<h1>Blackstone Hires Droga5 Chief Strategy Officer Jonny Bauer To Lead A New Brand Initiative&nbsp; &nbsp;</h1><div><br>Blackstone plans to integrate brand transformation more deeply into its process of acquiring and growing companies, and it's chosen a top strategist from the advertising world to lead the practice.<br><br>The private equity firm has hired Droga5 Chief Strategy Officer<strong> Jonny Bauer</strong> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonny-bauer-6b08b8/">(Linkedin)</a> as head of brand transformation for its portfolio group of more than 200 companies. The goal: to help bring brand strategy more upstream as a part of the M&amp;A process as well as during a company's evolution within Blackstone.<br><br>According to Bauer, bringing in brand-related discussions too late often leaves companies "retrofitting thinking to existing decisions rather than informing them."<br><br>"A brand is a company's reason for being, but is still too often an afterthought in the sequence of value creation," Bauer tells Forbes. "And it's used as a wrapper after a series of interventions when it should be used as a filter while those interventions are happening. Whether that's short, medium, or long-term, there are certain decisions that will need to be made and are connected to the way that Blackstone is able to add value."<br><br>The appointment comes as Blackstone's own business is evolving. The company has increasingly sought out early- and growth-stage deals that are that are different than the traditional buyout. Last month, Blackstone announced the final close of its $4.5 billion growth equity fund, making it the largest first-time growth equity vehicle in history.<br><br>Over the past two years, Blackstone has been evolving from focusing just on a company's financials and operating structures to becoming more involved with companies that have higher growth potential earlier on. That led the firm to hire <strong>Jennifer Morgan</strong> -- the former co-CEO of SAP joined Blackstone in November as global head of portfolio transformation and talent for Blackstone's portfolio companies.<br><br>The increased focus on transformation also includes building out other verticals such as brand, according to Joe Baratta, global head of Blackstone's private equity practice and a member of the company's board of directors. He mentions the firm's acquisition of Ancestry -- which has evolved from being focused on an older customer base to something that's appealing to younger and more diverse demographics -- and Thomson Reuters' Financial &amp; Risk Business, which was rebranded as Refinitiv.<br><br>"The brand question is relevant for every single company we're buying, not just branded companies," Baratta says. "And it has to do with what is the company we're buying today and where do we want it to go. And brand is essential in defining where it's going to go, what we want to mean to our customer base and how we want to evolve the company."<br><br>Examples of more established brands within Blackstone include the Swedish oat milk brand Oatley and the dating app Bumble, which have both seen massive growth recently. (Bumble recently went public and Oatley has plans for an IPO.) However, Baratta says Blackstone's new philosophy also applies to how it thinks about industrial companies that are less consumer-facing.<br><br>"I think this is comprehensive across every company we own," Baratta says. "And it's not sold as like a service to the counter-party. It's part of like the fabric of what we're trying to do understand what the company is in and where we want to take it."<br><br>Morgan, who had been at SAP since 2004, says CEOs spend a lot of time thinking about where they want to take their company with brand at the center. She points to SAP's own transformation from what was historically an enterprise resource management company to something with more brand recognition. She says that when Blackstone engages with its portfolio companies, brand is "one of the first things they want to talk about."<br><br>Blackstone's new branding practice could also be a way to sweeten the deal for founders that might be wary of the private equity world's track record of focusing too much on overhauling financials and operating efficiencies but not enough on creating brand value.<br><br>"It's so critical in this competitive landscape to differentiate to get the best talent to make sure that they differentiate whatever product or services that that they're focused on and frankly to grow," Morgan says. "So brand growth, providing products and services that deliver the best experiences also contribute to growth."<br><br>Bauer has a long track record of doing this from inside the agency world. During his decade at Droga5, he helped clients with strategy, innovation, media data and IP-related efforts as the agency grew from a dozen people to more than 500. Past clients have included JPMorgan Chase, Facebook, LVMH, Hershey, Unilever, Harry's and Allstate as well as The Gates Foundation, Christies and Unicef. He's also led campaigns for HBO's hi</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

Blackstone | Jonny Bauer | Head of Brand Transformation | Americas

latest related moves

No Results found