I have bought and integrated something close to a hundred companies. I’ve built

I have bought and integrated something close to a hundred companies. I’ve built a top 25 digital agency. And I’ve spent decades of my life consulting with the executive teams of fortune four hundred companies – in particular on their strategies. It involves running dozens to hundreds of people through working sessions where I pry out of them the source of their internal conflicts, their limits, and their opportunities.
You would be surprised how distributed decision making is in any large company,and how incompetent financial and operational leadership is at comprehending market and positioning. Chief Marketing Officers are the highest turnover in the top offices for a reason. Most of them fail.
So yes I am ‘smarter than that’, but it means that developing consensus on branding and positioning had best be done by one of the top very expensive agencies in the world, and not by internal staff, nor production agencies, nor handed off to small ‘creative firms’ that are experts in TRENDS not BRANDS.
All problems are people problems.

Reply addressees: @cruel_hiraeth