After 15 years in brand consultancy at WPP, there were key questions I still wanted to resolve, namely: how could agencies win awards every year and be applauded by the industry despite declines in client business? I was left with a horrible feeling knowing that many KPIs simply didn’t matter; that a client’s business was secondary to a host of vanity metrics. While I strongly believe CMOs represent a driving force of value creation in organizations, vanity metrics have led too many astray…and unknowingly away from power in the board room. In order to hit business goals, it has been common to lean heavily on short-term, sales-boosting tactics like discounting; a practice that invariably deteriorates brand and business value. Legacy consultancies would then be granted three months to figure out how to stem the decline. I asked myself: How is it that in two years, AI can do more for disease detection than we have in the prior 50? And how is it that disruption pervades the auto industry, the taxi industry, education, financial and legal services, and so many other industries, yet we wait months for an answer on brand equity when the right algorithm and data could deliver the best course of action in seconds? That is how predictive brand tech, BERA, was born.