The adoption of new priorities is a simple process, provided the leadership can bite the bullet and challenge a corporate-wide evaluation of the process. This involves endorsing all the current achievements while adhering to some very serious and stringent requirements to comply with the market supremacy issues.

In the coming years, corporations without any distinct superiority of their selling proposition and without intellectually protected global-image supremacy status simply will not survive, and though they would struggle, it is simply prolonging their agonies as they will eventually fade away.

It is but a matter of corporate survival and future growth and profitability that the company adopts a change in thinking, and there are some key steps to go about this.

Starting any brand-new concept or idea for a highly structured and mature organization is a tough call; it requires patience and discipline, and most importantly, a star capability to lead. This time around, in a post-meltdown situation, it will allow a tougher attitude to alter the status quo by demanding “to lead, follow, or get out of the way” thinking. The competitive forces will teach most businesses how to survive without capital and how to get to the top without structure. The fluidity of the markets will teach us how to swim with sharks.

The new concept must be developed to incorporate the dimensions of image supremacy. Every single issue must be answered based on the highly pragmatic and cost-effective laws of image building and idea expansion. Upon successful delivery of the model, leadership must point to the iconic positioning of the concept that will motivate the teams to pursue the goals enthusiastically. The targets and the awards must be well planned and outlined. This ensures the real stability of the team when big hurdles arise.

In contrast to established structures, starting a brand-new concept and organization right from ground up is relatively easy because the leadership can quickly assemble a like-minded team and apply all the principles from day one as the basis of the operation. This requires a very deep analysis and a systematic approach to try to achieve harmonious consensus, building it to take it to a critical point where senior management and the entire leadership accept the image-leadership mandates, allocate resources, and achieve a timeline.

In all of the above situations, the leadership must be bold and must demonstrate depth of knowledge. Therefore, it is very important to create a system of educating and upgrading the understanding of all the team players right across the board.

From a procedure point, incorporating a regular schedule of formal training for the entire senior management team will result in an enormous saving of time and cost.

Based on today’s realities, the bottom line is establishing where the priorities are and how one will manage. True, old, and proven methods of the past may sound safe and secure, but the world has changed and this meltdown requires a brand-new thinking. Only companies with the right capabilities will survive in the long run.

The upside-down model, where there is more emphasis on the delivery of the final image and concept, way ahead of the actual micromanaging of the production, may sound eccentric.

In reality, this needs to be stressed: to acquire the mind share by projection of the selling proposition in fine details with complete in-depth understanding of the global demands is far more important than having beautifully crafted goods lying in the warehouse. This thinking also eliminates the risk of an ad hoc disconnected marketing and branding program being developed at the last minute, just before the press release. Just as there are great case studies of beautiful inventions, there are also huge catalogs of failures of companies that remain buried, as no one wants to talk about them.

Let the other key players from financial wizards to engineering geniuses from various industries deny this upside-down process, as the future rules of engagement are to sort out operations under new priorities.

If the intention is to get all the critical mind share mechanism in place only, as a post-production priority, then be careful, as very often the organization does not have the required time to nurture, nor the energy and resources to support the proposition properly.

There are far too many manufacturing organizations across the world where the latest and the best machines produce some of the finest products. The management constantly struggles to figure out how to increase sales and global exposure due to lack of funds and lack of skills of image management. They are just plodding along, tumbling from one agency to another, and from one branding to another, as they are unable either to have the leadership or the required understanding of the dimensions of image supremacy. What do you think?