and your mutual relationship? Do you imbue or create most of - or some - of the five main sources of joy in them: employee happiness; nostalgia of a happy past; belonging, with them feeling respected and a part of something bigger; enabling them to escape routine; bringing them success and status? Exemplary ‘joy’ leaders – Ronald Reagan, Richard Sheridan (Menlo Innovations), Alan Mulally (Ford), Jim Goodnight (SAS)
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Connected
Do people see you deeply culturally connected, i.e. developing an extensive understanding and knowledge of your audiences, stakeholders and themselves to learn about and anticipate their expectations? Do people say you have empathy? Do they believe you develop a relationship model that makes them and others feel valued and ready to give their discretionary contribution, including loyalty and advocacy? Is what you do defining/important to communities and to them? Would they say that you don’t consider them or your stakeholders as business targets but rather audiences; that you don’t communicate but rather dialogue; that you don’t transact but rather build trust? Do you have multiple ‘friends’, supporters, ambassadors and advocates? Would people of different countries say that you are adopting the cultural symbols, practices and expectations of their national cultures? Finally, do people see you in the ‘present’, using the mix of personal and technology interactions to be ’always on’? Exemplary ‘connected’ leaders – Candidate Trump; Greg Merten (HP); Larry Page (Google)
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People Led & People Leading
Would people consider you as a natural leader? Are you somebody whom some/many people would strive to look like? Somebody whose values, beliefs and guidance influence people when they make judgments and decisions? Somebody people would wonder “what would he/she have thought and done in these circumstances?” Would people say that you genuinely search for, listen and proactively take on board what is important in what they feedback to you? And that, while remaining yourself, you genuinely, overtly and sustainably make changes accordingly to how you do things? Exemplary ‘people’ leaders – Pope Francis, Bill Gates (Microsoft), Ann Rhoades (Southwest), Matt Likens (Uthera), John Donahoe (eBay)
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Partnering
Are you seen as somebody who certainly does not want to do it all alone? Somebody fully determined to collaborate with your stakeholders? Somebody who starts your thinking/journey from the others’ perspective? Somebody who creates deep partnerships and rich eco-systems to innovate and deliver your services? Somebody who is observed ready to give a lot to receive in return, guided by mutual advantage? Are you seen as understanding the power of advocacy and doing what it takes to trigger it; and somebody achieving much higher returns because partners and stakeholders magnify your activities? As partnering is a ‘hit and miss’ process that fails far more times that it succeeds, are you seen as practicing - and guiding others to practice - co-operation as a science, to tap into the transformational potential of partnerships? Exemplary ‘partnering’ leaders - Exemplary ‘partnering’ leaders – Ginni Rometty (IBM), Chuck Robbins (Cisco), Bill and Melinda Gates.
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Customer Centric
Are you seen as having a deep culture of putting customers |stakeholders first and placing them at the centre of your purpose? Do people understand clearly who your ultimate customers |stakeholders are? Does this understanding define the organisation’s focus on providing an experience or a lifestyle platform which will inspire its target customers/stakeholders? Are you renowned for exploring and dissecting the full customer |stakeholder experience in the field and online to improve and offer excellence and consistency? Do your customers | stakeholders live your relationship as a partnership for mutual value? How is your organisation’s brand performing on the 10 key tenets of customer centricity? Would people find you authentic if you said: “If it is good for you (customers | stakeholders), it’s good for us.” Exemplary ‘customer centric’ leaders – Zhang Ruimin (Haier), Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Carolyn McCall (Easyjet)
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Future Embracing
