Every day it seems new technology disrupts an industry. Or an iconic brand announces a new product or service designed to maintain its relevance with customers. Take these examples from the past few days:
- McDonald’s is testing a walk-in to-go location that only serves food. There is no seating. The restaurant features touch screens for customer orders while all the employees are dedicated to fulfilling the orders faster than ever before. As one of the original fast food pioneers, and the chain that introduced the drive-thru, this evolution makes sense.*
- Hasbro, owner of Monopoly, My Little Pony and Power Rangers, announced it will acquire Entertainment One. The press release said the move will “strengthen Hasbro’s end-to-end ability to monetize and bring to market IP in increasingly attractive new formats, including over-the-top (OTT) and premium platforms, music, location-based entertainment, AR and VR.” I am not sure what all this means, but I am sure the new technology will be most entertaining and necessary to win screen time with kids today.**
- Not to be outdone, Mattel is expanding its Hot Wheels franchise into the digital gaming space. Metal cars running on a plastic track are certainly not as cool as cars that will race on an iOS device.
Driving brand relevance
These moves are all about maintaining brand relevance. And that means having a customer-centric culture and an agile organization—one designed to identify opportunities, innovate and commercialize concepts quickly and achieve first-to-market, competitive advantage that is the most profitable.
Companies without these capabilities will soon be replaced. The shakeout is coming, because organization structure has not kept up with the pace of change. A recent Deloitte white paper notes, “In the 1950s, the average lifespan of an S&P 500 organization was around 60 years. Now, it is about 15 years and continues to decline.”***
Aligning your organization
Most organizations are designed to provide stability, accountability and control to maximize efficiency and profitability for predictable markets and customer behavior. Many CEOs of these organizations understand change is needed but are having a difficult time assessing the risk and even knowing where to start.
The Bloodhound Group can help you identify the gap between the experience your customer is seeking and your organization’s ability to deliver it. Our assessment focuses on 24 indicators of organizational alignment that provide insight to help map out a process for maintaining and/or regaining brand relevance. Give us a call. Your brand’s future may depend on it.
* A Sign of The Future Restaurant: The New McDonald’s To-Go Location, Forbes.com, August 22, 2019
**US toy giants make bold content moves, WARC, August 26, 2019
***Delotitte White Paper. Unlocking the flexible organization. Organizational design for an uncertain future