Sidebar: What's in a Name?

Ever since PwC announced the name Strategy&, the opinions have rolled in fast and furious, prompting the "Wall Street Journal" to point out that the name was not, in fact, a typo. And, for its part, "Marketing Week" wrote: "nothing exonerates PwC for coming up with such a ludicrous name…"

Some like the name, but most, it seems, do not.

It left others reminiscing about the time PwC branded its consulting practice "Monday." That didn't last long. To be fair, PwC had no choice but to rebrand since they had to relinquish the name because of the terms settled on when Booz & Company split from Booz Allen Hamilton back in 2008. So, "Booz" in any iteration was off the table. Still, they must've had other choices.

"Sure, we thought about creating a synthetic name, and we looked at a couple of options," says Tony Poulter, Partner and Global Head of Consulting with PwC. "We wanted a word that was naturally descriptive, but one that was not closed. I think clients get it."

As far as some of the media reaction to it, Poulter says that "we've taken the odd cheap shots here and there, but we would've gotten those with a synthetic name, too. We would've been criticized for it being too boring or stodgy."

Poulter's probably right about that one. Cesare Mainardi, former CEO of Booz & Company and now the CEO of Strategy&, says he sees it as brand that "clearly communicates what business we're in and what role we're playing in that business," he says.

"We had to say goodbye to our founding partner for legal reasons and we went through the journey of brand development and we've taken something that's well understood, "strategy" and then have given it a little bit of a twist."

Mainardi says he understands that some people love it and some people have been more critical, but it "invites conversation. Strategy and… what? Strategy and Tax, Strategy and Assurance," he says. "Once you go down the path of explaining it to your clients and what it means and the possibilities, it's incredibly exciting."

Plus, it resembles the business publication "Strategy & Business" that Booz & Company published, and will continue to publish as Strategy&. Poulter says ultimately, the market will decide if the Strategy& name sticks long term, but "we're very happy with it."

"And we're happy with the attention we've got over it—it's what we intended," he says. "We wanted it to be provocative, memorable and even a little bit quirky."

Mission accomplished.

Strategic Thinking

Related Stories

Recommended For You