Barack Obama, Chief Brand Officer

If you seek inspiration from a master of Branding execution, look not to the C-Suite, but to the White House. Better than any business leader alive, U.S. President Barack Obama is in the process of demonstrating that, to return an organization to living the values that made it great, the CEO must be the CBO — the Chief Brand Officer.

Obama knows that a Brand is what people think of you™ — that stakeholders get to decide what your Brand is, not you. And that delivering the Brand you desire is a matter of the CEO taking ultimate responsibility for its delivery at every touchpoint.

In the corporate world, the CBO's constant guide to consistency is a Brand Foundation, made up of values and other defining elements. On the path to restoring how the American Brand is perceived at home and around the world, Obama repeatedly coaches government employees and other stakeholders on the values embodied in his Brand Foundation: the Constitution of the United States.

On the rule of law:
"I have put an end to the interrogation techniques...because I believe that our nation is stronger and more secure when we deploy the full measure of both our power and the power of our values — including the rule of law."

On religious freedom:
"Freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion...That's why the United States government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab and to punish those who would deny it."

On equal protection of the law:
"We seek an America in which no one feels the pain of discrimination based on who you are or who you love."

What does the Brand Coach coach?

Barack Obama cannot rehabilitate the American Brand all by himself. He must persuade the 15 million people on the federal payroll to deliver, at every touchpoint, the Brand he envisions for the United States. He is doing so by relating — again and again — important issues, decisions and new initiatives to the values embodied in the country's timeless Brand Foundation. CEOs everywhere could do no better than to emulate the American Brander-in-Chief.