Jonathan David Lewis on Brand vs Wild and building resilient businesses - MAF133

This week my guest is Jonathan David Lewis.

He's the author of Brand vs Wild, a book about building resilient brands in harsh business environments.

We chat about how jazz bands, not orchestras, are the right analogy for resilient businesses.

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it?

And it is!

Welcome to episode 133 of the Marketing and Finance Podcast.

We chat about:

• How board room members go through similar challenges and emotions as the survivors of a plane crash on a mountain side
• How the smallest thing can become existentially dangerous for companies
• Why systems design is now a key part of marketing
• There's no fool proof solution to "wild" but you can increase your resilience
• Why old concepts of success don't work anymore - for example, flexibility is better than efficiency
• Why improvisation is important at the front line

Who is Jonathan David Lewis?

Jonathan is the author of Brand vs. Wild: Building Resilient Brands for Harsh Business Environments, a Forbes contributor and a turnaround expert at McKee Wallwork + Co., an integrated marketing firm that helps stalled, stuck and stale brands rekindle growth.

A branding and business strategist, Jonathan honed his skills during the lean years of the Great Recession, helping brands navigate today’s unforgiving new business paradigms. Jonathan’s opinions are highly sought by numerous business and marketing publications, including Forbes, Digiday, and Advertising Age, where he explores the factors that lead to stalled growth and the principles proven to help companies navigate the ambiguities and dangers of the brand wilderness.

Links and Show Notes.

For links to the books and apps mentioned by Jonathan, please visit http://rogeredwards.co.uk/MAF for the show notes.

What is the Marketing and Finance (MAF) Podcast?

The podcast for ideas and inspiration on marketing your business and growing your business, and for discussing topics on all things finance.

The MAF Podcast is a 30 minute radio show you download from http://rogeredwards.co.uk/MAF, iTunes or Stitcher Radio.

Each week you'll hear interviews with business experts, marketers, entreprenuers and journalists. Interviews to listen to in the car, on the train or on the treadmill. Or even in the bath!

We talk about:

• How you can grow your business using content marketing and social media
• How you can keep your Marketing strategy and communications simple
• Topics, issues, products and business models from the world of finance

You’ll take away one or two big ideas that you can apply to your business. So you can keep marketing your business to keep growing your business.

I’m your host, Roger Edwards.

A marketing guy from Edinburgh, Roger helps people keep their marketing simple in a world where complexity threatens to stifle business success.

An experienced marketing professional helping businesses with their marketing strategy, content and social media.

Roger clocked up many years in the ‘big corporate’ world as marketing director of several UK financial services brands before setting up his own consultancy. Some of you might remember me as the Marketing Director and Managing Director of Bright Grey and Scottish Provident.

He now uses his expertise to...