In the old business world brands were certainly conceived as top-down hierarchies for customer capture and control, but those days are fading in the digital era. Hierarchies are inefficient innovators. Brands run on customer feet, and a brand without smart and empowered customers--who can add new value back to the brand--face an uphill battle. The new brand models are models of co-creation and service design. They’re models of collaboration and mutual innovation, where engaged customers are just as important to strategic success as engaged employees. In this sense, a brand is also a learning model as it innovates through value-adding customer interactions. (The My Starbucks Idea initiative (http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/) is one example. Your work is vital in this process as well, working from the individual up.