The Long Story
I have always worked at the intersection of strategy and creativity. My career, as you will read, has been a mosaic of experiences in branding, marketing, advertising and consulting. Managing the process of strategic thinking and creative development has been at the heart of my career for over 25 years.
After majoring in English and Theatre at the University of Pennsylvania, I embarked on a journey in the professional theatre as a stage manager, director, lighting designer and producer. I had some amazing experiences that included touring with John Houseman’s Acting Company, working as a production assistant for Hal Prince’s company in summer stock, producing dinner theatre in the mid-West, stage managing at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles - where I was also the staff photographer for the PR department, and ultimately serving as the general manager of a non-profit performing arts festival.
Then, I decided to leave the arts and enter the world of commerce and was introduced to Rod Dyer, a former advertising art director/designer turned entertainment graphics superstar. I started as an account executive at Rod Dyer, Inc. in the late 1970s. At the time, Rod had six people and a business limited to designing record albums and restaurant logos. After three years the firm’s name was changed to Dyer/Kahn, reflecting my new status as a partner. Over the next seven years the company went on to garner a national reputation as the archetypal LA design firm creating an impressive range of design and marketing programs that included: logos, trade show exhibits, packaging, annual reports, brochures, signage programs and advertising. The firm was involved in the launch of many new ventures including the Disney Channel, Paramount Home Video (the first movie studio video entry), California Pizza Kitchen, Heaven (retail store), Hughes Communications Galaxy (the first cable TV satellite), Fox Broadcasting (which later became the Fox Network) and Mattel Electronics’ ill-fated Aquarius Home Computer System.
|
After earning an M.B.A. from Pepperdine and graduating with an honors
thesis on “Motivating Creative Workers in the Advertising Business,” I
was hired by Landor Associates to open the company’s first Los Angeles
office. In a two year period I closed business and helped run identity
programs for Hilton, Hyatt, Mazda, Century 21, Dollar Rent-a-Car,
Warner Bros., Hawaiian Airlines and others. Moving to San Francisco, I
then co-ran Landor’s corporate identity practice at a time when we were
launching the massive GE identity program, now considered seminal. The
success of that program and its influence on corporate performance
convinced America’s business leadership that Design Matters, to borrow
a title from an internal GE identity magazine. While at Landor, I was
instrumental in marketing the first Landor Image Power Study, which
later evolved into the Y&R Brand Asset Valuator (BAV), considered
today one of the most important measures of global corporate brand
performance. At that time, Front Street in San Francisco housed some of
the best creative talents in corporate, retail identity and packaging
design.
|
One year after Landor was sold to Y&R, John Diefenbach (former CEO
of Landor) invited me to join a start-up brand identity firm, along
with John Elkins, the CEO of the Naisbitt Group. With a handful of
colleagues, we founded Diefenbach Elkins (in 1991) which later was
re-named FutureBrand after the sale of the company to McCann-Erickson
(IPG) in 1997. When I left the company after ten years, FutureBrand had
grown to 30 offices with over 600 people.
Looking back over
those years, it was a truly incredible journey that took me around the
world to places such as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, South Africa,
Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Frankfurt, New
Zealand and many more. I had an opportunity to lead the company’s
global marketing, which involved literally hundreds of pitches for an
extremely wide array of companies and industries. The firm grew quickly
by combining strategy consulting with corporate identity and became the
first official “brand consultancy,” operating under the tag line
Positioning Corporations for the Future. I also worked extensively on
client projects, often leading the programs and learning a great deal
about a range of industries including travel, financial services,
energy, automotive, technology and consumer products. I had the
pleasure of playing a key role in identity programs for Air Canada,
Aeromexico, Coca-Cola (the Salt Lake Olympic Games), General Motors,
DuPont, ExxonMobil, Delphi Automotive, Kodak, Nestle, Qantas, South
African Airways, Saudi Aramco, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Motorola
(satellite division) and many others.
The other major aspect of
my role at FutureBrand was functioning as the key liaison with the
McCann-Erickson WorldGroup to accomplish an integration of branding,
design, advertising, PR, direct marketing and interactive. This
responsibility included frequent integrated new business pitches for
companies like JCPenney, Rubbermaid, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, UPS,
Coca-Cola and others.
|
In 2001, I was recruited to join Enterprise IG, a sister WPP brand
consultancy, in the position of Chief Marketing Officer, the Americas.
While at Enterprise IG, I reshaped the company’s presentations,
publications and website, actively represented the firm as a speaker at
conferences and was a frequent media spokesperson. Client engagements
at Enterprise IG included DuPont Textiles, Cendant and U.S. Surgical.
|
After a six month consulting position in marketing and strategy with
Faith Popcorn’s Brain Reserve, I joined Ogilvy & Mather in New York
to become General Manager of the renowned Brand Integration Group under
the creative direction of Brian Collins. The group of high powered
designers and brand strategists delivered breathtaking work for clients
like Hershey’s, Sprite, Progressive Insurance, American Express, Kodak
and many others.
|
After one year, I moved into a new role in Account
Planning, heading up a practice area called Brand Asset Management,
where I led the delivery of brand strategy consulting services to
clients that included: American Express, IBM, Kodak, DHL, Time Warner
Cable, DuPont, Dow Jones, Goldman Sachs and others. I thoroughly
enjoyed my time at Ogilvy – first rate people and top clients. Through
the contacts and knowledge that I gained there, I was able to start
Kahn Consulting, initially with Ogilvy as my first client and very
quickly adding nearly a dozen other clients in the first year. Now in
our second year, I am pleased to have the opportunity to tell you about
myself, my experience and the consulting services of Kahn Consulting.
|
|
While at Kahn Consulting, I was approached by an investor group and asked to advise them about starting a brand consultancy in Dubai. Initially, I developed a business plan that included the name of the company to be – Water Brand Group, a comprehensive market entry strategy, budgets and a staffing plan. Soon, I was named Chief Executive and had a staff, clients and a new type of commuter situation where I racked up thousands of miles flying back and forth the between NY, London and Dubai. The business met with early success closing accounts with government agencies, real estate companies, consumer products groups and other regional businesses in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. |
Then out of the blue, I was contacted by an executive recruiter at a time when I was anxious to return home to the US (after almost two years in the middle east) – and began to interview for the Chief Marketing Officer position at NetJets. After meeting David Sokol and the first rate management team at NetJets, a fit was declared by both parties and I began leading the marketing department at the world's largest and best private aviation company. We introduced a new advertising campaign, made strides towards improving our data management and direct marketing capabilities and with the help of a great team improved the NetJets brand reputation and the sales results that followed.
|
|
