Jim Stengel is an adjunct professor of marketing at UCLA Anderson. He's also president and CEO of The Jim Stengel Company, LLC. Previously, he served as the global marketing officer for Procter & Gamble, where he oversaw the marketing and branding for one of the world's largest companies and some of the world's biggest brands.
Stengel is now the author of a new book called "Grow - How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World's Greatest Companies." (According to Amazon.com, the book will be released on December 27, 2011.) Fortune (and its partners at CNNMoney) have a preview of the book.
In his new book, Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World's Greatest Companies, Stengel draws on 10 years of data from 50,000 businesses to identify 50 of the world's top brands. Teaming up with UCLA and research firm Millward Brown Optimor to do the analysis, he's come to this conclusion: What propels a successful company is not cutthroat business sense but an understanding of the purpose that drives its brand. In other words: If you make your customers' lives better, they'll return the favor.
The excert at CNNMoney highlights ten of Stengel's favorite brands, culled from the Stengel 50, his list of the world's 50 best brands. The highlights include Discovery Communications, London-based food and beverage company Innocent, Method, Pampers, Brazil's Petrobras, Louis Vuitton, Natura, Zappos, and Jack Daniels.
Jim and The UCLA Forecast Blog have been corresponding of late. He's teaching during Winter Quarter and we look forward to sitting down with him after the New Year to discuss Grow. Look for the post next month.
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