With LEGACY IN THE MAKING, Mark Miller and Lucas Conley make the case that modern brand legacies are built using a framework that doesn’t get trapped by focusing on short-term success measurements such as, “… profits, growth, capturing consumers, [and] dominating categories.”
Instead, modern brand legacies are built by recognizing what’s worked in the past while infusing a vibrant company cocktail of passion, inspiration, vision and deliberate action.
According to the book’s research, “Twenty percent of all U.S. businesses fail within the first year. Nearly half are gone by the five-year mark. Only one out of three survives to celebrate its 10-year anniversary.”
The antidote to probable business failure, say Miller and Conley, is to follow a counterintuitive approach where “… the best short-term strategy is a long-term one.” Meaning, when business leaders are “… guided by long-term ambitions [they] make faster, better short-term decisions than their nearsighted competitors.”
To create a modern brand legacy that’s built for lasting impact, the authors smartly outline the following framework:
1. Take Work Personally
Business leaders absolutely must invest some of their soul and personal passion into how their business does business.
2. Live Your Beliefs
Brands must have a strong point-of-view about how the world is made better because of their existence. More importantly, brands must live their beliefs by always making purposeful decisions.
3. Foster a Movement
Modern legacies are cemented when people (employees, customers and outsiders) are inspired to join the brand in making positive change in the world.
4. Do Business Differently
Breaking with convention and going against the grain is how modern legacy brands create distinction in the marketplace as well as define (or redefine) business categories.
5. Adapt to Thrive
Modern legacy brands never stop taking work personally, living their beliefs, fostering movements and doing business differently. As the world changes, built for lasting impact brands alter traditions smartly to continue growing their influence.
Modern legacy brands profiled in the book include:
Patagonia, Girls Who Code, Ritz-Carlton Hotels, (RED), San Diego Zoo, Grey Goose, Lexus, Wimbledon and Taylor Guitars.
Disclosure: I buy lots of business books but this one was given to me from a book publicity firm.
