Strategy and performance

Clarity is that elusive leadership attribute that makes behaviours and brands desirable and aspirational

Brands lead by delivering consistency of value in an inconsistent world. If you are looking for consistency in searching for information, you cannot look beyond Google. If you are looking at consistency of innovative design and customer experience in mobile devices, you would instantly think of Apple. In case you are looking for consistency in online retail experience, Amazon would still be your best bet.

Consistency in brand performance comes from commitment to three deeply help values that define the deep structure of customer experience. These values are: Purpose, performance, possibility.

A brand that wishes to succeed in India has to integrate its growth path with the collective purpose and the cultural aspiration in India. HDFC Bank was one of India's top three brands this year. HDFC Bank started operations in 1995 with its mission of becoming a world class bank in India. It did so by providing strategic consistency in product quality and service excellence. The bank responded to a deeply held value system that is characteristically Indian in its nuances. HDFC grew through selective lending, diversified exposure and focus on low-cost savings deposits. Unlike many other banks HDFC consistently kept away from risk-prone and outlandish products and was conservative about who it would lend money to. Contrast this with the strategic fog that led to the demise of the Kingfisher Airlines brand. Kingfisher Airlines lost its way and its brand integrity by mindless acquisitions and its flamboyant high risk ventures.

Whatever is good for India is good for an Indian bank. This was the path that purpose driven leadership of State Bank of India has followed. The State Bank emerged as one of the top brands of India in 2015. SBI's strategic approach to mobile banking in a country where mobile is fast becoming a significant force in retail banking was one critical success factor. An estimated 12.5 million customers transacted through the SBI's mobile platform in 2014, compared with 8.57 million the previous year.

Strategy clarity is important for brand performance. Clarity is that elusive, exclusive leadership attribute that makes behaviours and brands so specifically desirable and aspirational. Brands have to perform consistently and clearly in the market place. They have to deliver value based on implicit and explicit promises they make. The Tata Group has held on its core values of trust and authenticity that make it India's most valuable brand. Remember the widely advertised Tata Steel campaign, We also make Steel? What did that tell us about the Tata Group? It told us that Tatas are clear about what they do well as well as what they do not do well. As long as the Tatas remain alert and agile to what their consumers expect at every touch point, they will continue to lead in the years to come.

Finally, great brands lead by evoking possibilities. A recent research study at Harvard University says, it is possible that India will grow at 7 per cent annually until 2024, while neighbouring China's economy will stumble to a growth rate of just 4.2 per cent. What will account for the possibility of sustaining India's growth story? If you look at Brand India in 2015, you would recognise that India has done well on two of the three commitments: purpose and possibility. In terms of performance there is still a lot to be desired. India is currently rated the seventh most valuable national brand behind France. The top three national brands continue to be USA, China and Germany. We moved just one notch above our current position last year. In 2014 we aspired for a political leadership with a difference. Now, by the end of 2015, it seems that a leadership of differences rather one that can make a difference is threatening to tarnish brand India. A paralysed parliament devoid of purpose is thwarting performance and diminishing possibility of our growing dream. A high performing Brand India has to hold onto the dream of a poverty and pollution free nation even as its scripts its unique, equitable and sustainable growth story. The dream still lingers. I wonder when the dreamers will show up.

Debashis Chatterjee is former director of IIM-Kozhikode and currently professor, IIM-Lucknow