From Whence We Came
Our founder, Craig Wilson, is on a mission to change the face of business
He wrote Patagonia’s 5-Year strategic plan in the early 2000’s that led to their leap to becoming a $1B brand
He’s penned business strategies for iconic brands like Patagonia, but also for goop, Nature Made, Seventh Generation, Solo Stove, The Office of Angela Scott, and many more
He’s consulted for 100+ unique brands across a wide range of categories, including Beauty, Skincare, Outdoor, Food, Wellness, Healthcare, Fashion, Apparel, Tech, Sustainability, Yoga, and Fitness
He’s founded and led 3 of his own businesses, sold one, failed at one, and still owns one
He’s led startups
He’s led turnarounds
He’s had the luxury of looking deeply into little businesses and big ones
He’s seen what works and what doesn’t
He’s studied the subject of winning
He coached 3 teams to NCAA National Championships
He’s coached Olympic athletes
He’s interviewed, studied, listened to and personally learned from countless founders, many groundbreaking, iconic people like Yvon Chouinard, Jake Burton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scott Kerslake, Beaver Theodosakis, and Jeffrey Hollander
He’s interviewed thousands of customers across the spectrum of businesses from small startups to thriving long standing brands
For the past 20 years he’s written on the subject of how iconic brands become iconic
He published the seminal work on the subject in 2015 winning “best marketing book of the year,” and touted as “the one book you need to read” at Earnst and Young’s annual summit
He’s studied the phenomenon of following and how particular brands create rabid fan bases, in turn making them more successful and more profitable
And he’s studied the math that predicts success
He’s delved into customer behavior data in every circumstance imaginable
He has defined what customer loyalty looks like and the numbers that matter
He has benchmarked all of it and created a scoring system that measures the efficiency of creating long-term repeat buying habits
He has created, built, and patented a software application that provides the means to measure the value of your brand in the eyes of your consumer, predicting future growth and profitability
With all of that experience winning, losing, seeing the good, the bad, and the indifferent, he has learned and identified the three things that matter most:
One. The biggest mistake business leaders make is optimizing their brand/consumer environment to transactions instead of relationships
Two. The most important thing to know is why your customer chooses your brand versus all the others (hint… it’s not because you’re better than everyone else at anything)
Three. The one number you need to know is not your Net Promoter Score, it’s the efficiency of creating long-term repeat buying habits among your existing customers
And, he has created a way to optimize all three
And, you can access all of it here
His goal is to supplant the NPS with a true measurement of loyal customer behavior and he intends for this measurement to be the most referenced single metric used in business management
And, his ultimate mission is to change the face of business by replacing the manipulative, self-serving marketing methods at play today with meaningful businesses in service to people, making for an empathic civilization
Read about his mission: Why I Started Compass + Nail