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How A Credo Generated $7B Cash in 1 year

8/1/2024

Image: Johnson & Johnson

Corporate Challenge: Creating a corporate credo that manifests growth.

Ironbound Strategy: A Credo that focuses on creating value for customers, employees, and society, will guide a brand towards unparalleled success.

Ironbound Action: New Jersey based Johnson & Johnson has thrived under a corporate credo whereby every action within the brand must have positive value for the customer, and ultimately society. As J&J grew to become the $85B revenue company it is today, each CEO credits the credo for the company’s overall success. In FY23, J&J spun off their consumer health segment. Their cash on hand increased from $14.1B to $21.9B. Every dollar will be invested within the credo, helping J&J provide more positive impacts on their customers, and ultimately society. When a brand lives by a credo that creates value for stakeholders, there is no stopping the brand from perpetual growth.

“Our Credo is more than just a moral compass. We believe it’s a recipe for business success.”
- Johnson and Johnson

Generating Successful Collaborations

7/23/2024

Image: American Express

Corporate Challenge: Finding and designing corporate collaborations.

Ironbound Strategy: Successful collaborations occur when brands come together to create value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: New York based American Express invited California based Walt Disney Company to collaborate on creating a co-branded immersive fan experience that celebrated The Bear. Card members enjoyed a dining experience in Chicago that mirrored the set of Disney’s The Bear. followed by a pre-screening of new episodes. This innovative collaboration brought together Amex marketers, Disney’s CreativeWorks, the reservation app Resy, and nearby restaurants Kasama, Giant and Obelix. By constantly generating collaborations, both American Express and Disney have experienced skyrocketing brand loyalty, and higher brand valuations. Any brand can achieve higher brand loyalty and better valuations by creatively collaborating with successful brands.

* Walt Disney Company had $88B in revenue in FY23, with trailing-twelve-month revenue above $89B into FY24.

** American Express had $60B in revnue in FY23, with trailing-twelve-month revenue above $63B into FY24.

Startups Embracing Creating Value for Stakeholders

6/28/2024

Image: Allegiance Supply

Corporate Challenge: Startup growth from creating value for key stakeholders.

Ironbound Strategy: Prioritize creating value for customers, employees, and society for fast startup growth.

Ironbound Action: South Carolina based Allegiance Supply wanted to create a better quality American flag for customers. They began by creating value for their employees and society, then instantly experienced rapid growth. By using American labor and American fabrics, Allegiance has strengthened US textile supply chains. The company is also an active participant helping the Navy Seal Foundation, Folds of Honor, and the PGA’s flagship outreach programs for veterans.

* US Textile demand is expected to grow by an average of 3.1% each year, while American produced Nylon (used in Allegiance flags) is expected to grow a little faster at 3.5% per year over the next five years.

** Last year the US produced $65.8B in textiles, and exported $34.0B, the natural fiber category made up 38%.

This Major Quantum Computing Breakthrough Will Reimagine the World

5/30/2024

Image: Bing image generator prompt: Microsoft Honeywell quantum computing AI on Wall Street

Corporate Challenge:  Suppressing error rates in scaling quantum computing.

Ironbound Strategy:  Powerful brands harness the power of innovation by investing holistically in creating value for employees, customers, and society.  By working with collaborators, powerful companies strategically entrench and solidify their market positions.

Ironbound Action:  On April 3rd, 2024, Microsoft and Quantinuum ran 14,000 individual experiments without a single error using Microsoft’s qubit-virtualization system with Quantinuum’s ion-trap quantum computinghardware.  This major breakthrough unlocks the great promise of quantum computing at scale† – a gigantic leap towards rapidly solving massively complex systems.  Scaling quantum computing until now has been a challenge, with each additional qubit adding noise that creates interreferences resulting in computational errors.  The collaboration creates a groundbreaking platform that will amplify the speed and efficiency of Artificial Intelligence.

* Quantinuum raised $625 million at a $5 Billion valuation in January of 2024.

** Mircosoft 2023 Service Revenue was $147 Billion, a 20% 5-year compound growth rate

† These results signify an important transition from noisy intermediate scale quantum computing to reliable quantum computing. These results also demonstrate advanced capabilities toward large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Creating Value by Catering to Stakeholders' Ideas

4/28/2024

Image: Coach

Corporate Challenge: Securing rapid growth for the next product or service.

Ironbound Strategy: Involving customers, employees, and society to generate the next product is a great way to create create value for them and amplify growth.

Ironbound Action: New York based Coach collaborated with Gen Z to create a new brand, Coachtopia on April 20, 2023. Coach created a slack channel of stakeholders to guide what the next generation wanted to experience with Coach. The result was rapid prototyping, fully recycled materials, trackable sourcing, genderless fashion, and a re-imagined end-to-end system where customers can return products for store credit no matter how old or whatever condition so that the components can be infinitely recycled. One year later, the brand has added 217 pieces to the collection, and is growing. Brands that create value for the next generation of consumers will experience rapid growth and long term brand loyalty.

* Coach sales soared from $4.9B in 2020 to $6.6B in 2023, with earnings-per-share catapulting from ($2.34) to $3.96 in the same period.

