Game Changing Strategy

The products and platforms produced by leading companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon either did not exist in their current form in 2009 or were in their infancy. It seems extraordinary given their saturation in our lifestyle today, but the first iPhone was only introduced to the market in 2007.

It turns out there is a formula for determining the value of global brands. In Workshops I have run over the years, it always produces great debate and frivolity as people try and guess the brand ranking for that year.

According to http://ed.gr/dx2ue, in 2009,at the time of the Harvard Business Review article, Google had emerged and was the most valued brand at $100,039. The top five was:

Google ($100,039 m);

Microsoft ($76,249 m);

Coca Cola ($67,625 m);

IBM ($66,622 m); and

McDonald's ($66,575 m).

At this time, Apple sat in sixth place ($63,113m). To truly demonstrate how much things have changed since 2009, a cigarette company rounded out the top ten.

At the end of 2021, the top ten is dominated by tech companies and online retailers. McDonald's at ninth ($154,921 m) is the only food company in the top ten, with Coca Cola having dropped to 16th place.

So, you can play along at home, rounding out the top five at the end of 2021 were:

Amazon ($683,852 m);

Apple ($611,997 m);

Google ($457,998 m);

Microsoft ($410,271 m); and

Tencent (a Chinese IT and Telecommunications company brand valued at $240,931 m)

Interestingly, the brand value that saw you in first place in 2009 will see you come in at 14th today (AT&T $100,943 m).

The top five is dominated by companies that have revolutionised their industry and introduced game-changing technologies, ideas and ways of working that have infiltrated every aspect of our lives and lifestyles.

It can be difficult to translate the strategic lessons, theories, initiatives, and concepts applicable to an S&P 500 company to the much less resourced entrepreneurial business striving towards a scalable business model. However, with the right tools and the deliberate decision to do things differently, entrepreneurs can break the cycle of overwhelm to energised and back to overwhelm that so typifies the entrepreneurial journey and, in doing so, crash through the entrepreneurial ceiling to a scalable, sustainable business.