In front of ‘uberisation’, platformisation or other type of transformation, are you seen as living and developing two magic powers to deal with this: 1) See, shape and create the future; 2) Be future savvy and confident about it, to enable the enterprise’s and your stakeholders’ transition into the future? Deep into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, would people say that you invest in and embrace the ongoing societal and cross-category shifts that are shaping the future? Are these transformations, notably digital, essential to who you are and how people approach and understand you? Do you associate your stakeholders, customers or colleagues largely / fully to see and navigate into the future? Exemplary ‘future embracing’ leaders – Klaus Schwab (World Economic Forum), Ginni Rometty (IBM), Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla), Jeff Immelt (GE)
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Rigorous & Disciplined
Are you seen as deeply reliable and dependable by others, who would say: “we know that by giving this accountability | activity to him/her, it will be executed reliably and thoroughly”? Are rigour and discipline key expectations of others about you and a major point of differentiation about you in their eyes - because it is so hard to achieve? Seen from your stakeholders’ perspective, are we clear on where your brand sits in the ‘rigour & discipline’ house: survival, incentive or differentiation? Are others enchanted with your consistency of execution? Would ‘Implementation is strategy’ be attributable to you? Is your organisation ‘principled’ and structured about best in class practices of disciplined execution? Exemplary ‘rigorous & disciplined’ leaders – Takeshi Uchiyamada (Toyota), Tim Clark (Emirates), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Nicolas Bos (Van Cleef & Arpels), Jean Paul Agon (Loreal).
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Strategy Guiding
Are you predictable to others in that who you are, your values, core beliefs and character drive your strategies, decisions and actions – rather than events driving how you behave and act? Are you known for integrity in decision-making, with your core principles acting as the compass for assessment of options and judgments? Are you reputed for no compromise to what you believe in and because of this, an ability to simplify decisions and actions and empower people to operate accordingly? Exemplary ‘strategy guiding’ leaders – Paul Polman (Unilever), John Mackey (Whole Foods), Doug McMillon (Walmart), Steve Jobs (Apple)
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Trusted
Trust is ‘owned’ by a person’s stakeholders and given to him/her. Do people believe trust is the most coveted dimension of relationships for you? Do people tend to trust you? Do they recognize in you the root causes and ingredients of the four types of trust: competence, judgment, benevolence and integrity? Do people associate you with: “says what he/she does… and does what he / she says”. Across sectors and geographies, do you have and continue earning trust from your stakeholders? Do you have evidence that trust in you personally translates effectively into a positive reputation and ultimately into better outcomes? Exemplary ‘trusted’ leaders – Gandhi, Tom Hanks, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
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High Value & Driving Value
A brand is all about value – financial but by far not only. At work, do people consider you an important person in their activities? Would you be strongly missed or alternatively seemingly replaceable in the organisation in case you were to leave - both functionally and as felt by your stakeholders, customers and/or colleagues? Are you perceived as a value developer? Do people see you having a differentiated impact and power on the business and its stakeholders and associates, notably on some of the following sources of value: stock price, profitability, growth, efficiency, transformation, licence to operate, access and shield? Is this impact clear to most? Exemplary ‘high value & driving value’ leaders – Einstein, Prince, Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway), Severin Schwan (Roche), Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla), Paul Polman (Unilever)
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Crisis Resilient
Crisis happens in professional and business life and is the ultimate test of a personal brand. Do people believe that you would remain essentially who you are in a crisis? That your decisions and actions would be driven by your values and beliefs? Do you/does your personal brand hold a strong reservoir of goodwill such that people would come and help you go over almost any crisis – not only to recover from it but also to surpass pre-crisis status? Would you say that this franchise is strong or might it be at risk of vanishing soon after the crisis inception? Exemplary ‘crisis resilient’ leaders – Nelson Mandela, Larry Bird, Mary Barra (GM), James Burke (Johnson & Johnson), David Neeleman (JetBlue), Akio Toyoda (Toyota)
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Your 'Organisation' Brand

