Friday, May 6, 2011

Building Global Brands

Total quality management was the hot topic 20 years ago and 10 years ago we were all obsessed with getting ISO certified. Today quality is taken for granted and an ISO certification is a standard rather than a differentiator. Companies are searching for new ways to make their products and services stand out on the market and branding is a top of mind topic for many senior executives. This past week we set out to find the Nordic perspective on the following questions: Why is global brand strategy so critical today? What are the key ingredients of a great global brand? And how do you best manage a global brand portfolio?

Dominique Turpin, IMD President and Professor of Marketing visited Sweden, Denmark and Finland between May 2 and 5. In addition to meeting with several high profile Nordic CEOs we also organized a series of well received roundtables and events.

In Stockholm a group of senior global branding and marketing presidents came together to hear Dominique’s views on global branding as well as share their own ideas and experiences. Samuel Asarnoj, Global Brand Director at ASSA ABLOY, was our fantastic host for this roundtable discussion. Later the same evening we organized a larger alumni session, graciously hosted by Peter Meurling, Director Transaction Advisory Services at Ernst & Young and member of the IMD alumni board in Sweden.

In Copenhagen we planned a larger IMD Alumni event with more than 130 top level Danish executives attending. Along with a talk from Dominique, Steen Reeslev, Senior Vice President of A.P. Moller – Maersk, provided a vivid presentation that addressed the branding challenges and learnings of the largest Danish multinational company. What an inspirational story!

We also had a chance to join Flemming Bligaard, CEO of Ramboll, at the impressive offices of Ramboll for a lunch seminar organized together with Sailing Denmark. Dominique’s presentation complimented in an excellent way with the illustrative example of how Ramboll has gone from a local to an international brand.

On the morning of May 4th a stellar group of Senior HR and Learning Directors joined us for an open and frank discussion about the future of executive education. Dominique provided the global perspective and Steen Ernland, Chairman of the IMD alumni club and an executive search specialist, offered the Danish perspective.
In Finland the Swiss Ambassador Darier welcomed us to Helsinki by hosting a smaller, very tasteful dinner at his residence on the evening of May 4th. The following day Jukka-Pekka Vuori, VP Marketing and an alumnus of IMD’s Strategic Marketing in Action Program, welcomed the Finnish alumni club at Fonecta. During this evening we not only had a chance to hear from Dominique and Jukka-Pekka, but also from Marco Mäkinen, CEO of CEO SEK&GREY, one of Finland’s most prominent advertising agencies. He talked about how important it was to make branding and marketing relevant and innovative.

For more detailed information about the topic of Global Branding please see relevant links to the right. A copy of the presentation as well as relevant articles and programs are also listed.

Professor Dominique Turpin's presentation

No comments: