Hard Work. It\'s the what, how, and who of what we do... hard work; good work.

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2. HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book
We align, merge, morph,
evolve, cluster, & humanize
Brands for Distinction
align BlackDog aligns brands. We clarify, focus, and integrate the people,
processes, departments, and systems that come together to meet
organizational objectives and customer needs.
What do we do?
BLACKDOG merge BlackDog merges brands. Aligning cultural compatibility, management
methodologies, collaboration and innovation levels, sales strategies,
HUMANIZES
customer synergy, and marketing values ensures long-term viability.
BRANDS
morph BlackDog morphs brands. We ready cross cultural brands to interpret
diverse contexts and gracefully straddle multicultural boundaries.
evolve BlackDog evolves brands. We transform brands that have diversified,
grew up, sold out, took off, shifted course, have been bought, merged
or neglected.
cluster BlackDog amplifies clusters. We position clusters to be recognized
by ambitious companies, start-ups, investors, skilled work forces, and
support industries.
BlackDog humanizes brands. We operationalize signature strategies
humanize across touchpoints that reveal a distinct people-centric approach to
service that are experienced and persuasive.
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3. HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book
The goal is to align what organizations do and
how they do it around a simple and meaningful
purpose ensuring delivery of a relevant and
differentiated brand promise, consistently.
1 Define the outcomes expected
Outcomes must be meaningful and measurable.
2 Clearly identify the working culture
Interpret the beliefs that hinder the anticipated results.
Identify the silos, performance & communication gaps.
Identify the core ideology: driving purpose, values, motivations, & aspirations.
How do we do it?
BLACKDOG
3 Define organizational synergy and purpose
Such an approach translates into a meaningful and adopted mission that
ultimately produces a differentiated and remarkable customer experience.
OPERATIONALIZES 4 Clearly identify market segments
Isolate the true needs, real expectations, and demands of customers.
BRANDS
Identify untapped markets.
5 Define products and identify services
Distinguish services and products.
Explicitly define differentiators.
6 Identify processes and systems
Identify gaps in services, processes, systems; define improvements and
efficiencies to adopt. Every role, process, and system must be advantaged
by a sense of purpose; a reason to exist. The purpose may contribute to the
internal operating flow of work or directly impact customers. The goal is to
simplify and distinguish the operational experience internally for enhanced
delivery of service externally.
7 Identify suppliers
Define the new needs to be met by vendors.
8 Define continuous improvement approach
How will the organization identify issues, collaborate and innovate, evolve and
adapt, enhance the working culture, measure and tweak performance agilely?
9 Define the brand story and ongoing awareness around a simple,
relevant and meaningful concept (brand promise) that contributors
take pride in and customers believe
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4. HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book
OUR
... Aligns your business around a simple and
meaningful purpose that provokes interest and
participation.
We have found that outrageous talent
united around a common identity and
a shared sense of purpose, engaged in
WORK
meaningful work and working to their
strengths with enough resources to
accomplish their agreed upon objectives,
are not going to find themselves at the
center of the next corporate scandal.
The inherent goal of branding is not to be
something else, but rather to become the
best of yourself.
BlackDog’s Big !deas cultivate new realities
that disrupt the mundane, routine and
vague existences of unrealized potential
focusing on limited outcomes.
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5. HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book
The better you are,
the better you look.
A brand is simply the central organizing
BlackDog principle that engages teams internally and
customers externally. Brands shape and
Aligns
are shaped by both the working culture
and relevant markets, reflecting the broad
ambitions and reinforcing the Big !dea
Brands
behind the business strategy. To have any
real impact and return the brand must be
integral to the guiding strategy. The brand
must be explicitly understood, believed, and
adopted by the working community entrusted
to breathe the strategy to life one decision,
interaction, touchpoint, and experience at a
time.
Outrageous promotional budgets are the mark of
a flawed brand strategy. Savvy organizations are not
devoting disproportionate amounts of money to noise campaigns.
Investments that engage employees, define operational
distinctions, and amplify brand differentiations yield returns,
results and rave reviews.
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6. HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book
When you buy companies,
BlackDog
you buy cultures.
Merges
BlackDog integrates brands. Aligning cultural
compatibility, management methodologies,
customer synergy, marketing values, collaboration
M&A Brands
techniques and innovation levels ensures long-
term viability.
Introduced in a timely manner, these brand
factors unite the previously separate (and
possibly competitive) teams into a cohesive and
formidable organization. Ignored or half-heartedly
addressed and the resultant mob limps by quarter
after quarter, spending more time and resources
GLOBAL VALUE
OF M&A DEALS on internal combat than on external market
A thoughtful and
well-timed brand penetration.
analysis is critical PERCENTAGE OF 24%
to the success of DEALS WITH BlackDog applies an adaptive process that
M&A ventures. POSITIVE ROI
identifies the current realities in light of the
Ignorance is bliss REPORTED 1.CULTURE strategic ambitions throughout the M&A process.
