OPERATIONS
What has driven that change over the last decade? One reason is that businesses operate in an increasingly competitive environment and any company that lacks differentiation or clarity around its offering, whether that’ s product or service based, has a problem. The other factor is access to information for customers and audiences. When social media emerged, access to realtime information changed everything in terms of audience awareness. AI is the same thing again, but on another level. The fact that everyone has the history of businesses, products, services and comparative market information and data at their fingertips puts huge emphasis on organisations to get their house in order. Everyone uses AI now and it does fantastic things, but it still struggles to provide anything original. It means there is a role for brands as curators, evaluating and curating the information they are giving out. Originality is still a key currency and AI can’ t give you that.
What does effective board ownership of brand look like? It varies depending on the size and nature of the organisation. Generally, brand used to be viewed as a very static element, which is why there was reticence from leaders to even consider rebrands or ask whether their brand is fit for purpose or
talks to the modern audience. Now, there is a greater understanding that a brand is organic and should be continuously worked on and optimised. Large organisations are not undertaking big rebrand programmes regularly, and certainly not when they’ re under pressure or if the market is difficult, because it’ s not the message they want to send to shareholders looking for a return. Rather, continual tweaking and optimisation is a way that organisations can leverage their brand opportunity without impacting short-term growth. The key question is whether a brand is operating as effectively as it might in the channels it uses to connect
86 March 2026