Is your marketing department seen as a cost centre or as a strategic growth driver? In this episode of Beyond the Result, host Nathan K. Walters challenges executive leaders to rethink marketing’s true potential. Drawing on Gartner insights revealing that nearly half of marketing leaders struggle to demonstrate their function’s value, we uncover why modern marketing isn’t just about brand aesthetics – it’s about influencing direction, driving growth, and becoming the strategy itself.

Join us as we unpack five essentials for transforming marketing into a strategic powerhouse:

• Marketing as a Growth Engine – Position marketing as an investment centre with P&L accountability, fuelling demand generation, customer acquisition, and brand equity growth.
• Data and Technology as Core Assets – Embed data and AI into every decision, shifting from reactive reporting to proactive performance.
• Leadership and Talent Mastery – Build leadership bench strength that combines strategic vision with execution, market insights, and digital fluency.
• Culture as an Enabler – Foster a culture of accountability, curiosity, courage, and psychological safety to unlock creativity and bold thinking.
• Strong Partnerships and Ecosystem Excellence – Leverage world-class partners to amplify innovation, navigate complexity, and accelerate growth.

Marketing today demands integration with product, finance, and technology teams to create impact that goes far beyond awareness. When empowered by data, rooted in a strong culture, and aligned across your business, marketing becomes the engine that drives growth, connection, and long-term value creation.

🎧 Listen now to discover how to unlock the full strategic potential of marketing within your organization.

In today’s competitive landscape, brand isn’t just a story or a feeling. It’s a strategic lever for growth, a competitive asset, and a reflection of how well strategy, creativity, and execution come together. Yet, many organizations struggle to quantify brand equity and its impact on results – leading to missed opportunities and under-leveraged investments.

In this episode, host Nathan K. Walters demystifies brand valuation, separating fact from fiction to reveal what it truly means to put a financial value on your brand. You’ll gain practical insights into methodologies used by leading firms, including:

• Market Comparison Method: How competitor benchmarks drive valuations in M&A.
• Cost-Based Analysis Method: The strengths and limits of valuing historical brand-building costs.
• Royalty Relief Method: Why this legal and tax-oriented approach is often used for global brands.
• Incremental Cash Flow Method (Brand Contribution Analysis): Measuring how brand attributes directly impact revenue and future growth.

We’ll unpack real-world case studies:

✅ Johnson & Johnson’s acquisition of Neutrogena – a masterclass in projecting incremental cash flows and using market comparables to guide valuation decisions.
❌ VF Corporation’s costly misstep with Supreme, overestimating future royalties and growth assumptions, leading to a $600 million write-down.

If you’re an executive or marketing leader seeking to elevate your strategic impact, this episode will equip you to:

✔️ Treat brand as a tangible financial asset
✔️ Measure and report brand value credibly
✔️ Align brand strategy with business objectives to drive measurable growth

Listen in to ensure your brand story is not just compelling – but quantifiably valuable. Beyond the Result brings you the insights to lead with confidence, craft winning strategies, and deliver results that show up on the balance sheet.

In this episode of Beyond the Result, transformational executive leader Nathan K. Walters challenges conventional thinking about strategic planning. In a business landscape shaped by volatility, rapid change, and shifting priorities, many leaders are asking: Is strategic planning still a valuable exercise—or has it become obsolete?

While it doesn’t show up on a balance sheet, strategic planning is a major investment of time, energy, and talent. The planning horizon varies by industry—1 to 5 years in retail, 10 to 30 years in energy—but the challenge is the same: how do you create a roadmap when the terrain keeps shifting?

Drawing on years of leadership experience and an MBA specialization in strategic management, Nathan explores why some organizations thrive with clear strategic direction while others struggle to stay aligned. He outlines what separates high-performing teams: a deep understanding of the full planning cycle, cross-functional coordination, and the discipline to revisit and refine strategy in real time.

Discover:

• Why strategic planning is a “team sport” and not just an executive task
• How to treat your strategy as a living document, not a one-time event
• The emerging use of agile principles in long-term planning
• What it takes to stay aligned in the face of disruption

Whether you're leading a startup or steering a multinational, this episode will help you assess whether your organization is driving toward strategy—or drifting with momentum.