MISMATCHED
...and failure. CAUSES FOR 2.ALIGNMENT
FAILURE 3.VISION
CULTURE + ALIGNMENT + VISION = BRAND
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7. HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book
It’s a small, flat world after all.
While geography may be inconsequential, cultural
nuance and trends are not. Knowing the degree
to which your brand must morph and adapt to
BlackDog
differences and reinforce relevance in international
and new markets hinges on the DNA of your brand
Morphs
and the social constraints to be navigated.
BlackDog morphs brands. We ready cross cultural
Brands
brands to interpret diverse contexts and gracefully
straddle multicultural boundaries. Strategies for
brands expanding the reach in hopes of amplifying
the value must translate well to the “promising”
new market, to the internal “promise keeping”
contributors, and to the home team anticipating a
return on a promise.
Setting up shop far from home starts with
one question not easily answered: “In what
brandscape(s) will our expansion flourish ensuring
that our global and brand objectives are realized?”
BlackDog morphed nations, brands, sponsors,
cultural perspectives, and competing interests
for the Beijing Olympic Games XXIX. Over
the course of 18 months we contributed to a
celebration of the human spirit that lasted 17
days creating experiences to be remembered
for a lifetime.
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8. HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book
Your brand can be recognized as an
instrument of change; or just another
BlackDog symbol of a missed opportunity.
Evolves
Establishing a brand that has evolved, lost its way,
diversified, grew up, sold out, shifted course, has
been bought, merged or neglected is a rigorous
Brands
challenge that is very often minimized.
An insightful and disciplined brand designed
around a relevant strategy is the only means
of focusing the imperatives: engaging the
contributors, amplifying the identity, deepening
1.) Excavate and 2.) translate a 3.) meaningful the reach, increasing the value, and connecting
and 4.) shared 5.) purpose that 6.) motivates and the brand realities to new and existing customers.
7.) aligns 8.) contributors 9.) around a 10.) The “intervention” demands a team of willing
believable and 11.) differentiated 12.) brand enthusiasts with fresh eyes and ears, deep insights,
strategy 13.) encouraging 14.) collaboration no egos, and steadfast focus to juggle the details
and 15.) consistent 16.) delivery of 17.) and balance the big picture perspective.
distinct operational practices 18.) exciting
and 19.) engaging a 20.) culture of work that
21.) inspires 22.) new product developments,
23.) bolsters profits, 24.) increases value,
and 25.) ensures 26.) remarkable customer
experiences.
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9. HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book
Strength in numbers...
A strategic cluster brand must accurately
reflect the strength of the collective if it is to be
leveraged for sustainable growth. A web site and
BlackDog
a tagline won’t cut it in the competitive cluster
fight. Amplifying the possibilities and synergies of
a cluster brand begins with Identifying the industry
Unifies
niche, strengths, and unique characteristics of
the collective cluster, the supporting business
community, and strengths of the greater region.
Cluster Brands
Positioning the cluster for growth captures the
attentions of ambitious companies, start-ups,
investors, trained workforce, partners, and support
industries.
Positioning a cluster is an opportunity to provoke
innovation, engage the working culture,
invigorate a region, and amplify a powerful
purpose.
In 1754, one year before the start of the Revolutionary War,
Benjamin Franklin published a political cartoon that changed the
course of history.
Young burgeoning cities were developing across the Colonies.
While these urban clusters where aware of one another,
collaboration was minimal- which would give a tactical advantage
to British Troops. Franklin understood then what regions and
clusters must understand now… survival hinged on collaboration,
and defeat was inevitable if they remained a collection of individual
efforts. In what has been acknowledged as the first American
political cartoon, Franklin published a simple unifying message
around which the colonists rallied: Join, or Die
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10. HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book
Before you devote a chunk of change to a logo ‘makeover’
and a witty quip consider that people are more persuaded
by facts than illusions.
At the end of the day, the splash of color and sassy brand
BlackDog
tagline are only as potent as the strategic vision in place to
guide and integrate the business and brand forward, kick up
the innovation, guard the ethics, encourage engagement,
Humanizes
deliver the promise, and infuse the customer experience with
something uniquely appealing.
Brands
There is a time to refresh your brand through visual appeal…
And then there is a time to strut your thought leading, game
changing, taking care of people and business, big-bold,
strategic innovations.
Don’t shortchange the possibilities with glossy or gratuitous
brand initiatives that won’t change minds, hearts, or the
bottom-line.
Intuitive people-centric organizations are seizing every
opportunity to connect and relate to their customer. They are
committed to providing the kind of relevant touch points that
stir the imagination, interpret the customer, and translate the
brand precisely.
