Jonathan Knowles is the coauthor of five articles in the Harvard Business Review and fifteen in the MIT Sloan Management Review (nine of which form “The Strategy of Change” series). His articles have also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Marketing Strategy Journal, the Review of Marketing Research, the Journal of Interactive Marketing, Professional Investor, Intellectual Asset Management, The Marketing Journal and the AMA’s Marketing Management.
He has coauthored chapters on “The Marketing Implications of Financial Accounting” (2021) and “Orientation and Marketing Metrics” (2009), as well as a Marketing Science Institute working paper on “The Value Implications of Corporate Branding in Mergers” (2011).
He has collaborated on commissioned reports by LinkedIn’s B2B Institute (“The Three Drivers of Financial Value” 2024) and the Association of National Advertisers (“Marketing Impact Measurement Study” 2024 and “How Strong Brands Impact Financial Value” 2014).
He is coauthor of the book “Vulcans, Earthlings & Marketing ROI” (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008) and “The Ultimate CMO Guide to Beat Budget Hell” (Vicomte, 2025).
His writing focuses on three main topics – business strategy (especially the role of purpose, reputation, and brand in value creation); mergers (intangible assets, post merger integration, brand architecture); and performance measurement (accounting for marketing, brand valuation).
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Article Measurement Strategy
Identifies the six ways in which marketing is operationalized (e.g. account based management vs brand marketing), plus the strategic and financial arguments for marketing. This report was produced in collaboration with the Association of National Advertisers and was a keynote presentation at the 2024 Masters of B2B Marketing Conference. Published in June 2024
Article Strategy
Describes how the rivalry between Marketing and Finance may stem from the similarity of their beliefs, rather than their differences. Published in October 2024
Article Measurement Strategy
Relationships are the basis for sustainable business success. And a well articulated purpose, manifested in effective branding, facilitates the creation and alignment of those relationships. Published in May 2025
Article Strategy
Distinguishes between the “hunter” and “farmer” versions of creativity – and how each contributes to improving the risk profile of the business. Published in June 2025
Article Measurement Strategy
How marketers can “speak the language of finance” and describe their role in the “sowing and harvesting of cash flow” and the creation of intangible assets in the form of brands with sustainable pricing power. Published in June 2025
Article Strategy
Using the Gordon Growth Model as the foundation, this report (produced in collaboration with the B2B Institute at LinkedIn) identifies the six marketing levers that map to the three drivers of financial value
Article Measurement
Explores the commercial reasons for undertaking a brand valuation – and why brand valuation is not the “ace in the hole” for demonstrating marketing accountability. Published in October 2004
Article Strategy
Identifies how value is a combinatorial function in stakeholder capitalism – your performance is only as good as your weakest link. Contrasts this to the compensatory nature of shareholder capitalism where financial performance makes up for the deficiencies in your performance on other dimensions. Published in November 2022
Article Strategy
In this feature article from the March/April 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review, we unpack the different meanings of “purpose” and identify the four business agendas that are impacted by it. We lay out a five step process for ensuring that your corporate purpose is defined in a way that is authentic and actionable.
Article Strategy
In the sixth article of “The Strategy of Change” series in the MIT Sloan Management Review, we explore how the focus of the three key tasks of leadership vary according to the type of change you are trying to achieve. Published in March 2022
