Image: Signing of the Equal Pay Act of 1963

​Corporate Challenge:  Leading the world into the big wave of Artificial Intelligence.  
 
Ironbound Strategy:  Powerful brands need top talent to propel their business into the future.  Holistically creating value across all stakeholders requires embracing equity as a pivotal core value.  Pay equity is the cornerstone of creating employee value.  
 
Ironbound Action:  New York based IBM is multinational leader in technology, with operations in 175 countries, that was founded over 100 years ago in 1911.  Since 1935 IBM has had an equal pay policy, with women currently making up about a third of the workforce.  For 29 consecutive years IBM has been awarded more U.S. patents than any other company.  IBM expects the next big trillion-dollar market opportunity to be in Hybrid Cloud and Artificial Intelligence.  In 2021 the company deployed the world’s first 127-qubit processer and is expected to launch the first 1000-qubit processer in 2023.  The values of gender equality over the last century paved the values for a much more prosperous next 100 years.  

Image: Ford

​Corporate Challenge: New Innovations by partnering with other brands

Ironbound Strategy: Collaborate with other brands to create value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: Michigan based Ford Motor Company collaborated with Florida based ADT Security to create Canopy, a smart video monitoring product and service for vehicles.  Every year $7.5 Billion worth of equipment is stolen from work vehicles.  Ford’s collaboration with ADT innovated a new type of smart surveillance with an integrated app to reduce theft.  Brand collaborations can generate phenomenal innovation, when the objective of the partnership creates value for customers, employees, and society.

Image:: Dow Inc Pride Flag

​Corporate Challenge:  Avoiding groupthink culture that stifles innovation and stagnates growth.
 
Ironbound Strategy:  Powerful brands understand that team diversity is the life blood of innovation.  Top talent is attracted to companies with holistic purpose that creates value across stakeholders: employees, customers, and society. 
 
Ironbound Action:  Michigan based Dow Inc has business roots that can be traced back over a century to 1897.  The company has operations in 31 countries that specialize in plastics, industrial intermediates, coatings and silicones businesses.  Winning innovation awards has been critical to their sustainable growth strategy.  To be the most innovative company in the world, they recruit and retain a diverse team of top talent.  in 2021 and 2022 Dow Inc. was named by the HRC Foundation’s list of Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality.  Creative and talented employees are drawn to companies where their value is leveled-up.  

Image: Caterpillar Generator

​Corporate Challenge: Moving a brand towards renewable energy.

Ironbound Strategy: Investing in carbon neutral innovations creates value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: Illinois based Caterpillar created a generator that runs on 100% renewable hydrogen.  Many of their customers have 2030 carbon neutrality goals, and can now replace diesel generators to help reach their environmental sustainability goals sooner.  Helping to create carbon neutral innovations is a fabulous way of bringing positive attention to a brand.

Image: John Deere Busch Light

​Corporate Challenge: Adding joy to a brand.

Ironbound Strategy: Co-Branding can create value for customers, employees, and society, especially when it is centered on fun.

Ironbound Action:  Illinois based John Deere co-branded with AB-In Bev in spectacular fashion.  In order to create value for society, John Deere is donating all profits from the sale of beer cans emblazoned with their tractors to farmers in need.  As a valued visual brand, the green and gold cans appear celebratory, bringing pride to fans, customers and employees.  Creating a fun co-branding strategy can generate insurmountable value when it brings joy to stakeholders.

Image: Apple Store

Corporate Challenge: Getting future customers to choose your brand.

Ironbound Strategy: Mentoring is a phenomenal way to create value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: California based Apple is creating value for society by providing free mentorship programs around the world.  The company is paying digital artists, photographers, musicians, DJ’s, and designers to teach underserved youths at Apple locations.  Apple’s Creative Studios initiatives have 12-week immersive courses that teach youths how to leverage Apple’s platform and bring their hidden talents and creativity to the entire world.  Mentoring is an excellent way of creating value for society.  It also generates pride for employees, that their dedication at work helps make the world a better place.

Image: Honeywell Sustainability Report

Corporate Challenge: Growing new market spaces by co-branding with startups

Ironbound Strategy: Align your brand with startups that create value for their customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: North Carolina based Honeywell entered the building manufacturing marketspace by partnering with Nexii, an eco-friendly, near zero-waste, building panel startup.  A year ago Nexii built Starbucks’s most eco-friendly store in just 6 days, using sustainably derived concrete panels that assembled on-site like a puzzle.  Honeywell quickly moved to make a partnership with Nexii, to build their small and medium sized buildings, and help reduce Honeywell’s climate change impact.  Honeywell hopes to convince clients who use Honeywell efficiency products to convert their buildings using Nexii technology as well.  When a brand is committed to helping the environment, more of an impact can be made by teaming up with other brands on the same mission.

Image: The North Face 

​Corporate Challenge: Making a brand unquestionably cool.

Ironbound Strategy: Celebrating diversity is a phenomenal way of creating value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action:  California based The North Face has been sponsoring extreme expeditions since 1968.  The brand is committed to furthering technology and innovation for athletes who sport in extreme environments, but the brand also wants to be a successful lifestyle brand.  Over the last decade the company chose to sponsor diverse athletes to represent their brand and test futuristic equipment.  Each diversity segment reached has helped The North Face re-position itself from a niche outdoor apparel brand to a successful lifestyle brand.  The more diversity a company embraces, the more it succeeds at shattering goals.

Image: John Deere Autonomous Tractor

​Corporate Challenge: Increasing market-cap by getting into an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).

Ironbound Strategy:  Creating Extraordinary value for customers, employees, and society. makes your brand noticeable to disruptive ETF’s.

Ironbound Action: Illinois based John Deere has been making autonomous farming equipment for over 20 years.  When the company decided to create more value for society by trying to develop autonomous mining vehicles, the idea of sending John Deere equipment into space for space exploration sparked interest.  ARK’s space exploration ETF, ARKX, immediately adopted John Deere into their fund.  ETF managers are always looking for companies to invest in.  Creating value for stakeholders makes a brand get noticed by investors faster and more successfully.  

Image: The Home Depot

​​Corporate Challenge: Promoting patriotism while creating stakeholder value.

Ironbound Strategy: Using a brand to enhance the lives of veterans is a great way to create value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action:  Georgia based The Home Depot has renovated over 48,000 veteran homes, as part of an initiative to grow their brand among veterans.  In the highly competitive home improvement market space, The Home Depot attracts veterans by offering 10% discounts (to 18.5M veterans, 7% of the US Population), while donating heavily to veterans causes.  Creating value for veterans is a phenomenal way to grow pride among employees, attract new customers, and enhance patriotism in society.