Why Consolidating Brands Can Be A Strategic Mistake
An Australian company I advise recently appointed a new CEO. She had been the internal candidate and her predecessor had held the position for 15 years. At her very first workshop, the new CEO’s executive team started putting pressure on her to “tidy up.” The company’s identity, it was argued, had become diluted through its acquisition of multiple brands, each operating as independent businesses. The team singled out one of the company’s higher-profile brands – an insurance company targeted at farming families. “Many customers don’t even know it belongs to us,” complained several workshop participants. The new CEO was in two minds about whether to give in to this pressure. She asked me, as an outsider familiar with the company, whether I agreed with her team. Read more at Harvard Business Review.
