Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time? The most annoying question at a job interview might very well be the most important when it comes to your brand. Because branding is an essential part of the business transformation process and needs to be anchored in a long-term approach.

Annual budgets, sales, KPIs, year-end presentations, bonuses... More often than not, the marketing dynamic dictates the agenda for communications departments, losing sight of the longer-term strategic horizon. The famous 5-year question is the ideal opportunity to break out of this circle of short-term thinking and start imagining the brand's future beyond its direct commercial objectives, setting an important milestone to help define the brand's ambition and the organisation's intrinsic motivation. But why stop there? A 10-year horizon would even be more relevant because it takes the focus away from reality and day-to-day struggles and moves it into the domain of real holistic vision.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time? The most annoying question at a job interview might very well be the most important when it comes to your brand. Because branding is an essential part of the business transformation process and needs to be anchored in a long-term approach.

"The marketing dynamic dictates the agenda for communications departments, losing sight of the longer-term strategic horizon"

Embracing the horizon

This vision should not be meant as a tangible point in the future, but as a destination, as a journey that can take different forms, depending on the context. A growing number of major brands are abandoning the old "all or nothing" strategy in favour of an approach based on multiple scenarios. Ikea is one of them. The Swedish furniture giant has recently been faced with a number of challenges (transport costs, soaring material prices, pandemics, etc.) which have led the company to replace specific annual targets with a set of possible outcomes, giving it more scope to adapt to different circumstances. A lesson in agility in the age of VUCA, the leadership theory defined in the 1980s by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus.

Crisis? What crisis?

The concept of antifragility, theorized by the author and statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who has been advocating new perspectives on risk management over twenty years, is particularly relevant in this context. “Anything that has more upside than downside from random events (or certain shocks) is anti-fragile; the reverse is fragile”, writes Taleb. In the face of crisis, brands can develop a form of resistance, remaining robust in the face of adversity. But brands that can use the crisis to develop and turn the pressure to their advantage become anti-fragile. To achieve this, we need to accept a paradox: we can't predict short-term results, so let's think long-term and build a brand that is sustainable. Looking ahead and embracing the process of constant business transformation is the best way to establish a strong brand identity and maintain it. So, where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?