A Note from the Author

Introduction

Part One: Unlocking a Different Kind of Value

1. The Most Valuable – and Most Misunderstood – Asset on Your Balance Sheet 2. Creating Business Value 3. Barriers to Unlocking Value 4. Introducing the New 4Ps 5. The Six Success Factors behind Brand-Driven CEOs

Part Two: The New 4Ps and Six CEO Success Factors in Action

6. People 7. Process 8. Intellectual Property 9. Partnerships

Part Three: Brand-Driven CEO Assessment and New 4Ps Playbook

Acknowledgments Notes Index

Markets have never been more competitive, more segmented, or faster moving than they are today. Margins are shrinking. Customer loyalty is declining. Digital is disrupting entire industries. Brands are proliferating. In short, it’s harder than ever to compete and win.

Yet amid all this chaos and confusion, a select few companies consistently outperform their peers, year after year. Some have been doing this for decades. Firms like McDonald’s, Lego, Campbell Soup Company, Under Armour, and Disney routinely create more value for their shareholders and customers than their competitors, and they’re rewarded with a dominant share of their markets, along with steadily rising shares. (Until recently, I would have included Boeing among these examples, but as I’ll discuss later, Boeing’s CEO and leaders took their eye off the brand and quickly suffered the consequences.)

How do they do it? What’s their secret?

While many have tried to copy these companies’ best practices, few have come anywhere close to their success. Is it because they’re uncopiable, or are we simply so blinded by the noise and confusion thrown up by today’s unruly marketplace that we miss the obvious? For the answer, let’s look at four commonly accepted truths about great companies:

“Truth” 1: Great companies offer better products and services. FALSE – product innovation generally comes from startups and smaller players. “Truth” 2: Great companies offer the lowest . FALSE – their products usually sell at a premium. “Truth” 3: Great companies have a superior distribution system. FALSE – sometimes they do (e.g., Amazon), but mostly not. There’s no correlation. “Truth” 4: Great companies produce more memorable marketing. FALSE – great companies seldom produce more breakthrough advertising than their peers. Even when they do, marketing alone can’t drive sustainable growth.

These four apparent truths are known collectively as the 4Ps: Product, P, Place, and Promotion. They’re the bedrock on which marketing has been taught in business schools for the past fifty years. The 4Ps, also called the “marketing mix,” are defined as “the set of actions or tactics that a company uses to promote its brand or product in the market.”

But if you look at great companies like the ones I’ve just mentioned, you’ll see that none of the 4Ps actually applies to them.

So, what drives these companies to sustained greatness?

Let’s look at one other commonly accepted truth about great companies:

“Truth” 5: Great companies are better led and managed than their peers. Unlike the first four attributes, this one is TRUE. Great companies are indeed better managed than their peers. But this fact alone doesn’t give us much insight. For that, we have to look at how they are better managed. What are the best-management attributes that all great companies share?