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Rothman - Brand Killer Extraordinaire
When an old friend sent me this article (here), the cycle was complete.
Every company I've ever worked for since I graduated from college no longer exists (in the format it was anyway) and their brands are largely dead. Let's go through the lineage and you'll see what I mean. Even the company where I worked as a co-op in college was acquired, though the brand (Mobil Oil) has survived. Unbelievable.
- American Management Systems - The subject of the article above and my first job out of college, the AMS name is now dead.
- Ernst & Young - EY is now known as CGEY as they were acquired by a French professional services firm. E&Y does still exist, but only the audit and tax operations. Their technology professional services group is gone.
- META Group - Of course, META was bought by the Borg, Gartner Group. The META brand was dead the day the deal closed.
- SHYM Technology - My illustrious start-up was acquired by Authentica, which was then acquired by EMC. I guess you have to have a brand to kill it, but indulge me a bit here.
- TruSecure - These guys did a triple merger and are now knowns as CyberTrust. The formerly TruSecure management team is in control, but the brand is dead.
- CipherTrust - Yep, acquired by Secure Computing. They have some kind of brand monster going there (Secure Computing CipherTrust IronMail), but sooner rather than later they'll kill off the CipherTrust brand. It doesn't add value to the discussion.
It seems the best way to kill your brand is to hire me. Good thing I'm not looking for a job. I could just imagine the interview now:
Recruiter: So Mike, what are you good at?
Mike: I kill brands. Dead as a door nail.
Recruiter: Great. That's exactly the skill set we are looking for here. Brand killers are hard to find.
Mike: I also can eat a truckload of chicken wings in one sitting and chug beer really fast.
Recruiter: Quite a Renaissance Man, aren't you now?
That's right, just call me Leonardo for short.
This is both funny and generally true in high tech. Looking at my own too long list of companies, only two brands survive in a 20 year span, my current employer, and one of the security living dead.
In start-ups, having unique, & differentiated technology, and capturing and satisfying customers are really all that matters, and if you have both of these things it's almost a lock that your brand won't survive.
You kill brands because you grow companies.
I'm shooting 66% myself and I would bet it is only time until it goes to 100%