Adjusting Your Sails
Brand Navigation in a Post-Pivot Ocean
Tonnie Chamblee + Greg deSantis
In the 1980s, the Army War College recognized that the Cold War was coming to an end, and with it, the tidy predictability of a two-power world. What emerged instead was a messier, more uncertain landscape, faster, less structured, more ambiguous. They called the new reality VUCA, an acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
VUCA was meant as a tool for military strategy. But it was soon adopted by business as a map for the changing 1980s marketplace.
As fast as things were changing in the 1980s, you could still chart a course with some confidence. Product cycles stretched across years. Consumer preferences evolved slowly. The media were linear and controlled. If you needed to reposition your brand, you had time. It was like steering a ship across a calm bay. You could study the wind, adjust your heading, and watch the change unfold.
That’s no longer the case. Today, the waters are faster and more unpredictable. A single influencer’s post can reshape perceptions overnight. A platform algorithm tweak can sink a channel that once seemed essential. Fads rise and collapse before most companies can schedule a meeting to talk about them. Change used to be something you planned for. Now it’s something you live inside.
Adjusting the Sails
So what do you do when the currents never stop shifting?
For a while, the answer was pivoting. That became the go-to strategy. A pivot was a sharp turn. A decision to abandon one course in favor of another. It made sense, if the winds changed suddenly, why not change direction too?
But a pivot is often a crisis maneuver. It’s disruptive, resource-heavy, and prone to brand whiplash. Too many pivots, and your clients aren’t sure who you are anymore. You may still be afloat, but the vessel looks unfamiliar, even to your own crew.
That’s why the smarter move isn’t to pivot every time the wind changes. It’s to adjust the sails. That’s agility.
Change used to be something you planned for. Now it’s something you live inside.
Stay the Course
Agility means learning to tack into the wind, not fleeing from it. It means making regular, intentional adjustments that keep you moving forward, even when conditions are hard to read. Not a reinvention. Not a full turn. Just a subtle, constant recalibration that allows your brand to stay aligned with its course, even if that course bends a little with the breeze.
This is where the concept of the North Star comes in. It’s the single most important thing a brand can define. Your North Star is your purpose and your promise to the world. It’s not your mission statement or your tagline. It’s deeper than that. It’s your conviction. The thing that doesn’t change, even when everything else does.
Without it, agility becomes drift. Every adjustment sends you further off-course. Every new trend pulls you in a different direction. But when your sails are trimmed with intention. Your heading is set by your North Star, Each shift becomes purposeful. Agile brands move often, but never aimlessly. That’s the difference.
So what does this look like in practice? It starts with clarity. Teams need to know what’s sacred and what’s flexible. Your core identity, the values you hold, the reason you exist, the emotional promise you make to your audience, those are the keel. They don’t move. But how you communicate, which channels you use, the tone you strike, even how your product is packaged, those are the sails. They adjust.
Modular Brand Architecture
It also means designing systems that enable quick yet coherent movement. Modular brand architectures let you experiment with a campaign or sub-brand without destabilizing the whole. Brand governance gives people permission to act with speed, within clear, principled guardrails. The result is a brand that doesn’t need constant approval from the top to do the right thing, because it’s already been taught how to steer.
Agility also lives in culture. Nimble organizations prize experimentation. They’re not reckless, but they are fast. They build mechanisms for sensing change early, social listening, search behavior tracking, consumer sentiment tools, and they shorten the distance between insight and action. They encourage small bets. They reflect and learn. And they make it safe for teams to try something new without fear of failure.
Agility means making regular, intentional adjustments that keep you moving forward, even when conditions are hard to read.
Telling Waves from Currents
One of the most essential skills in modern brand building is knowing the difference between a real shift and a passing fad. Fads are exciting. They spike and dazzle. But they rarely solve a real problem. Trends, on the other hand, move slowly. They answer an unmet need. They spread across categories, build steadily over time, and reshape expectations at the cultural level.
Agile brands don’t chase every gust. They test. They measure. They ask questions like: Will this matter in five years? Does this align with what we stand for? Can we build something lasting around it? They allocate resources wisely, experimenting with a portion of their budget while protecting the core.
That blend of openness and discernment is what keeps a brand afloat when others capsize.
The Takeaway
Your brand doesn’t need to be a fortress. Fortresses are rigid. They crack under pressure. What you need is a vessel built for changing seas. Something sturdy, yes, but also nimble. With a clear North Star, a crew empowered to make decisions, and a culture that treats change not as a threat, but as a constant companion.
Flexible brands:
Scan the horizon constantly
Make small, continuous adjustments
Respond to early signals, not full-blown crises
Prototype, test, and evolve
Avoid fads, while recognizing deeper trends
Stay rooted in principle, but flexible in practice
It’s not about reacting faster. It’s about being aware, thoughtful, and moving smarter.
Because in a VUCA world, it’s not the brand with the biggest sail that wins. It’s the one that knows how to read the wind. It’s the one that adjusts, continually and deliberately, without ever losing sight of where it’s headed.
Composed with human insight, creativity, and perspective, and developed with AI assistance.
C O N T A C T
Tonnie Chamblee
CoFounder, Brand Strategist
Email Tonnie:
Text Tonnie:
571.213.2434
950 North Washington Street
3rd Floor
Alexandria VA 22314-2393
© Copyright 2025,
Design Alliance Holdings, LLC
Design Alliance is a US Registered Trademark of Design Alliance, LLC.
C O N T A C T
Tonnie Chamblee
CoFounder, Brand Strategist
Email Tonnie:
Text Tonnie:
571.213.2434
950 North Washington Street
3rd Floor
Alexandria VA 22314-2393
© Copyright 2025,
Design Alliance Holdings, LLC
Design Alliance is a US Registered Trademark of Design Alliance, LLC.