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High Visibility
By Michael Alan Hamlin
October 27, 2003
Increased competition for opportunities - jobs, consulting
assignments, advisory retainers and the like - means that corporations,
products, and services aren't the only entities that can benefit
from strong brands. People can - and do - too. And increasingly,
tenacious professionals determined to beat out the competition are
realizing that strong personal brands can make the difference between
respectable success, and great accomplishment.
Or at least that was my impression from the second round of a two-part
seminar I run twice a year called High Visibility. The seminar is
based on research I am doing for a new edition of the book, High
Visibility. The original volume was written by Kellogg School of
Management legends Philip Kotler, Irving Rein, and Martin Stoller.
This latest edition will include updates and examples from Asia
and other parts of the world.
The fist part of the seminar deals with identifying and marketing
a professional image, and the second part focuses on implementing
and sustaining a personal branding strategy. The seminars and the
book are premised on the notion that visibility and the development
of strong personal brands are an important thing. And so the discussion
quite naturally opens with an examination of why the development
of a strong personal brand pays off in very tangible and rewarding
ways.
The most obvious payoff is opportunity. Because most people are
invisible, they are non-players when it comes to opportunity. If
a person isn't on the radar screen for, say, a promotion to vice
president, then he or she never gets considered for the opening.
By contrast, the most visible individual may have the clearest shot,
all other things - track record, education, backers - being roughly
equal. For example, when Chin Chin Gutierrez made the front cover
of Time magazine earlier this year, her charitable work shot to
the top of the potential donor list for many organizations. The
visibility not only made her a player, it made her work credible
and appreciated.
Financial rewards are another reason visibility counts. Real Madrid
paid £25 million to Manchester United to bring football sensation
David Beckham to Spain. The visibility the Spanish club expects
to achieve as a result of Beckham's presence on the team is intended
to provide a handsome return on that investment. Beckham himself
has carefully cultivated his image. Together with his wife, former
Spice Girl Victoria Adams, Beckham made more money last year than
the Queen of England. There are other great football players married
to beautiful women, but the Beckhams stand out, with terrific results.
Visibility is also important because human nature demands it. We
love to love and love to hate, as our recent episode with Kris Aquino
and her latest live-in partner, Parañaque mayor Joey Marquez
demonstrated. If we didn't have our Ms. Aquinos and Mr. Marquez's,
we'd have to invent them. In fact, we do. So if you can't be an
object of desire and affection, there are other alternatives that
will still get you plenty of attention. Remember, the only bad press
is no press at all.
And if you think that being under the radar screen is a comfortable
place to be, then consider that there's little future in commoditization,
whether you're dealing with a product or a person. Generics failed.
Teams without leaders become committees. Companies without visible
CEOs are boring, and so are countries with leaders who lack charisma.
And who ever heard of an enduring movie star who was invisible?
People and causes also need advocates, and that's another reason
why visibility is important. U.S. MBA schools actively recruit star
faculty whose research and teaching affect the way business is done.
Universities flaunt their Nobel Price winners, and media organizations
point with great pride to editors and journalists who win Pulitzer
Prizes. Even the religious gather around celebrity evangelists,
like our own Brother Mike Velarde.
So you may be good, and you may even be the best at what you do.
But if you don't communicate, for whatever reason - shyness, disdain
for publicity, your boss's inferiority complex, or the Filipino's
natural reserve, for instance - you're not going to achieve your
potential. Sure, there are risks to high visibility, but the risk
of not being visible is even greater for most. If there's risk both
ways, why not take a chance then, and let people know what you're
capable of?
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing
director of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on
Asian economies and companies. His latest book is Marketing Asian
Places, of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001). Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).
Copyright © 2003 Michael Alan
Hamlin. All Rights Reserved.
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