Brands and Supply Chain Transparency

3/31/2024

Image: Jim Beam

Corporate Challenge: Differentiating your brand along the supply chain.

Ironbound Strategy: Choosing partners with good values along your brand's supply chain resonates positively with customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: Kentucky based Jim Beam, along with their New York based parent company Beam Suntory, have positioned themselves as the ethical set of brands among their competitors. With guidance from the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010, Jim Beam has been changing supply chain partners based on the quality of employee treatment along their supply chain, from raw materials to delivery on store shelves. Younger consumers have already pivoted towards choosing brands that create value for employees. Brands that indicate to young consumers that they care about employees along their supply chains will benefit greatly, and can expect exponential growth.

* “Beam Suntory strives to build healthy, lasting relationships with all its business partners”, page 14 of the Beam Suntory Code of Conduct and Ethics.

** Beam Suntory’s year-over-year growth has increased 7% in 2023, 10.5% in 2022, and 11% in 2021.

Doubling Down on Core Values When DEI is Under Attack

2/1/2024

Image: Bing AI Image generator. Prompt: Wells Fargo golden carriage with intricate design pulled by 4 horses, racing across the golden gate bridge in San Francisco, celebrated and cheered on by crowds of women and men from diverse backgrounds.

Corporate Challenge:  Justifying diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) expenses.

Ironbound Strategy:  Powerful brands harness the power of creating holistic value across employees, customers, and society.  Winning market share in a competitive environment requires relentless innovation, that is a product of an environment where diversity of ideas are freely allowed to flourish.

Ironbound Action:  San Francisco based Wells Fargo & Company, founded in 1929, has been helping clients succeed financially for almost a century.  Their success is rooted in core values that focuses on what’s right for the customers, people as competitive advantage; ethics; diversity and inclusion; and leadership.  During fiscal year 2023, the company published its second DEI report, hired their first Chief Accessibility Officer, increased diverse representation, expanded career development and mobility, and continued their commitment to spend with diverse suppliers.  Stakeholder driven businesses understand that competitive organizations win and gain market share by creating an environment where everyone has a fair shot at success.

* In 2023, Revenue was $82.5 Billion, up 11% from 2022, diluted Earnings-per-share was $4.83, up 48% from 2022, and Return on Equity (ROE) was 11%, up from 7.8% in 2022.

** Corporate and Investment Bank revenue grew 26% from 2022 expanding investment banking and trading market shares.

Brand Success from Focusing on Mental Health

1/18/2024

Image: Nike

Corporate Challenge: Positively influencing the home life of employees.

Ironbound Strategy: Providing mental healthcare for family members of employees is a unique way to create value for employees and society, while improving the customer experience.

Ironbound Action: Oregon based Nike Inc has been creating value for their employees since 1971. Nike employees around the world, and their family members, are given free and confidential mental healthcare through a third-party provider. For Nike, supporting employees to achieve personal and family balance is a high priority. Brands that invest in the mental health of their employees, can discover limitless returns from their optimized workforce, and develop an even more powerful brand.

* In addition to free mental healthcare for employees and their family members, all Nike employees are also provided with free subscriptions to the Headspace meditation app.

** Nike revenues have been steadily increasing from $37.4B in 2020, to $44.5B in 2021, to $46.7B in 2022, and $51.2B in 2023.

Creating Value Across Media Platforms

12/6/2023

Image: Walmart movie: Add to Heart

Corporate Challenge: Thinking outside-the-box on a media strategy.

Ironbound Strategy: Integrating products and services into a movie is an intriguing and effective method of creating value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: Arkansas based Walmart has been creating value for stakeholders since 1962. In order to attract the next generation of consumers, Walmart has been employing a TikTok strategy. For the holiday season, the company produced a feature length Holiday Movie where all characters wear clothes purchasable from Walmart.com. The company is offering the Holiday movie for free on TikTok. Engaging future customers with exciting media content is a great way to create value for stakeholders, while making the brand even more powerful.

* Walmart's revenue has been increasing from $559B in 2020, to $572B in 2021, to $611B in 2022. Trailing twelve month revenues for 2023 are $638B.

Benefitting from Long Term Value Creation

11/30/2023

Image: Budweiser

Corporate Challenge: Mitigating the impact of a brand crisis.

Ironbound Strategy: A long history of creating value for customers, employees, and society mitigates the effects of a brand crisis.

Ironbound Action: Missouri based Budweiser has been creating value for American families for nearly 150 years. When a natural disaster strikes, the company quickly converts their production line to can drinking water for immediate donation. The company has also donated more than $1 Billion to American farmers. The company employs more veterans than any other American beverage producer. In early 2023, Budweiser sales dropped for supporting something “woke”, but in latter 2023 Nevada based UFC generated a significant sponsorship deal based solely on the value Budweiser had been creating for society. A history of creating value for society can help mitigate effects when a brand is put in a crisis.

* AB InBev, the parent company of Budweiser, saw revenue increase from $46.8B in 2020, to $54.3B in 2021, to $57.7B in 2022. Trailing twelve month 2023 revenues are $59B.

** TKO, the parent company of UFC, saw revenues increase from $0.8B in 2020, to $1.0B in 2021, to $1.1B in 2022. Trailing twelve month 2023 revenues are $1.3B.