Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World's Greatest Companies by Jim Stengel

Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World's Greatest Companies is a new book by Jim Stengel that provides a detailed review of how creating a stong brand ideal is correlated with long term organizational success, along with providing steps for implementing and maintianing a strong brand idea. I found this book to be an intriguing meeting of Jim Collins’ Good to Great (business success factors) and Martin Lindstrom’s Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy(study of neuromarketing). Unlike the Collins’ “Great” series of books which identify successful companies and then draws conclusions on what made them great, Stengel set out to prove that building a strong brand ideal is correlated to organizational success. The author approaches this goal by providing results of his research and several case studies which show the dramatic impacts of building or re-building a strong brand ideal.

The book is divided into two parts:

Part I: The Big Picture

Part II: The Five Must Do’s

Stengel has extensive experince working for Proctor and Gamble (P&G) and throughout the book offers many case studies from his tenure at P&G. These are interesting studies that provide insight into how P&G manages its’s brands.

Part I: The Big Picture

The Ideal Factor: Great Businesses Have Great Ideals

The first section of the book explains the concept of the Ideal Factor and how it is critical to the long-term success of an orgnization. The strong brand ideal  is much bigger that just a product, it is the reason why your company exists, the need you are filling or how you are improving your customer’s lives. For example, within P&G, Pampers does not exist to simply sell diapers, its’ brand ideal is to help mothers care for their babies. Stegel portrays the interesitng case of Time Life Books as an example of how a busienss can evaporate almost overnight if it fails to develop and maintin an Ideal Factor.

Next Stengel reviews the results of his extensive analysis, the end results was a group of 50 high performing organizations across a number of industries. Reivewing these organizations shows that each has a strong brand ideal. The reseach team then grouped these ideals into five fundamental human values. These values are:

1. Elicit Joy (Examples: Coca-Cola, Lindt, and Zappos)
2. Enabling Connection (Examples: FedEx, Starbucks)
3. Inspiring Exploration (Examples: Apple, Google, Red Bull)
4. Evoking Pride (Examples: Calvin Klein, Jack Daniel’s, Mercedes-Benz)
5. Impacting Society (Examples: Chipolte, Method, Stonyfield Farms)

The findings suggest that each of the top 50 performers has at least one strong brand ideal that will fit into one of the above categories. In addition, several case stuides are provided using Jack Daniels and Method’s brand of green cleaning products.

Part II: The Five Must Do’s

The reminder of the book is decidated to reviewing the five steps needed to create and implement a strong brand ideal. These steps are explained in detail and consist of the following:

Number 1: Discover an Ideal in One of Five Fields of Fundamental Human Values

Number 2: Build Your Culture Around Your Ideal
Number 3: Communicate Your Ideal to Engage Employees and Customers
Number 4: Deliver a Near-Ideal Customer Experience
Number 5: Evaluate Your Progress and People against Your Ideal

One of the concepts that is introduced is the need for a business artist who is tasked with focusing on the brand ideal – think Steve Jobs. One of the quotes that summarazeies that ideal brand concept is; “It is not what you sell, it is what you stand for.”

For each of the above steps Stengel details at least one case study which provides helpful insights into completing each of the steps. For example, Stengel details his efforts to halt the decline of Pampers and begin growing the brand by developing a strong brand ideal outside of the United States. Finally, the author recommends that organizations can start small or large, but they need to start.

Conclusion

As I mentioned in my review of Great By Choice, there are some camps that have critiqued the methods and conclusions drawn by Stengel as they do with Collins. These critics suggest that we need to look beyond the black and white factors for business success presented in these books and consider how randomness plays a role in company outcomes. If you are interested in this alternate side of this story I recommend The Halo Effect: ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers by Phil Rosenzweig. I believe that both sides make strong points and readers should decide for themselves.

What do I think? I believe the concepts presented by Stengel are important for organizations to consider for adaptation. I don’t see how it can harm any organization to consider how their brands fall into the five human values groups detailed in the book. Having a brand ideal, or greater purpose that is communicated throughout the organization will certainly help keep all employees focused on the larger goals of the organization. But will having a strong brand ideal guarantee success? Certainly not, there are many factors, including external situations, which determine the long term success of an organization.

Although there is no magic formula to guarantee a successful business, books such as Stengel’s and Collins’ are worth considering when developing and implementing business strategies and processes.