The Difference Between Success and Failure for a Brand

Having been a part of several successful start-ups, Candace Crawford helps navigate the way toward a long-lasting business

When working with an emerging brand, there’s a fine line between success and failure; oftentimes, it’s something as simple as a bad decision that can prematurely end it all for a start-up.

When I recently spoke with Candace Crawford, former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Operations Officer of ZICO Beverages, she explained that only a small percentage of new businesses actually grow to become multimillion-dollar brands. To become any sort of success story, there are some key issues every business-management professional must understand before embarking on the start-up journey.

With an impressive resume to boot, Crawford surely understands what it takes for an emerging brand to follow this path. She’s played strategic financial roles with some of the most notable entrepreneurs and their breakthrough companies, including Bruce Corwin and Metropolitan Theaters, Richard Branson and Virgin Entertainment, and Lynda and Stewart Resnick and POM Wonderful—which she helped grow from a $1-million to, at the time of her departure, a more than $100-million brand.

With a plethora of experiences and successes to draw upon, Crawford shared with Forefront some of the key concepts she believes can help make the difference between shuttering a business for good and emerging as the next big-name brand.

One bad decision can bankrupt an emerging brand.

“Decisions are made everyday that will enable the brand to succeed or fail, and those decisions need to be made quickly,” Crawford explained. “So every decision is an important decision. I was often in new territory with no historical precedents, so I had to be in a constant strategic mindset, thinking forward with a clear idea of what we were trying to achieve. Without that, I would not be able to lead with confidence.”

Emerging brands are full of strong personalities and competing priorities.

“The biggest challenge with emerging brands is navigating between two viewpoints: the Founder/CEO’s [Chief Executive Officer’s] vision for growth and the investors’ priorities for their return on investment,” Crawford said. “It becomes the CFO’s responsibility to navigate these strategically and skillfully. I become a strategic partner to all of these parties by being conscious of the audience, adapting my approach and language to the situation. Is the issue a problem or opportunity? The answer depends on how you present it.”

In finance, you serve as a partner to the CEO.

“A key element in the finance function is to be a partner to the CEO for all of the investor relationships and the fundraising elements of the business, as well as to help forecast the results of decisions being made,” Crawford said. “Emerging brands always find themselves cash dependent and looking for more investment. You do not get many bites of the apple, so you must be strategic and get it right the first time out.”

Know what the big picture is, and make sure all the pieces are communicating effectively.

“Everybody has to be on the same page at the same time,” Crawford said. “We all bought into this one concept: Are we all still on top of this? Frequency of meetings is a big deal. You cannot meet just once a month because the whole world changes every week. Every founder of emerging brands has meetings more frequently—at least once a week, and sometimes daily. If you are not meeting at least daily on some issues, you are probably out of synch somewhere.”

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Stephanie Harris is a freelance writer based in Chicago, Illinois.

Candace Crawford is the former CFO and COO o f ZICO Beverages. She was featured in issue 11 of Forefront.