Tune in every week for a roundup of hand-picked brand lessons, tips and advice that can be applied to your brand.

Why Clif Bar Turned Down an Offer to Sell the Company for $120m
In 2000, eight years after the founding of the company, Clif Bar was offered $120m to sell to a major food conglomerate. A sale would have set up the founding team for life. But they walked away from it. Why did they turn down such an offer?

Well, while most companies focus on one bottom line, Clif Bar focuses on five bottom lines, or “aspirations,” as they call them. Read More >

Three Ways Our Unconscious Biases Prevent Results
In the modern world we are asked to take in an enormous amount of information. The average American processes 34 gigabytes of content and 100,000 words of information in a single day (through various channels like text messaging, email, radio, and TV). As our brains process that information – looking for concepts, and for shortcuts to understand what is being consumed – our cognitive ability to process with speed can prevent us from seeing things as they really are. Read More >

Two Smart Strategies to Uncover Hidden Issues
“The queen thinks the world smells of paint.” – Billy Connolly

A humorous but insightful observation from one of my favorite Scottish comedians. It’s also a dangerous reality for many leaders today. Read More >

Sneak Peek: How We Help Brands Adopt “Purpose” As a Strategy
Our typical initial engagement with a client lasts three to six months, depending on the complexity of the business. The first half of our work is research and discovery. We immerse ourselves deeply into all areas of the business to get to the honesty of the business as quickly as possible. A recent brand strategy project involved 57 client, partner and employee interviews and 320 hours of research, informing us of the true purpose and opportunity for the brand and resulting in a position building on their successful heritage and setting them up for future success. But developing the brand strategy document and a new higher purpose for the brand is only the first step. After all, any brand can make a promise. It’s the truly great brands that live up to their purpose. Read More >