Clarity of Purpose
An organisation’s purpose is the reason why it exists and has been given the right by society to participate. So, do we and other associates to the brand / organisation have a clear response to the questions: Why are we and why am I here? Are we all clear about the role the organisation plays in society, which provides a framework for independent and confident decision making? Is our purpose simple enough that it is widely understood, remembered and followed through such as our stakeholders rally behind the idea? Exemplary brands – IBM, Olympics, Ikea, Unilever, Nike, Lego.
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Cultural Born & Authentic
If a brand were a person, culture would be who this person deeply is, believes in and what can hardly be changed about him/her. A person is culture born, so is our brand culture born? Are we and other associates to the brand sharing a common culture, being the ‘glue’ of the organisation? Is this culture clear and can others and us express it simply? Do the organisation’s values, character and behaviours reflect our common culture closely? Do we and our organisation act with a high level of transparency and cultural genuineness? Exemplary brands – Toyota, Walmart, Ikea, IBM
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Functional & Emotional
Does our organisation provide relevant, tangible, purpose-led and valuable functional benefits, which are branded, clear to your stakeholders, valued and continuously improved? AND…in a competitive world where there is limited differentiation from manufacturing or distribution, does our brand imbue strong emotional benefits to create an inspiring bond with stakeholders and customers – either personal (lifestyle) or societal (me/us and the world)? Is it a ‘love’ brand and are we clear about why and how? Ultimately, do our brand and organisation tend to develop quality long-term relationships? Exemplary brands - BMW, Coca-Cola, Apple, Harley Davidson, Starbucks.
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Joy
What does BMW have in common with Airbnb, with the International Olympic Committee and some others? Success and joy – or, rather, success through joy. Is there joy in our brand? Is joy seen as an important start point to enhance people and stakeholders experience and relationships? Do we imbue the five main sources of joy: employee happiness; nostalgia of a happy past; belonging, being respected and part of something bigger; escaping routine; success and status? Exemplary brands – Christmas, Coca-Cola, the Olympics, Johnnie Walker, Andrex, Target.
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Connected
Is our brand deeply connected, i.e. does it develop an extensive understanding of its audiences and stakeholders to learn about and anticipate their expectations? Does it develop a relationship model that makes people feel valued and ready to give their discretionary contribution, including loyalty and advocacy? Is it defining to communities? Would we say that our brand has transformed business targets into audiences, communication into dialogue, transactions into trust? Does it have multiple third-party ambassadors and advocates? In local markets, has the brand adopted the cultural symbols, practices and expectations of the national cultures? Exemplary brands - Airbnb, Smirnoff, Tesla, Utility Warehouse.
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People Led & People Leading
Is the relationship between our organisation’s brand and people undoubtedly built on the following three pillars? 1. The Brand leads people and acts as their guide, their ultimate frame of reference for making (independent) decisions, as well as determining their behaviours. 2. Every employee is a brand ambassador and our brand is transparently and authentically ‘Inside – Out’. 3. There is strong identification between our CEO and broader leadership and the brand. The CMO - or equivalent - is the visible day-in, day-out architect of the brand. Exemplary brands – Zappos, Google, Tata, BMW.
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Partnering
Why would we want to do it all alone? Can we be best at everything? Do we possess infinite resources? Does our brand collaborate with its stakeholders? Does it create deep partnerships and rich eco-systems to innovate and deliver its services? Does it understand the power of advocacy? Does it achieve much higher returns because partners and stakeholders magnify its activities? As partnering is a ‘hit and miss’ process that fails far more times that it succeeds, does our organisation practice co-operations as a science? Exemplary brands – IBM, Cisco.
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Customer Centric
Would we say that our organisation has a deep culture of placing the customer | stakeholder first and that our brand purpose is customer driven with zero compromise? Is our brand absolutely clear about who our ultimate customers | stakeholders are? Does this understanding define the organisation’s focus on providing an experience or a lifestyle platform which will inspire our target customers | stakeholders? How is our brand performing on the 10 key tenets of customer centricity? Could our brand genuinely say to its customers | stakeholders “If it is good for you, it’s good for us.” Exemplary brands – O2, American Express, Aldi, Amazon.
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Future Embracing
In front of ‘uberisation’, platformisation or other type of transformation, is our brand developing the two magic powers to deal with this; 1) See, shape and create the future; 2) Be future proof, to enable the enterprise’s transition into the future. Deep into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, would we say that our organisation embraces the ongoing societal and cross - category shifts that are shaping the future? Are these transformations, notably digital, central to the sustainable development of our brand? Are our associates fully or at least largely associated with seeing and navigating into the future? Exemplary brands – Haier, GE, Facebook.
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Rigorous & Disciplined
Are we clear on where our brand sits in the ‘rigour & discipline’ house: survival, incentive or differentiation? Does our brand consider rigour, discipline and consistency of execution major points of differentiation, because it is so hard to achieve? Are we enchanted with the consistency of execution of our brand? Is ‘Implementation is strategy’ true to our brand? Is our organisation principled and structured about the practices required by brands to be high on the scale of disciplined execution? Exemplary brands – The Olympics, Diageo, BMW, Amazon.
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Strategy Guiding
Is our brand leading the organisation’s strategy, making the business ‘brand led’ rather than the brand an outcome of changing business strategies? Is our brand the organisation’s compass, driving the organisation’s participation strategy, activities, people and relationships, and practices? Is the Strategic Brand acting as an enduring guide, simplifying decision and action, and empowering people to operate accordingly? Were there examples in recent times when strategic decisions appeared at odds with our brand? Exemplary brands – Unilever, O2
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Trusted
A brand is ‘owned’ by its stakeholders. Do we consider trust as the most coveted outcome of what our organisation does? Does our brand inherently possess and live the four types of trust: competence, judgment, benevolence and integrity? Across sectors and geographies, do we have and continue earning trust from our stakeholders? Do we have evidence that trust in our brand translates effectively into reputation and ultimately to better outcomes? Exemplary brands – Tata, Disney, Rolex, BMW.
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High Value & Driving Value
A brand is all about value – financial but by far not only. Can we demonstrate that our brand power creates value in such ways that the financial market, CEOs and CFOs rally behind it? Do we capture and measure the value of the brand itself? Does our business model link clearly brand to value generation – value from the brand? Can we clearly associate the organisation’s brand with some of the following sources of value: stock price, profitability, growth, efficiency, transformation, licence to operate, access and shield? Consequently, do we view the brand as a business imperative that protects and drives value creation and growth and invest accordingly into it on a continuous and meaningful basis? Exemplary brands – Google, Apple, Amazon, Lego, Nike, Ferrari, Visa, McKinsey
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Crisis Resilient
A crisis is the ultimate test of whether a brand is Strategic. Have we tested our brand against many possible dramatic crises in ‘peace time’ and embedded the learning in our brand development plan? Does our brand hold a strong reservoir of goodwill such that it can survive almost any crisis – not only to recover from it but also to surpass pre-crisis status? Can we prove the robustness of our brand franchise or are we at risk that it vanishes soon after the crisis inception? Exemplary brands – Johnson & Johnson, BP, Toyota
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step 2 - Your Results

