Issue 7: A bulletin for big ideas and better business.

OPINION / LEADERSHIP

Book of revelation: Your heavenly guide to building a brand

💬Sir John Hegarty

What’s the definitive playbook on how to build a brand? You won’t find the best model from listening to luminaries like Steve Jobs, Phil Knight or Sheryl Sandberg. For the superlative guide to entrepreneurship, I encourage you to look further back and start at around the year 30 A.D. – when Jesus Christ founded the Roman Catholic Church.

Yes, the organisation kick-started by the Son of God during his Earthly Ministry is the most prolific in the whole scope of human civilisation. And examining its 2000-year history offers key insights on how to build a multi-generational business. Let’s dive in.

Firstly, examine the logo. Around the 4th century the church unveiled its most enduring image – the crucifix. After that, the cross became ubiquitous. It’s recognisable, easy to draw, and looks imposing if you assemble one and place it on a wall. The Catholics love of crosses makes Elon Musk’s Twitter re-brand feel less than revolutionary.

Then there’s the Church’s grasp of the communications industry. The Ten Commandments represent the original brand mission statement – and a solid template for how to do internal comms well. Beyond that, it pioneered new approaches to media as biblical texts were put together into a conclusive version in Latin, called the Vulgate. After that, the first book ever to be printed with moveable type was the Gutenberg Bible.

The Catholic Church also understood the importance of footfall. It made sure that its physical locations were in the most prominent and densely-populated parts of cities and towns. These places were supreme in their design and stature. And having such impressive buildings enabled the church to diversify. While there was daily Mass, it also moved into weddings, funerals, christenings, and confessionals. Churches were open 24/7 for their target audience (which, incidentally was everyone).

Another masterstroke in the strategy was recruiting the most fêted names in the arts. The church commissioned sacred music from figures including Mozart, Beethoven and Bach. The beauty of their compositions captivated the masses and created a connection with the divine. Then there were the visual artists: Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo both created works of staggering ambition on request of the church.

The greatest approach to lift from the Catholic template is to do with the product. What does the church sell? Faith. An invisible commodity that’s free to produce and easy to monetise. This was way ahead of its time too. It was only in the digital era when major brands cottoned onto the benefits of offerings that you can’t see, feel or drop on your foot.

The 2020s is a challenging moment for business leaders. More evidence points to founders having had enough of all the hustle, hiccups and headwinds. In the face of such obstacles, they should keep the faith. In fact, there’s a good question to ask when times get tough: “What would Jesus do?”

THE AGENDA / AVIATION AND ELEPHANTS

1.
SpaceX’s rocket Starship is the most powerful ever created. And it represents the company’s ambition to propel humanity to the moon and beyond. This week the giant column will blast off from Boca Chica, Texas in its third test flight.
14th March (09:28, local time)

2.
A less explosive form of flight will occur over the Australian capital as the Canberra Balloon Spectacular lifts off. We think that these floating vessels are an underused medium for brands and advertising. More campaigns should centre on lighter-than-air aviation.
11th – 19th March

3.
Poetry is enjoying a quiet resurgence. The art form will get a little boost this week, courtesy of Unesco’s initiative: World Poetry Day. The ambition is to support poets and assist the efforts of the small publishers who sustain them. Beyond this, the initiative is about restoring dialogue between poetry and the arts more broadly.
21st March

4.
Thailand celebrates National Elephants Day. The event will be trumpeted at nature reserves across the country. Having a natural inclination to creativity, some of these enchanting creatures are expected to mark the occasion by painting artworks.
13th March

A dreadful contest awaits
Contributor: Erik Pendzich / Alamy Stock Photo

US / POLITICS

Grumpy old men 

General elections tend to leave a big impression on a nation’s psyche. The US is gearing up for a rancorous contest between two deeply unpopular presidential candidates. This week both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are expected to be formally named as nominees after voting in Mississippi, Georgia and Washington. For most voters, neither man represents an optimistic step into a hopeful future. In fact, a survey by Yahoo in the autumn found that the most common feeling surrounding the election was “dread”.

Megan Gibson, executive editor, foreign, at the New Statesman defines this as the year of political fatigue in the country. “Despite ostensibly being the only two acceptable candidates from their respective parties, neither Republican nor Democrat voters seem to relish the prospect of Trump vs. Biden: The Sequel. Because neither of the candidates are new, many voters are assuming their ideas won’t be new either,” she says. “This is a bad predicament for everyone involved: apathetic, checked-out voters won’t engage with the policies meaning that even if there are promising ideas, they will be overlooked, while disastrous policies could slip into the White House under the radar.”

This wheeling out of two familiar candidates demonstrates a severe lack of creativity in both parties. As ever, a lack of freshness results in audiences switching off.

Creative hack: get meditative

Contributor: Clo’e Floirat

Meditation helps you relax, find peace and is thought to boost health. But it assists creativity too. The best ideas happen when you’re not plagued by a racing mind.

CANNES / CITIES  

Concrete solution? Build creativity in cities

MIPIM defines itself as the “global urban festival”. It’s a gathering of mayors, ministers, developers, architects and anyone who has a stake in the built environment. While the sessions will centre on issues ranging from carbon to waste management, there’s another topic that ought to be high on the agenda – how we cultivate creativity in cities. Increasingly the building industry seems to have a fervour for housing at the exclusion of all else. This is a problem, according to Anthony Engi Meacock, founding partner of Assemble.

“We’re increasingly losing the spaces in cities that centre on creative production. The sheer number of creative workspaces, studios, and affordable offices that have been lost in the last twenty years is huge,” he says. “This problem is acute in London, but it’s evident globally too. In the longer run, you lose industry and vibrancy. We live in cities because of culture. If over time you don’t make spaces for the production of that, you’ll lose that vitality.”

A better dialogue between developers, designers, businesses and communities would be a good start to ensuring cities don’t lose their creative lustre.

Creative cities: another brick in the wall?
Contributor: FPW / Alamy Stock Photo

GLOBAL / TECH

Breaking the Internet 

The World Wide Web turns 35 today. Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the person credited with creating it and helping to usher in a new chapter in the information age. In previous birthdays Berners-Lee has penned an open letter that provides some reflections on his invention – as well as challenges, opportunities and threats. What, in 2024 is the biggest obstacle for the internet? Carl Miller, Research Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM) at Demos reckons its biggest problem is to do with attention. “The web needs to find a way of surfacing material based on something other than its likelihood to capture your attention,” he says. “That means new algorithms. Beyond that, it needs to develop a way of surfacing consensus rather than division.”

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of HTML, founder of the World Wide Web
Contributor: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo

ASIA / CULTURE

Giving a little back

This Thursday men in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are expected to lavish sweet gifts on their partners. The holiday is known as White Day and the romantic gestures are related to Valentine’s Day a month earlier. Here’s the logic: women usually give chocolates to men in February. So men give women marshmallows as a display of gratitude the month after. The event used to carry the moniker Marshmallow Day. It’s not the generosity of men that drives this event, but a confectioner called Ishimura Manseido, who in 1977 spied it as a business opportunity. Want to shift product? Invent a holiday.

One should always be drunk… So that you may not be the martyred slaves of Time, get drunk; get drunk, and never pause for rest! With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you choose!

/Charles Baudelaire