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Branding expert Deb Kelly 鈥�68 joined a long list of business luminaries in delivering the 35th annual F. William Harder Lecture and sharing her insights with Skidmore students. 

In her lecture, Kelly, a partner at Denver-based strategic-creative consultancy Genesis Inc. told 鈥渁 brand story鈥� about a how a small brand agency is helping a space technologies company called Maxar pull several brands together into a cohesive construct, creating awareness of the formation of something new and more powerful.  

鈥淭his is a brand journey. It鈥檚 a story about a company that was very much so 鈥榦ld economy鈥� and 鈥� tried to become 鈥榥ew economy,鈥欌赌� she said. 

Kelly, who has held leadership positions at Fortune 500 companies, such as Quaker Oats and Lowe鈥檚, said her liberal arts education has also influenced her perspective on business. 

鈥淗aving access to different fields of learning and therefore being open to learning new things鈥� is important, Kelly said, 鈥渂ecause in business, you may be focused on a particular industry or a particular company or some particular skills. But it's surprising to me how often there are adjacencies or something that you hadn't actually thought about before, and you have to develop the skill to want to learn something new.鈥� 

Kelly also outlined changes to marketing strategies in recent years.  

鈥淚 think the biggest thing that's happened is that there is social democracy in the value of a brand. All stakeholders have an opinion about brands, and they are not afraid to talk about it,鈥� she said.