CEOs Brand Stories -Jack Welch Leadership
Ceos' brand stories are essential in
the branding process. The CEO is a symbolic figure for any company besides his
managerial and leadership duties. The CEOs must be more cautious and aware of
their role in enlightening their company’s brand and core values. CEOs’ actions
and speeches direct the path that the company is following. A CEO can destroy a
company or brand by a very tiny mistake or be the
icon of its success.
Today CEOs need to build their personal brands to stay relevant and influential. As business leaders increasingly become the public face of their companies, the ability to craft and project a personal brand has become a critical skill for CEOs.Today’s CEOs are responsible for building and communicating their companies’ brand stories. They have the opportunity to shape how their organizations are perceived by customers, investors, and employees.
In fact, the way a CEO is depicted and portrayed has a direct impact on our perceptions of their leadership abilities. Here are a few examples of how CEOs brand stories have been shaped—and reshaped—over the years.
Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric who died in 2020, was known for his frank, talent-centric management style and has always said that businesses are only as strong as the people who keep them going. Welch calculated that human resources took up roughly 60% of his time. This entire business game revolves around one thing, he stated at the World Business Forum in New York. You win if you put together the best team. Welch explained you want your employees to feel like they're a part of the organization, tell them a story that will entice them to pick you. Many people believed Jack Welch to be the greatest leader of his era. From 1981 until 2001, he served as the CEO of General Electric, transforming G.E. from a manufacturer of appliances and lightbulbs to a multibillion-dollar corporation with subsidiaries in financial services, media, and industrial products. G.E.'s stock value increased by 4000 % under his leadership. He earned a $417 million severance payment from G.E. when he retired, the highest such award in business history at that time.
CEOs Brand Stories - Elon Musk The Twitter Influencer
Elon Musk is one of the most popular CEOs in current days, he is the CEO of Tesla Motors and is very famous for his innovative products and solutions. Musk, a South African-born American entrepreneur billionaire, and businessman founded X.com in 1999 (which later became PayPal), SpaceX in 2002, and Tesla Motors in 2003. Musk made headlines in May 2012, when SpaceX launched a rocket to send the first commercial vehicle to the International Space Station. Musk is working to transform transportation on Earth, electric car maker Tesla, and space via rocket producer SpaceX. Musk becomes a brand himself and an icon for innovation and recently becomes a source for pushing cryptocurrency and the stock market. For example, musk, who was mostly responsible for GameStop's meteoric rise in January 2021, posted on Twitter a link to the Reddit board that heavily boosted the stock. Shares of GameStop went up over 60% in after-hours trading following Musk's tweet, which was linked to the "wallstreetbets" Reddit page, which has over 2 million subscribers. He has an enormous influence over his 60 million followers on Twitter, using his charming influence to promote many ideas and theories.
The CEO performs the lead role
in stories, both internally and externally, in many successful brands. They
become the brand story driver of the company’s core story and a part of the brand
image. It occurs in companies where visionary and charismatic founders manage
themselves. Both brand messages and CEOs brand stories must aim in the same
direction to enhance the company’s one-centric core story. It is a prerequisite
for creating a consistent brand that can penetrate a highly competitive and
crowded market.
CEOs Brand Stories -Gerald Ratner Crap Speech
Gerald
Ratner was the CEO of his family’s jewelry business, Ratner Group. When he
acquired the business from his father in 1984, it was in dire straits. Through
rebranding and cost-cutting, he led the firm into a period of success and rapid
development. They were a low-cost jewelry firm with over a thousand outlets in
Europe and the United States, accounting for half of the UK market. The road to
ruin began in April 1991. Ratner was invited to speak at the Institute of Directors’
meeting. It was a prestigious event attended by thousands of the U.K.’s most
influential investors and covered by media and journalists. In his famous speech,
he cracked a joke about one of his company's goods, “People say, how can you
sell this for such a low price? I say Because it’s total crap.” Then he also
said, “We sold a pair of earrings for under a pound, which is cheaper than a
shrimp sandwich from Marks and Spencer, but probably wouldn’t last as long”
The newspaper and TV outlets took Ratner’s words literally, which degraded his company brand. After the speech, the value of the Ratner group plummeted by around £500 million, which nearly resulted in the firm’s collapse. Ratner has said in his defense that his remarks were not meant to be taken seriously, but the jokes backfired and destroyed the company. Ratner's Speech is still remembered in the business world as an illustration of the importance of image and branding and how damaging the brand's reputation, image, and trust can destroy any business. CEOs have an unprecedented opportunity to tell their brand stories. People today have an unprecedented amount of access to a CEOs words and actions. They can see for themselves the impact a CEO is having on their employees, their customers, and their communities.
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