• Ad Age, Monday, November 8, 2010 11 AM

I have trekked many miles in the woods with Bruce Bolger, a gentleman who can get as excited about empowering employees as he does about spotting the Chrysler Building from a ridge in Putnam County. He calls the process Enterprise Engagement, and for many years I think he's felt a bit like Moses in the desert. Beth Snyder Bulik's story this morning about major marketers beginning to realize that employees are their brands' best assets tells me his -- and employees' -- time may be coming.

"It's moved from treating employees as a liability when it comes to communicating to now treating them more as an asset of engaged people who live and breathe your brand," says Rohit Bhargava, author of Personality Not Included and senior vp, strategy and planning at Ogilvy.

Pizza Hut, Southwest Airlines, Fidelity and Kraft are among the marketers whom Snyder Bulik cites as responding to a more transparent and socially engaged society, an economy where everyday value trumps aspirational brand attributes, and a lack of trust in corporate America.

Read the whole story at Ad Age »