Now generate your chart

THE FULLY COLOURED REPRESENTS YOUR 'Personal' brand
THE LINE REPRESENTS YOUR ‘ORGANISATION' BRAND

step 3 - Your Report

Now fill in your details below and submit to receive an email with your PDF report. For the avoidance of doubt, there will be no follow up communication from 'THE Strategic Brand' team except if you explicitly request one.

step 4 - your interpretation & Plan

As Chef Geoffrey Zakarian said: “Determine who you are and what your brand is…and what you are not. The rest of it is just a lot of noise”.

Here is an opportunity to assess the depth of alignment between your 'Personal' brand and that of your 'Organisation'. If this assessment reflects a large convergence, feel confident, build on it…and remain eyes wide open on the minor differences.

If it raises that your deep culture, purpose and ways of being, doing and adding value are not fit with those of your enterprise, you should seriously ask yourself whether you want to belong to the organisation for much longer. We have seen remarkable people fail, or at least not fulfil their potential, because of the mismatch between their own and the 'Organisation' brands.

Far from THE Strategic Brand to suggest a standardised feedback here, as it would be both badly incomplete and most likely wrong. However, here are a few criteria and/or questions which you might want to consider while reviewing your assessment.

Overall Scores Comparison

As in the example below, the dark blue line represents your (perceived) 'Personal' brand and the full colour light blue your ‘Organisation/Company' brand.



This self-assessment is about comparing the two scoring, not interrogating each of them individually. For exploring each in absolute terms, please use the ‘Assess your Brand’ section on this site. Here is a broad sense of your 'Personal' brand versus your Organisation brand:

Please sum up the differences for each imperative – in the example above, the sum would be 12, made of: 1 for ‘clarity of purpose’, 0 for ‘culture born & authentic’, 2 for ‘functional & emotional’ etc. And refer to the following simple orientation scale.

Your total Imperatives delta: 0

Ideally, your 'Personal' brand would perfectly overlap with your 'Organisation' brand. If the delta is less than or equal to 4, congratulations as both brands are strongly aligned. With a delta of 5 to 8, some work would be advised on the main areas of difference, obviously ‘functional & emotional’ and ‘strategy guiding’ in our example. 9 or above is a zone of higher gap and requires a strong level of intervention…while beyond 13 calls for a reinvention.

In our example, although 12 represents a high variance, the respective ‘clarity of purpose’, ‘culture born & authentic’ and ‘high value’ are sufficiently close that your 'Personal' and the 'Organisation' brands can probably live together. But it will require value to continue flowing and will take some significant work!

Individual Imperative Scores Comparison

Do you have gaps of 2 or more, like ’functional & emotional’ and ‘strategy guiding’ in our example? Consider this as a significant weakness and/or a risk. A deep dive into the root causes and possible remediation for these individual imperative(s) would be highly advised.

As said, with a variance of 12, a happy cooperation will take real work. The significant difference on ‘strategy guiding’ for example makes you appear rigorous at acting in line with the brand, whereby the organization seems to take a more flexible approach. This will become clear in your mutual dealings, for better or worse, and certainly requires deep consideration.

Sub-system Imperative Scores Review

Equally important is to run the analysis combining selections of imperatives, as guided by the scores. Let’s use our example again as a mean of illustration:

Here, the 'Personal' brand has stronger scores than the 'Organisation' brand on ‘functional & emotional’, ‘rigorous & disciplined’ and ‘strategy guiding’, as well as the external imperatives of ‘connected’, ‘partnering’, ‘customer centric’ and ‘trusted’. This makes up for a strategic, rigorous, dependable and long-term building 'Personal' brand . The organisation seems more superficial, less rigorous and to build its brand mainly on its people. The 'Personal' brand person might become irritated and unsettled that the organisation is rather opportunistic and short-termist and does not value his/her strong foundation building as much as felt necessary.

We hope these high-level indications on the brand diagnostic help your thinking and of course to form plans towards a more resilient 'Personal' Strategic Brand fit with that of your organisation. Please let us know if you would value a next level exchange on the findings, where we can notably use our extensive ‘Strategic Brand’ benchmark.

Many thanks for using the Strategic Brand assessment tool, with very best wishes.