It is heartening to hear Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric speak recently to business leaders in Dubai about the importance of honesty and transparency in business.

As Chief ‘Honcho’ of one of the biggest companies in the world, he lifted GE from a US$ 12 billion company to a US$ 400 billion Goliath. So you would think he knows a thing or two about growing companies.

He stressed the importance of values (what you value as an organisation) and commented that values represented the winning formula for companies. He goes on to state that "People are to be judged by their performance and by their values," commenting that teamwork represented one of the most important values.
At grow, we are brand champions. We champion clients’ brands, helping them to unlock intrinsic value inherent in the brand by developing – and communicating – the values proposition. We’re not just a design agency! Design is important and forms part of our core offer and yet design without strategy is very pretty pictures. Brand strategy involves defining the vision, mission and values
and developing a powerful positioning and differentiation that is believable, memorable, compelling, campaignable and has longevity.

 It’s the Yin to your Yang!

A strong corporate brand is a powerful asset, providing a clear sense of focus and sense of purpose for all. Its role is simple:

• To make the organisation easy to understand
• So that it’s easy to trust
• So that it’s easy to do business with
• So that it’s easy to belong to and feel part of

We at grow help clients achieve this clarity through a combination of brand strategy and visual creativity.

Strategically, the brand sums up what makes the organisation different and special.

It helps to tell the organisation’s story. This combines the rational aspects:

• What we do and how we do it with the emotive aspects
• Who we are and what we value and to be effective, this message must be:
  
  
  • Distinctive (What makes you stand out from the crowd?)
  • Credible (Why should I believe you?
  • Compelling (So what? As a client, an employee,
    a business partner, why should I be bothered?)

Futurism and financial services

by Anthony Ryman

From micro-financing to person-to-person lending, there is a paradigm shift taking place in the world of finance. The power in ‘bankingland’ is increasingly shifting towards consumers as they reassess how they want to spend their money and what channels they wish to use for advice and investment. The power of online communications is allowing people to network much more closely and find products and services more aligned with their thinking, often by word of mouth and recommendations.

The recent turmoil resulting from the credit crunch in world markets is arousing interest and not a little emotion among trend-spotters and consumers as well as new products and services. The ineptitude and greed of most banks involved in the housing loans debacle and their enormous billion dollar losses have aroused anger and the beginnings of a backlash among consumers. “Why should we pay for their mistakes?” can be heard on several commentators’ lips as the Federal Reserve guarantees US$ 29 billion of taxpayers money to save Bear Stearns.

The billions and billions that the likes of Citibank and UBS are setting aside to offset these losses will only increase the consumers’ financial burden by way of increased fees and charges.