Brand, design, and identity should be exercised as explicit
signals that translate your differentiated intent. Your brand
should be recognized as an instrument of change and
identified as something much more significant than the other
countless symbols of missed opportunities that are vying for
the same customer.
Brand Experiences Branded Waypulling Branded Processes
Branded Interiors Signature Systems of Care Branded Art
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11. HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book
WHERE WE WORK BlackDog
knows that the best
strategies are meaningless without
Healthcare: Patient Experience committed teams dedicated to
Cross Cultural Diversity execution.
Clusters: Hi-Tech, Not for Profit, Arts & Culture,
Healthcare, Manufacturing Dr. Elizabeth Milsom, Sustoil
Environment and Energy Policy Manager,
BlackDog
M&A, Private Equity, Venture Capital doesn’t create strategies;
Royal Society of Chemistry
United Kingdom
Membership: Associations, Private Clubs they create new.
Destinations, Travel, Tourism, Hospitality
Single Sex Education
Thomas R. Ulbrich, Executive Director
Entrepreneurship UB’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL)
USA
Men’s/ Women’s/ Sexual Health
Architecture, Building, Construction
Utilities, Energy, Conservation, Sustainability
Professional Services BlackDog
successfully designed and
Financial implemented robust strategies in the spirit of
Children “One World One Dream” that respected the complex
Food & Spirits and diverse interests, markets, human services, investments,
expectations, and experiences at the Beijing 2008 Olympic
Events, Fesitvals Games. BlackDog inspired consensus within the hearts and
Manufacturing, B2B minds of the people in place to express the designed strategies.
BlackDog’s strength is a savvy business acumen, warm
BlackDog hearts, and helping hands.
has a passion for
breaking down barriers and
for guiding your organization to
be the best in the business.
Liu Yandong, VP
Beijing Organizing Committee for
the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Patient Experience Director (BOCOG)
(pending legal approval) China
USA
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12. HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book
The process IS the process.
define
excavate
implement Healthy processes are adaptable. Defined by
clear start and end points that ensure trust
measure building, buy in, and a steady flow of small wins
that are measurable.
A clearly defined process
establishes reasonable outcome
expectations at the outset. Time
and resources are treated as
valuable.
The framework informs the process.
EXCAVATE DEFINE IMPLEMENT OUTCOME MEASURE
Interviews Establish charter Collaborate Monitor Anecdotal
Audits Define Goals Introduce process Course correction Heuristic
Research Establish Launch change internally
Capture small wins Metric
roles/responsibilities
Synthesize Project manage Celebrate successes Analysis
Define schedule
Indentify hurdles:
Indentify hurdles: Internal
Internal External
External
Clarify strategy
Clarify strategy
Resource Deployment
Identify Champions
Market Penetration
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13. HARD WORK - A BlackDog Field Book
it *
nd b ullsh
don’ t bra
we
BlackDog contributes to
Est. 2 0 0 6 justice, peace, diversity,
order, unity, humanity and
the quality of life through
g y & Br a n
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ate d our work and service.
*Bull•shit (bŏŏl•shĭť ) - vulgar slang
Our working understanding of Bullshit, and use of the term, must be
credited to Princeton’s own moral philosopher, Dr. Harry Frankfurt,
author of the classic essay “On Bullshit”. Frankfurt verified what we
at BlackDog have suspected all along, Bullshit has no attachment to,
regard for, or interest in accurately representing the truth, facts, or
realities of any given topic. Bullshit is a perspective substantiated only
by an agenda. True or false, informed or uninformed, “by accident or
by design”, Bullshit is the calculated decision to postulate an idea or
set of assumptions for the purpose of achieving indulgent ends. Absent
of credibility or moral conviction, Bullshit schemes, distracts, perverts,
distorts, misrepresents, and confuses.
Bullshit is a vulgar term for a vile, though unspoken practice that we
won’t do. Not for love, money, or fame.
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14. BlackDog Strategy & Brand integrates the efforts of spirited brands that want to know how they
can do what they do differently, simpler, and smarter. We align bold brands that challenge
the boundaries, explore the limits, and harness their unique organizational competencies
disrupting business as usual and creating new possibilities. We operationalize bold brands that
are undaunted by the popular world view; brands that refuse to pay lip service to lofty missions
or shallow pursuits.
We humanize relevant brands that keep it fresh and real; brands that connect their Big !dea to
what truly matters. We don’t fabricate shallow myths and we’re not persuaded by the demand
for contrived hype. We partner with authentic brands that have people centric priorities, a
story to tell, and a genuine contribution to make.
We champion the efforts of those that view their work as a vocation and a contribution to
society.
STRATEGY & BRAND
Brand@BlackDogStrategy.com
BlackDogStrategy.com
716.898.0874
BlackDogTM
Big !deaTM
Hard WorkTM
We Don’t Brand BullshitTM © 2011 BlackDog Strategy & Brand Version 1.0