A former Big Four marketing leader is stepping out on his own – and he’s doing it with a pointed message for Australia’s boardrooms.
Thomas (TC) Miles, former Head of PwC’s Marketing Advisory, has launched BrandOrder, a consultancy aimed at helping businesses untangle what he describes as a growing “complexity trap” hampering performance
The launch follows a cross-industry study of 68 ASX top 100 companies, which found 65% of businesses are suffering from significant operational complexity that hinders performance, while 46% are challenged by the internal capacity to deliver their targets
A market straining to ‘do more with less’
Miles said the findings validate what he has seen first-hand across a decade in management consulting.
“Over the last decade, working in management consulting, we’ve seen consistent themes around managing complexity while resources and teams are being fragmented. This study gives facts to what people are saying,” he said
“Senior leaders intuitively know what needs to be done to improve organisational performance, but they often lack the time, budget or internal capability to help them. Many of these challenges faced are historical, planning processes, legacy brands and operational structures, putting them in the too-hard basket in the face of day-to-day delivery,” he added
At the heart of BrandOrder’s proposition is simplification – particularly for CMOs and executive teams wrestling with bloated portfolios and layered strategies.
“There is often not just a need for better strategy, it’s the ability to get alignment through singular propositions, to meet the needs of stakeholders in the most efficient way. It requires experts in understanding businesses and the people in them, with the ability to navigate these structures, getting to what’s important to make businesses more focused, and ultimately more profitable,” Miles said
From Big Four to boutique
His portfolio includes brand and marketing transformation work for British Telecom, BHP, the creation of Services Australia, EnergyAustralia and Scyne Advisory, alongside operational improvement projects for Domino’s, Avant Mutual, Microsoft Network Partners, BMW, Nextt and NBN Co
BrandOrder positions itself as a more agile alternative to traditional consulting models, promising work delivered in weeks and at a fraction of conventional costs
Its services include go-to-market diagnostics, portfolio optimisation, strategy alignment and operational redesign
Miles argues that demand is being driven by restructurings, M&A activity, and mounting pressure to extract greater value from marketing investment.
“Demand for our services is being driven by leaders seeking better organisational alignment to improve performance, often as a result of restructures, M&A or getting control of the customer experience. As an industry, we’ve loved creating brands and propositions, but are terrible at saying goodbye to them when they’re no longer core or contributing to growth,” he said
“We’re helping CMOs and executive teams to make ‘order out of chaos’, by removing unnecessary strategy layers and programs that dilute budgets and profitability,” he concluded
As marketing budgets tighten and executive teams continue to be asked to deliver growth without corresponding resource increases, BrandOrder enters the market with a clear brief: strip back, align and simplify – before complexity erodes performance any further.