Image:Ford Driverless Vehicle

​Corporate Challenge: Forming successful partnerships.

Ironbound Strategy: Innovation success stems from creating value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: Michigan based Ford Motor Company partnered with Bosch and Bedrock to innovate. Ford provided driverless cars, Bosch provided dishwasher sensors, and Bedrock hosted parking garages where sensors were mounted to guide cars into parking spots. After months of trial-and-error, the 3 brands announced “Driverless Valet” which yields 20% more vehicle capacity in parking garages.  Unlikely brand partnerships yield high success when the goal of innovation is to create value for stakeholders.

Image: Driverless John Deere Tractor

​Corporate Challenge: Deciding to automate.

Ironbound Strategy: For guaranteed success, invest in automation when its purpose is to create value for customers, employees, or society.

Ironbound Action: Illinois based John Deere pioneered tractor automation 20-years ago, by designing a tractor that could drive itself in a straight line.  Today, Caterpillar has 350 fully-autonomous ‘earth movers’ running 24/7 at mines around the world.  Autonomous tractors are not designed to replace operators, instead operators engage with the automated machines nearby, in safety and comfort.  When the purpose of automation is to create value for stakeholders, it builds more excitement and has higher adoption rates.

Image: Ford Proud to Honor Initiative

​Corporate Challenge: Bringing ‘meaning’ to your brand, and creating excitement for your employees. 

Ironbound Strategy: Helping non-profits has a unique effect of also creating value for your own customers and employees.

Ironbound Action: Michigan based Ford Motor Company created an online store to sell genuine Ford merchandise in military colors and insignia, with all proceeds going to veterans organizations.  Ford leveraged its brand to grow awareness of veterans issues while growing its own brand awareness in the military enthusiasts segment.  This strategy could easily be employed by any company.  By bringing awareness to impact organizations, brands can create excitement with their employees and customers while simultaneously creating extraordinary value for society.

Image: Salesforce Ohana Floor

​Corporate Challenge: Giving away your prized assets to create value for society, and in turn exponentially grow your brand.

Ironbound Strategy: Look within your assets for new and creative ways to create value for your customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: California based Salesforce decided to give away the top floor of their skyscrapers to nearby community organizations.  Known as the Ohana Floor (Hawaiian for Family) the top floor of Salesforce buildings are communal spaces designed for employees to spend non-working time together and enjoy the majestic views.  During evenings and weekends, Salesforce donates the floor space to all local community groups.  By giving away their top asset, Salesforce strengthened their brand by gaining free publicity within their communities.  This clever sharing of resources can be replicated by any brands that are looking for unique ways of empowering their brand image while creating value for society.

Image: Visa Innovation

Corporate Challenge:  Modernizing the C-Suite to be more inclusive and diverse.
 
Ironbound Strategy: Powerful brands thrive by responding quickly to market changes with new and innovative solutions. Being innovative is the outcome of a top down culture that develops a strong internal pipeline of creative leaders.  Top talent and future executives choose to stay with organizations that value all employees, focus on creating the best value for customers, and an overall meaningful mission to better society. 
 
Ironbound Action:  Visa Inc, founded 1958 in Fresno California, is one of the world’s most trusted brands.  In an effort to build a better world, Visa is modernizing the 21stcentury of businesses to include greater equality.  In their 2019 annual financial report, Visa was one of the first publicly traded companies to disclose diversity and inclusivity as part of their internal recruitment practices.  To help promote more women in leadership, they launched the She’s Next initiative in 2019 toincrease female entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment in society.  Powerful brands are stakeholder capitalists – building a pipeline of innovative leaders by creating holistic value for employees, customers, and society.

Image: Snapchat In-App Voter Registration

​Corporate Challenge: Brands creating value for society by advancing democracy.

Ironbound Strategy: Finding creative ways to support and grow democracy can be a great way to create value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: California based Snapchat registered 450,000 voters in 2018 during an in-app pilot project.  For the 2020 elections, Snapchat has rolled out their digital voter registration program nationwide.  Snapchat partnered with both partisan and non-partisan organizations to create candidate content, voter guides, e-day checklists, and ballot information to make it easier to vote.  Finding novel ways to leverage your brand for the promotion of democracy is a great way to create value for society.  In the digital age, participating in this type of value creation is easier than it has ever been.

Image: Ralph Lauren Bitmoji on Snapchat

​Corporate Challenge: Increasing sales among millennials.

Ironbound Strategy: Using emerging technologies can reinforce brand prowess and help create value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: New York based Ralph Lauren, known for timeless style, has been trying to appeal to millennials in recent years.  The brand has created value for employees by emphasizing diversity and inclusion, while creating value for society by lowering carbon emissions and becoming better water stewards for the planet.  One novel way of creating value for customers has been to partner with Snapchat to offer Ralph Lauren clothing for Bitmoji’s.  Ralph Lauren is the first fashion brand to create a clothing line that is entirely digital. Investing in the digital ecosystem of Snapchat is a cost-effective way of building brand relationships with millennials.  Building powerful relationships with stakeholders is a great way to assure sustainable and exciting growth.

Image: Here + Now by Justin Bieber

​Corporate Challenge: A niche product company wants to break through to the mainstream.

Ironbound Strategy: Choosing a brand ambassador to create value for your brand’s customers, employees, and society can help launch into the market spaces where the brand ambassadors have influence.

Ironbound Action: Portland Oregon based Schmidt’s Naturals began creating chemical-free personal products in a house kitchen in 2010.  Between 2015 and 2018 the company tripled in size and scale, reaching customers from coast-to-coast.  Unilever purchased an ownership stake and created a partnership with Jane Goodall to design a product, it tripled sales.  In 2019, Justin Bieber became Schmidt’s next brand ambassador.  His popularity launched Schmidt’s entire product lineup into every mainstream cosmetics retail store globally.  Choosing Justin Bieber helped Schmidt’s create a larger impact on expanding the all-natural product segment from a niche preference into the mainstream must-have product.  

Image: Intel Computer Chip

​Corporate Challenge:  Being the first pick and preferred workplace by top talent. 
 
Ironbound Strategy:  Creative and diligent people are attracted to workplaces with values that align with their own personal beliefs.  Powerful brands attract and retain top talent by holistically creating value for employees, customers, and society.  
 
Ironbound Action:  Intel Corporation*, founded 1968 in California, is the world leader in computing technologies and breakthroughs.  They continue to lead† the market while nurturing a diverse workplace that enables everyone to equally develop and progress in their careers.  This diversity initiative‡ was furthered in 2019 with the introduction of the “Intel Rule”.  Beginning 2021, Intel “will not retain or use outside law firms in the U.S. that are average or below average on diversity for their equity partners. We are applying a similar rule to firms used by our tax department, including non-legal firms”.  Intel continues to be a best-case example of how effectively executing world changing ideas requires strategic value creating investments across stakeholders. 

Image: Renovated Adobe HQ Artistic Space 

​Corporate Challenge: Using paint colors to create employee value.

Ironbound Strategy: Sometimes creating value for customers, employees, and society is as simple as choosing what color to paint the walls.

Ironbound Action: California based Adobe has been creating value for employees by making conscious efforts in the colors chosen for spaces in their San Jose office building.  Entrances were deliberately painted with yellow to energize employees when they arrive.  Orange was selected for communal spaces to promote the feeling of community.  Blue was chosen for hallways leading to meeting rooms to destress and calm.  Within meeting rooms are greenery to liven the room and provide natural uplifting emotions.  Creating value for employees does not have to cost a lot.  In the case of Adobe, the simplest action of painting offices can be deliberate and intentional methods of enhancing employee value.