The New York Times ran a front page story this week on the growing "malaise" in Italy. Having been born in Napoli, and raised with a strong Italian cultural connection, I was quite distressed to read this article. But, it is not the first time I have heard about the worsening "funk" that Italians are now experiencing about their beloved country.

The Times piece cited recent surveys of Italians that found that they are growing increasingly unhappy and disenchanted with Italy. The Italian economy, which rose Cinderella-like to surpass England a few decades ago, is now slipping lower and lower. Even Spain now has a bigger GDP. The Italian government is totally dysfunctional (nothing new there, but it has gotten even worse), and the corruption problem persists. Even the power of the Italian entrepreneur, who has long been the proud economic engine of Italy, is declining, badly hurt by the rise of China and its significantly lower costs. On the cultural/demographic side, Italy today has nearly the lowest population growth in Europe. Young people are marrying less, and even when they do, not having kids. As a result, Italy is getting older without the renewal that comes from the next generation pushing its ideas and passions.

Because of all of these ills, Italians are no longer optomistic about the future. To be sure, the Italian psyche has a certain amount of cynicism to start with. But, according to the Times’ reporting, there is a deep seated pessimism in Italy that is only getting worse. Not a good omen for the future.

Luckily, there are a few bright spots in modern Italy. It continues to be one of the top three vacation destinations in the world. But, that is even becoming a negative as the hoards of tourists are turning Italy into Disneyland. Also, the Made in Italy brand for style and culture still has great appeal around the world (the new Chinese affluents and Russian Oligarchs love their Gucci purses and Ferragamo shoes). That said, the essence of Prada, Gucci and Armani is being diluted by the fact that these iconic brands are increasingly sourcing their products elsewhere. When a Made in Italy brand is actually made in China, Mexico or Mali, it loses its cache pretty quickly. But these brands continue to ride on the Made in Italy mystique.

In addition to just generally depressing me about the prospects of the wonderful country of my birth and heritage, the NYT article got me thinking about the importance and power of "renewal" in marketing and branding. You just can cannot underestimate the importance of renewal in business and marketing (and in many other areas of life, too).

Great brands and companies are constantly renewing themselves. They don’t just rest on their laurels, as much as people value them for what they were and how they got to be leaders in their categories. Leaders are always reinventing themselves, embracing the new while nurturing and evolving their essence (their brand DNA). Nowhere in business is this so painfully evident than in the auto industry. Great auto brands (Mercedes, Toyota, BMW, Aston Martin, Ferrari) must renew their brands and products every year through innovation, design, performance and technology. The most successful of them embrace this renewal with gusto, realizing that they need to continually deliver fresh new ideas, features and designs to recapture the excitement and loyalty of their customers, especially their brand loyalists.

Some believe that BMW pushed the renewal envelope a little too far a few years ago when it unveiled a much more angular design style and complicated new technology in the cockpit that represented a radical departure from the classic BMW brand aesthetic. At the time, the company’s design chief Chris Bangle took a lot of heat from BMW lovers and the auto media for some designs there were seen as being too out there. But, the new designs ultimately caught on (especially the second generation), and they have been credited with BMW extending its enviable streak as the most profitable car company in the world.

Contrast BMW’s courage in renewing itself (while staying true to its brand heritage) with some American auto brands like Ford and Chrysler. Now, I really am not trying to bash American car companies. I love cars made in the USA — it’s just the ones that I am really passionate about are the American cars made before 1970.

In recent years, we have Ford which is continuing to slide into irrelevance. Ford’s "Bold Moves" corporate branding campaign was designed to demonstrate the company’s innovation and renewal, but it mainly served to illustrate that it is a company that is barely holding on without a lot of new thinking. Ad slogans don’t a renewal make. If you want to be bold,  you actually have to do bold things. That is what real renewal is all about. And if you actually put boldness out there, people take notice and appreciate it (even if they don’t always fall in love with what you come up with…like the first versions of the new BMW design direction).

Again, great and successful brands are constantly renewing themselves to deal with constant changes in the culture, in their consumers and customers, and in the economy overall. I noticed a bottle of Heinz organic ketchup at my local supermarket the other day and just bought it on the spot (even though I already had a full bottle of Heinz ketchup sitting in my fridge at home). The category leading Tide brand is continuously tinkering with new features, scents and packaging. Blackberry is all about renewal (even though it is a hugely successful smart phone company), while Motorola has been widely seen as lagging in product innovation and design (in other words, renewal). Guess which company recently pushed out its CEO and is now trying to engineer a fresh start in the marketplace?

Renewal is just as important for our "personal brands." Successful (and I dare say, happy) people enthusiastically embrace the notion of renewal. They do so by trying new things, pushing their abilities out of their comfort zones, meeting new people, traveling to new places. In business, you cannot stagnate and just keeping doing the same things you’ve always done. The world is changing too quickly to stay and run in place, no matter how successful you’ve been in the past. My father always sought out the newest thinking, therapies and technologies in the field he helped pioneer, neuroradiology. And when he was disatisfied with what he found, he discovered new ones himself. So, even as his professional renown grew on a global basis, he continually pushed hard to learn everything he could and reinvent himself to stay on the cutting edge of what was happening in medicine and science. He understood that his chosen field of medicine – in particular his specialty of treating diseases of the brain and spinal cord — would only stay vital if its practitioners were continuously renewing all aspects of it. The true leaders are typically the ones who push renewal — in themselves, their work and their environments.

Without this renewal, Brand Italy is becoming an historical theme park where people visit for a week to see a world and way of life that barely exists anymore. That makes for a pretty healthy travel destination business, but it isn’t a good platform to build on for Italy’s future. Brands that don’t renew themselves run the same risk. No wonder the Italians are caught in a deepening malaise. Would you want to live in a theme park?

I believe there is a big lesson here for marketers and brand stewards. Embrace renewal with a vengeance. The truly great brands, businesses and their leaders, always do. That renewal and reinvention is what made them great in the first place, and keeps them at the top of their games.

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