At a recent tradeshow, I was checking people’s cards and was stunned by the change in job descriptions. More job titles were team, project, and even sometimes surreal instead of traditional professional, functional, or departmental titles. Brand U’s sometimes identify themselves as ‘head geek’, ‘fun meister’, or ‘code artist.’ All of which indicate how much …
A recent article in Harvard Business Review, the bible of corporate business, legitimized the Brand U: “The fundamental unit of such an economy is not the corporation but the individual. Tasks aren’t assigned and controlled through a stable chain of management but rather are carried out autonomously by independent contractors. These electronically connected freelancers – …
What’s your Work/Career/Job Why do you do what you do? Do you love what you do? Do you have fun at work? What makes work fun? Why is your work/career important to you? What’s your career metaphor? Do you have a career roadmap? What work rules have changed for you? Do you get it? Try …
We know work rules have shifted. The problem is that while rules have changed, they haven’t been fully explained. If many of us don’t ‘get it’, it’s because we haven’t been told what ‘get’ or ‘it’ are now. Quite often, even management is as clueless as we are. This is especially critical when things are …
The idea behind Brand U is borrowed from marketing and is pretty straightforward. Brands are a name, term, sign, symbol, designer, or a combination of these, which identify goods or services of one seller and differentiate them from competitors. Brands are also a symbol or design for goodness or quality. Brands can also be a …
What is a brand? It’s a way of encapsulating and communicating a product’s power, pitch, and position in the most succinct way: the combination of one name and visual image – a personality – that anyone, anywhere, will recognize and interpret in precisely the same way.[i] David Andrusia and Rick Haskins “Brand You is about …
“Put as simply as possible, branding yourself is the single, most important thing you can do to establish your worth in the business marketplace – and make you the valuable commodity you deserve to be” say David Andrusia and Rick Haskins in Brand Yourself.[i] [i] Andrusia, David, and Haskins, Rick, Brand Yourself, NY: Ballantine …
Stories and role models are powerful ways to communicate. Psychologists and others believe that three times more information can be communicated and understood in story form than in bulleted lists. Brand U stories are personal and moving. So, I’ve collected the stories from the best business periodicals.[i] I’ve taken a rational and objective approach to …
Learn why each one of us is a Brand U small business with value-adding skills and contacts Discover the new rules of the workplace Learn how to get the right things done on time so customers are pleased Learn how to balance work and family commitments Learn what employers expect of you Learn how …