A recent New York Times/Wirecutter piece about brands that let us down was really interesting and got me thinking.
In true Wirecutter style, dogged testers put their favorite brands through rigorous testing. Talenti gelato no longer tasted like the product one longtime customer remembered. Marc Jacobs Beauty returned after five years looking almost nothing like the sophisticated brand its customers had known. Kerrygold butter, meanwhile, has remained reassuringly Kerrygold.
These may be consumer products, but the underlying issue is relevant to almost every organization I know.
Every organization has a brand, whether it uses the word or not. That brand is an institutional asset. It carries recognition, reputation, expectations, and an understanding of what the organization does and why it matters.
And when an organization evolves, that asset needs to be managed strategically.
The question isn’t how to preserve everything that came before. It’s what to keep, what to strengthen, what to manage away—and what to build next.
Community Organizations: When Recognition Is an Asset
Community foundations and service organizations accumulate enormous amounts of recognition and trust over time.
People know what they do. They understand their role in the community. Donors support them. Volunteers give their time. Other organizations turn to them as partners.
Then things evolve.
Leadership turns over. Priorities expand. Programs come and go. The needs of the communities they serve move forward.
All of that can be healthy — even necessary.
But institutional evolution can weaken an organization when people can no longer connect what it is becoming with what they already know and value about it.
The strategic work is figuring out which parts of the organization’s identity continue to earn recognition and support, which need to be strengthened, and which no longer serve the organization it is becoming.
Get that right and evolution builds on the reputation you’ve already earned.
Get it wrong, and people may no longer understand what you do, why you matter, or why they should support you.
And that has consequences: for funding, partnerships, volunteers, referrals and community support.
Arts Organizations: What Do You Carry Forward?
Arts organizations face a particularly interesting version of this challenge.
Museums, theaters, orchestras and other cultural organizations have brands built over time through programming, reputation, audience experience, history and their particular place in a community.
At the same time, they are constantly evolving. They have to be.
The question is what that evolution should carry forward.
What about the institution has earned recognition, membership, attendance, philanthropy and community involvement? What should be strengthened? What has outlived its usefulness? What needs to be managed away? And what needs to be introduced to make the institution more compelling now?
Those aren’t cosmetic questions. They are strategic ones.
The stakes are whether people understand the institution’s relevance, recognize its importance, and have a reason to visit, join, donate, participate, and support what comes next.
Secondary Schools: Knowing What You’re Building On
Schools may offer the clearest example of all.
Every school has an identity that exists in the minds of students, parents, alumni, faculty, prospective families and the wider community. It has often been built over generations.
And that identity has real value.
It affects who applies. Who enrolls. Who stays involved. Who gives. Who recommends the school to another family.
But schools evolve, too.
A new head arrives. Programs expand. Admissions priorities evolve. Families want different things. The competitive landscape shifts.
A school cannot — and should not — remain frozen in time.
But neither should it treat everything it inherited as expendable.
Some elements of a school’s identity are critical institutional assets. They drive reputation, enrollment, alumni loyalty and philanthropy. Others may be holding the school back from making a compelling case for who it is today.
Knowing the difference is the work.
The Thread Between Past, Present and Future
Institutional evolution isn’t a choice between holding onto the past and embracing the future.
It’s a continuum.
The strongest organizations understand what they’ve already earned: recognition, reputation, loyalty, trust, history. They know which of those assets still have strategic value and which don’t. And they make deliberate choices about what to keep, what to strengthen, what to manage away, and what to build next.
Because the goal isn’t to remain recognizable by remaining the same.
It’s to create a clear thread between who you’ve been, who you are now, and where you’re going.
