Keith Yamashita has a phrase I love. He talks about companies and brands finding their northern star. The term isn’t astronomical, it’s aspirational. He’s referring to an ideal of your company or brand that burns bright in front of you and your staff, that leads you on, that fires you up and that you never let out of your sight …
It’s the brand and the culture you dream of being. It’s what your people long to be part of. And it’s who your customers always hoped you would be and that your competitors can’t be. It’s what a company’s vision should be all about.
At Audacity, we call it your ambition.
Without it, you drift.
So many people can see that north star in some form. When I ask people in workshops about the company or the brand they dream of working for, they can tell me, sometimes in amazing detail, what it looks like, how it feels to be part of that , what it’s renowned for.
They can see it. At times, it seems like they can almost reach out and touch it. What they often can’t see or touch is how they leave where they are and get to where they would most like to be.
That’s the role of brand strategy in my view. To help a company or a brand find its true north. And then to take you there.
