My new CEO wants a global rebrand delivered in 5 weeks.

Hey Rich,

Interested to hear what you would do in the lovely situation I find myself in.

I was just appointed to lead marketing & comms at a listed professional services firm, fairly sizable team of 40 odd. I've been busy doing the usual shaking hands and kissing babies routine and saying the right things, trying to understand the lay of the land.

Yesterday I had a proactive check in with the CEO and she said something that completely floored me. “I want to launch the rebrand at next month's AGM”.

Now, this would be pressure at the best of times but the kicker is…I had no idea a rebrand was even in motion. Nobody across 8 interviews had mentioned it. My boss the Chief Revenue Officer has never mentioned it. My Head of Brand had never mentioned it!

I very sheepishly pushed back and asked what rebrand she was referring to. And she replied that “Oh me and X brought in a new agency a few months ago and we've picked a new logo and colours. It looks great. The marketing team hasn't been brought into it yet but we need to be ready for next month”.

Obviously, I called the Head of Brand and he was quite defeated. He was aware of it going on but has barely touched it and there is absolutely no way this will be ready in just 5 weeks. I repeat, this is a listed firm. Over 40 countries. Over 5,000 employees.

I am in a situation where I need to impress and hit the ground running. I have a CEO with a massive pet project that I am now responsible for. And it's a doozy. She is known for having her favourites and has been very blunt in telling me I have to earn that same relationship. I also know she is under pressure from the board.

What would Mr Fitz do?

Mr A, New York 

Mr A,

Well, that's an interesting predicament!

In situations like these I always feel it's best to play with a ‘straight bat’, which is a cricket term for being honest, fair and straightforward.

Knowing your identity as I do, you already know the answer, which is helpful: you need to delay the brand launch.

A new global brand identity (and it sounds like that, not a ‘rebrand’ as stakeholders often misname it) cannot be done in 5 weeks. It is logistically impossible. Across a firm your size, it can resemble a military operation, with thousands of touch points and co-dependencies from office signage to stationery, to websites, to collateral, to regulatory notifications too. It also requires cross functional collaboration across marketing, comms, IT, legal and finance, to name a few.

So, to be clear, you need to deliver the refreshed brand identity in a more realistic timeframe, whilst bringing the CEO with you on the journey and making her look great.

Defining the challenge is the easy part. Now it's a question of how you do it. You need to jump on it and own it all now. Drop everything else.

●      Get the agency involved on the phone as soon as possible and let them know you are now calling the shots. You need to understand everything that has been done and what they are still to deliver. Set the weekly call cadence at the same time.

●      Make it clear that your Head of Brand now runs the show. You are backing them. This is their area of expertise; they are best placed to lead this. Show them you are fixing it.

●      Pull together the virtual team across functions. Spread the workload.

●      Start to get a picture of what still needs to be done, even if it's a giant spreadsheet full of itemised tasks.

●      Get that follow up call in the diary to talk to the CEO again.

Personally, I don't think it's even an option to contemplate whether the new brand identity is a good or bad idea. So simply focus on giving your team responsibility for delivering it in a realistic timeframe.

Now you will take a kick on that next call with the CEO. She will be excited about this project, and especially when she's under pressure, she will feel that she wants to show the board something exciting too. She will not want to hear it's been delayed.

I would aim for the following flow:

●      I've dropped everything else and made this a priority.

●      This is what I've found.

●      This is what is left to deliver (and I would expect it to be into the thousands, an itemised view in a spreadsheet including regulatory notifications, client comms etc).

●      This would be the risks of launching too early.

●      This is how we can make it better, and to really do it justice and make it, and you, look great.

●      This is the launch date I can commit to, in two quarters' time. It will be a cause of celebration internally and externally. And you guarantee it.

She will be unhappy to receive this news. But you need to keep it factual. It is what it is. You will fix it, but you need the time to do so. And your CRO line manager needs to be aware of your plan and supportive.

Your objective on the call is not to be a knight in shining armour. It is to show integrity, the knowledge she didn't have, and commitment to delivering something special. If she pushes back that she needs it next month, you simply say you would be lying if you said that was even an option. You can deliver it in two quarters' time.

Delivering this in six months will utterly consume your life anyway. But hey, at least the year will go quicker. And you'll likely be considered a hero in your team for ensuring it was done properly. And she may even love you when it goes well.

Let me know how it goes! Be brave!

Rich