Posts Tagged ‘IBM’

Have been reading about corporate brands and went back to my stash of articles. The IBM CMO C-Suite studies has solid information in their report, "From Stretched to Strengthened" which was conducted among the nearly 2,000 CMOs worldwide.  Not the main focus of the research but they do report that it is no longer enough for a company to just markets its products and services. In fact, the report talks about how the character of the company is now on full display as "social media has exposed the bones beneath the skin."  Only 53% of CMOs report that their corporate character is understood in the marketplace and 57% say they have significant work ahead to get employees on board. Here is the  part that I liked best because it speaks to corporate reputation today. "For many decades, the CMO's job was to market an organization's products and services. Today, it begins with the marketing of the organization itself."  A fairly sizeable 61% said that one of the initiatives they have set for themselves ahead is to orchestrate a single view of the brand, something we call enterprise branding. When people ask me what reputation means, I always say it is all about a company's character. Glad CMOs agree.

   CEO training can be fraught with complications and wouldn't it be a shame if you overlooked someone who could make a difference. Today I read about the new CEO of IBM, Virginia "Ginni" Rometty. Apparently CEO Sam Palmisano wanted to make sure that she had a worthy mentor in the year or so leading up to her possible naming as CEO. He asked the CEO of Frontier Communications, Maggie Wilderotter, to mentor her. They met several times over lunch.  According to the Wall Street Journal today, Ms. Wilderotter recommended that the possible CEO elect work more closely with Wall Street, the big banks and leading IBM customers she did not know as well as others. Apparently Wilderotter told Ms. Rometty that "Wall Street is a big part of the job when you are CEO." A CEO buddy system is a good idea for building a reputation to get the job. Now she will need help with her CEO reputation-building for her first 100 days. I have to admit, the ring of "her first 100 days" sounds good to me.