I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for the wonderful welcome offered to Brain+Trust Partners. The past week has been a whirlwind for me, as well as Angus, Scott, Chris and Tim. We did not know what to expect as we launched this next chapter in our lives, but the response has been overwhelming. There has been excitement seeing this team come together, but also the ability for others to join in. A key component to Brain+Trust Partners is the ability for others to join the network. If you are currently working as a consultant, with strong brand experience, please consider joining the fun! Visit here to learn more about the network that we are building.
I have known my business partners for years. Over the years these are the same people that I would confide in, ask advice or ponder the next phases we would see in business. Our friendship has always been business, and our business is our friendship. We know each other very well and know the capabilities that we bring to the table. We have been through it all together.
Scott Monty and I met in 2008 at Blog World in Las Vegas. He had recently joined Ford and was working hard to make a difference. In the early days of social media we talked about how the newly connected world would change everything we do, and more importantly how we do it. Since that time we have seen the rise and fall of the social media guru. None of us ever considered ourselves to be a guru. In fact we often hated the term. These gurus barged in loudly started to guide what businesses should expect from social media and how they would create that next viral campaign. Have you noticed that people no longer talk about viral campaigns? There is a reason for that. In more recent years we started to hear terms like digital transformation, with papers from the who’s who of the consulting world. The funny thing is that we can go back to the original conversations we had in 2008 and the playbook was all there.
Today we see transformation and mobile as key aspects with a new set of gurus stepping up to say how great they are. The reality is very few actually have transformed organization or changed thinking throughout. Instead they work off of theory. As we started to build Brain+Trust Partners we did not want “gurus” or theorists. We wanted real people with real world experience that understand not only where we are going, but where we have come from. This is the key to success in any transformational initiative and often the missing component.
Change is a constant, and, similar to semi-conductors, the growth is exponential. I know so many people who love to say they love change, but no one really does. It takes us out of our comfort zone. We have also seen so many ill advised changes simply because some consulting firm said so. In social media, I cannot tell you how many times I have heard gurus say all the different places you have to be, but the majority of those places did not even exist a few months later. The gurus were trying to make a name for themselves, just like many of the consulting firms with similar advice. The key is working with people who understand your business, and, more importantly, the people of your business. The people, or human, aspect is the key to bringing success to any of these initiatives, whether it is internal transformation or digital media. Knowing Consumers, employees or any other constituents will be the best way to ensure success.
We look forward to serving you and your business. Some see changes, but we see business evolution and we have been through it before. Over the next few weeks I will be taking a look at real life happenings, and how they relate to your business. We will look at happenings similar to what we have recently seen with Wells Fargo and Mylan’s EpiPen. We do this not to point fingers, but for the opportunity for all of us to learn and grow our business.
