In response to a video about personal branding from Defined Media's President Janet Fenner, I posted a comment:
Janet, you are undoubtedly fantastic at personal branding but not very good at branding for the companies you work for (ISS, Dahua, Samsung, etc.).
As if to prove my point, Fenner responded with a masterful job of further building personal brand while accusing me of bullying:
My criticism is entirely professional about Fenner's ability to build brands (her claimed expertise) for the companies she worked for.
Let's recap. Samsung pushed Fenner out and things are much better at Hanwha now. Dahua demoted Fenner. ISS let Fenner go shortly after Fenner dismissed coronavirus and pleaded not to cancel ISC West days before ISC West canceled (for the first of 3 times).
As LinkedIn commenters noted, I have said positive things in the past about Fenner. However, over the course of a decade and 3 companies, it is my professional judgment that while Fenner is great at building personal brand and friendships, Fenner is not that good at building brands for the companies employing her. At all 3 of those companies, we interacted repeatedly with Fenner so this is based on direct experience as IPVM being, by far, the industry's largest publication. Indeed, I honestly thought, at the time, Fenner was going to really help ISS but I was wrong.
There are always reasons (excuses) why this company or that company has problems but over time, your record is your record. For me, Fenner or anyone.
People can disagree with me. That's fine. I don't expect to have the same opinions as anyone on anything. Also, many people never want to say anything critical or negative about anyone, even if, like here, it is clearly about one's professional performance.
And Fenner is going to do well with her marketing agency because she, indeed, has a strong personal brand but I will continue to doubt the value that Fenner provides to those company's brands.
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