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The credit card giant Capital One is known for its pioneering use of marketing analytics and big data, so it might be surprising to read about its recent realization: that too much reliance on those tools had left it without a meaningful brand. The authors explain how the number one job of the CMO--to strike the right balance between promotions that goose revenue in the short term and brand-building campaigns that support healthy margins in the long term--has become dramatically harder in the age of data-driven targeting. Capital One got its own wake-up call when its CEO, Rich Fairbank, commissioned a brand equity study. The research revealed that Capital One was overwhelmingly known by consumers for just one attribute: "They send me lots of mail." Efforts to strengthen the brand and give Capital One a stronger foundation for future growth yielded five lessons--all learned and refined through conversations with other marketing executives, including Tony Pace, of Subway; Mark Addicks, of General Mills; Tariq Shaukat, of Caesars Entertainment; Russell Weiner, of Domino's; and Jim Speros, of Fidelity, as they dealt with the same tension in their very different organizations.

No one is in a better position to get an incoming CEO up to speed than his or her predecessor, whose insights and accumulated wisdom are uniquely valuable during the transition and even beyond. The outgoing leader can provide infor-mation about the expectations of high-ranking employees; short-term opportunities ripe for harvesting; how the board and others perceive the newcomer's reputation or personal brand; the strengths and foibles of internal allies and external partners; organizational bench strength; and the wisdom that comes from experience well-reflected upon. Organizations and their shareholders don't want intellectual capital like this to simply evaporate, which is why nearly every multinational corporation makes ongoing consultation a requirement in severance contracts and pays handsomely for it. Nevertheless, candid, in-depth discussions between outgoing and incoming CEOs rarely take place. Friel, formerly the chairman and CEO of Heidrick & Struggles, and Duboff, the CEO and a cofounder of HawkPartners, conducted numerous interviews with people who had been through at least one CEO transition to find out why those discussions don't happen as a matter of course and how best to draw on the knowledge of a departing leader. They clearly outline the steps that organizations can take, such as making golden parachutes contingent on debriefing conversations, having HR arrange the meetings to dispel any awkwardness, and creating a thorough agenda. And they advise the two executives to meet as equals, share the "first 90 days plan," and speak consistently about the past and future - to the media as well as to stakeholders. Much of an outgoing CEO's knowledge will be lost unless a conscious effort is made to capture it. As the average tenure of chief executives shrinks, it becomes increasingly imperative that they get off to a strong start.

The Delphi technique involves recruiting panels of experts from a variety of fields and asking them to iteratively evaluate predictions about the future of, say, an emerging innovation until they reach consensus. Shaping the strongest predictions into several possible scenarios prepares managers to act quickly when one begins to unfold.