Brands, sustainability and citizenship: Navigating a world demanding change

For company brands the lines between business function silos are not clearly drawn, and the formerly compliance-oriented domain of environmental, social and governance (ESG) has become part of the brand in many sectors, whether we like it or not. Whenever an organisation seeks to stand apart on the basis of its citizenship or reputation in any of its competitive realms — for customers, talent, influence or capital — its brand strategy must connect all communications functions to the business strategy in a simple, coherent way. While always desirable, enabling clarity across the organisation is especially critical in these turbulent times. As COVID-19 has accelerated the pace of change and shifted risk appetites, big decisions are being made about corporate futures. This is an opportunity for brand people to tackle some of the barriers to collaboration and influence across functions. This paper outlines the challenge of aligning business functions to define and deliver coherent company positioning and makes a case for taking on that challenge as a matter of urgency to support businesses adapting to rapid changes in social expectations. Engaging executive leadership teams and boards of directors in this exercise is critical, and this paper outlines two practical ways to do so. First, framework thinking, which can accommodate different functions and communications disciplines into a single narrative. Second, and arguably more importantly, board-friendly ways to achieve a project mandate and frame the need to collaborate effectively at the most senior level to align brand and business strategy.