09-06-2025
How High Concepts Can Guide Culture, Strategy, And Tactics
Complete Artists - Walnut Hill School of The Arts
Cultural, strategic, and tactical leadership nest. The most effective CEOs leverage simple statements of who the organization is and what it stands for – high concepts – to guide how everyone thinks and acts culturally, strategically and tactically.
Two high concepts stopped me in my tracks last week with their simplicity and elegance. A colleague told me how the CEO of Loro Piana 'cherishes the fabric,' and the headmaster of The Walnut Hill School for The Arts told me his school's focus was on creating 'complete artists.' His comment reminded me that the headmaster of my elementary school, St. Bernard's, once said it was a 'school of words.'
The power of each of these is in the choices they make.
On Damien Bertrand's watch as CEO, Loro Piana has strengthened its hands-on, sensory connection to materials – 'from sheep to store,' its insistence on uncompromising quality, putting product excellence at the heart of its brand identity. Bertrand says he can tell Loro Piana cashmere in the dark.
What Loro Piana does not do is invest in marketing spectacle or leveraging celebrities. At one point a different company, Elizabeth Arden, sold Brittany Spears perfume. Every dollar they invested in marketing it, built the Brittany Spears brand, not theirs. Loro Piana doesn't do that. They invest in product and client experience.
On Eric Barber's watch, Walnut Hill continues to be one of the pre-eminent schools for the arts. Barber told me about the important of developing complete artists. Yes, Walnut Hill students focus on their art of choice whether its dance, music, theater, visual art, writing, or film & media. They learn, experiment, practice, exhibit, and perform. And they learn about other subjects and the world around them. Barber's not interested in developing artistic automatons. He wants his students to 'think deeply, question vigorously' in order for them 'to be the best at what (they) do while caring for the world around (them.)'
Decades ago, St. Bernard's School's headmaster Stuart Johnson said that St. Bernard's was a school of words. He went on to say that the school would, of course, teach science and math and other subjects. But they loved words. They read words. They wrote words. They performed words.
These leaders stand for something: for the fabric, for the artist, for the words. You can agree with them or disagree with them. But you must respect their choices and clarity.
And they stand for someone: for the client, for the student. Just like prosecutors stand for the victims, defense attorneys stand for the accused, art restorers stand for the painting, others stand for consumers or for future generations.
Net, be clear on what you stand for and whom you stand for.
Start with the culture. As discussed before, your culture is the only sustainable advantage and the one thing you cannot ever delegate as CEO. Get clear on the Behaviors, Relationships, Attitudes, Values, and Environment (BRAVE) that make up your culture. Recruit people whose individual preference fit with your current culture and evolve in the ways you choose because culture is the collective character of the individuals in an organization.
The most compelling high concepts define your purpose and uniqueness, clarify where you fit in the context of the world around you, anchor values and beliefs, frame choices, inform how people relate to each other and behave – the components of your culture.
The first choice any organization has to make is about its core focus: design, production, distribution/delivery, or service. Your high concept helps refine that choice. For:
Your high concept flows from your culture and helps refine your overall focus choice – guiding all your strategic choices.
When it comes to tactics, you need to empower your tactical leaders to adjust their deployment of resources in responses to their ever-changing situation. They need to do that within the bounds of the organization's strategies and culture. A compelling high concept makes it easier for them to do that as a short-hand trigger for all the cultural and strategic choices it represents.
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