Isn't it strange that as soon as people join a company, they are put into a division? Wanting to be whole, needing to be more than the sum of our individual abilities, we are sliced into things called profit centres. We fuel our tribal fears at the expense of our generosity of spirit. Brands are hailed as the unifying principle of the organisation. Yet brand-owners, busily create divisions for advertising, sponsorships, promotions, social media, corporate social investment and so much more, with separate budgets, objectives, agendas and measurements. They lose sight of the consumer who reacts to a whole brand and its myriad of touch-points across space & time. The low awareness, lack of affinity, increasing mistrust & shrinking territory that many brands suffer in the marketplace, echo confusion within. Divisions threaten the whole they are there to support. Because, by their very nature, divisions divide. Canaries in the mine When Freedthinkers are called in as brand doctors the usual diagnosis is...

We are currently involved in three change processes. The first is with a once pace-setting company that now drags its heels; the second with an efficient organisation that is losing its relevance, finding itself out of tune with the times; the third with a leader needing a new & significant challenge. We encounter the reactionaries and radicals, the purists & pragmatists, farmers & hunters. We see fear of loss, hope of gain & the muddled middle.

If you want to build a bridge, study architecture for five years, find a junior job in a prestigious practice, work your way up & if you are lucky, you may get that assignment one day in your career. Or, at the age of 19, you can go to a distressed area and follow the Nike line - just do it.

An ad appeared in Fortune magazine for a consultancy that proclaimed I am your idea.  That could be interpreted to mean that the poor souls who used this consultancy’s services had no ideas of their own and entrusted their company to a bunch of overworked MBA’s who pick strategy 6.3.2 from the rulebook, turn the organisation inside out and dance away from the mess.