Lisa Agona – Chief Marketing Officer, LexisNexis Risk Solutions

Meet a woman who is rebranding a multibillion-dollar company.

By Taylor Mallory

Rebranding will be all the rage in 2010, as companies adjust to change due to the recession and reignite branding initiatives. In January, Lisa Agona, chief marketing officer for LexisNexis Risk Solutions, will celebrate the successful rebranding of the $1.5 billion content-enabled workflow solutions company after a $4.1 billion acquisition last year.

So why was it important to consolidate LexisNexis’ new properties under one name, look and feel? “Our divisions touch many different clients, industries and solutions. The brand is the common thread that ties those together,” Agona tells PINK, hot off the stage of our annual Fall Empowerment Series. When you don’t integrate businesses, sales people have to explain to customers why they get e-mails from one company, training documentation from another and the final product from another, she explains. “When I deal with a cell phone provider, for example, I want everything to come from them and not have to understand their complex organizational structure.”

The biggest challenge? “I don’t think people realized how much my team would get into details, down to logins and URLs, to the look and feel of particular products, so there was some initial resistance,” says Agona. Her team recognized early on that it needed to immediately involve people from other departments (the company employs more than 4,600 people countries) and make them feel part of the process. “It’s been a good lesson. Now there’s much more willingness to collaborate and provide insight.”

Here she shares her branding – and business – success secrets.

PINK: What are some branding dos and don’ts?
Lisa Agona: I’ve done this a few times now, but this has been the biggest. Don’t force it on people. Get buy in. Branding can be very emotional. Product developers and leaders have emotional ties to names and messages. Collaborate, communicate and let people know you’re listening. Help them understand why it’s important to present one brand to the world – that it’s not about forcing people to do something. It’s about creating a positive experience for the customer. And do it fast. You can’t take years on a rebranding. At some point fatigue sets in, so you have to just rip the band-aid off.

PINK: What is the best business advice you’ve ever received?
L.A.: Don’t work so hard in the office. Get into the fray. And that’s become even more important with the economic downturn. You have to get in with folks on the ground to know your business inside and out (and it helps morale). You have to know how your company makes money and how your customers make money. For a marketing person, that’s really important. In tough times, I think leaders have to really be involved in the details. It’s not realistic to think you can sit in an ivory tower and delegate everything. When you really roll up your sleeves, you show the team just how important these initiatives are to the organization. In this branding effort, we didn’t just focus on brand strategy and the overarching messaging. We worked on URL strategies and products messaging. I don’t think everyone expected us to get so into the details. I know how big this task has been and that teams can get frustrated, because it’s hard work. Working together as one team has made a difference.

PINK: How do you motivate your team?
L.A.: My style has always been to give them initiatives that are important to the organization and that are a little above their skill level – and then support them. But I’ve learned that not everyone thrives in that situation, and you have to find out more about how each individual ticks. We just sent out a survey to the team to find out how they like to be recognized, what motivates them and how they like to communicate.

PINK: How do you relax and rejuvenate yourself?
L.A.: I spend weekends quietly with myself. I have to be on all week and spend all my time with other people. On the weekends I retreat and do quiet things like photography or reading. I’ve put aside my business books for a while. There are too many books I want to read. I’ve gotten into Victorian novels. I like to travel. I usually go to Paris or meet a friend in Ireland every once in a while. I’m a good photographer, and that’s something I’m going to focus on more when things settle down. I’d like to have a show one day.

PINK: What’s your success secret?
L.A.: I believe in what I do, and I’m pretty unrelenting. Even when I feel beaten down, I take a deep breath and go right back in. Two weeks after joining this company, I was brought into the acquisition team. It’s the biggest one I’ve ever done. Sure, I’ve second guessed myself a few times. But I believe in myself, in what I do, in my ability to collaborate and communicate across a very complex organizational structure. It’s helped me throughout my career.

PINK: What is one personal goal you haven’t yet achieved?
L.A.: I have not mastered French, and I’ve been taking it on and off since 7th grade. It irks me. I’ve already found a new class.

PINK: How will you celebrate the holidays at work this year?
L.A.: Because of the economic challenges, we don’t have a big party scheduled. But I think it’s even more important to bring people together to celebrate the team’s hard work, so we’re working on some small get-togethers with the team.