Notes from the field

Once institutions understand that brand, marketing, and communications need unified governance, the next question is what that should look like. Part 3 breaks down how to move the conversation from preferences and personalities to evidence, benchmarking, decision rights, and the leadership questions that reveal whether your structure is built for clarity — or just inherited complexity.

The org chart is never just the org chart. Higher ed institutions can say brand is strategic and marketing is essential, but without clear authority, access, and decision rights, the strategy is mostly decorative. This second post in the series looks at centralization, decentralization, hybrid models, and why goodwill alone cannot carry the weight of brand governance.