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Author: Jerry Holtaway

How I See Our Culture – David Ogilvy

Posted on by Jerry Holtaway

I worked for Ogilvy and Mather for nine years. At the beginning of my time there, it was still a privately-held company – though within a few years of my tenure, it was absorbed (and changed forever) by WPP.

I came across this piece written by David Ogilvy (whom I had the pleasure of meeting once), about the culture of Ogilvy back in the day.

I think all leaders should use it as a culture check-list for their companies.

From The Unpublished David Ogilvy.

Here is how I see our culture.

A NICE PLACE TO WORK

Some of our people spend their entire working lives in our agency. We do our damnedest to make it a happy experience. I put this first, believing that superior service to our clients and profits for our stockholders depend on it.

We treat our people like human beings. We help them when they are in trouble – with their jobs, with illness, with alcoholism, and so on.

We help our people make the best of their talents. We invest an awful lot of time and money in training – perhaps more than any of our competitors.

Our system of management is singularly democratic.

We don’t like hierarchical bureaucracy or rigid pecking orders.

We abhor ruthlessness.

We give our executives an extraordinary degree of freedom and independence. We like people with gentle manners.

We like people who are honest. Honest in argument, honest with clients, honest with suppliers, honest with the company – and above all, honest with consumers.

We admire people who work hard, who are objective and thorough.

We do not admire superficial people.

We despise office politicians, toadies, bullies and pompous asses.

We discourage paper warfare.

The way up the ladder is open to everybody. We are free from prejudice of any kind – religious prejudice, racial prejudice or sexual prejudice. We detest nepotism and every other form of favoritism.

In promoting people to top jobs, we are influenced as much by their character as anything else.

Like all companies with a strong culture, we have our heroes– the Old Guard who have woven our culture. By no means have all of them been members of top management.

Wise words, from a wise man. Creating meaningful workplaces and a strong culture is not an old concept, but it is getting harder and harder to achieve.

To read more about how Emotive Brand thinks about building more meaningful workplaces, download our paper below.

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Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency

Meaningful Brands Keep Promises

Posted on by Jerry Holtaway

Meaningful Brands are not so easy to come by

Is your brand strategy working as hard as it could be? Or is it being held back by these all-too-common corporate traits: myopia, narrow-mindedness, and self-centeredness? Does your brand strategy focus only on the “what” and “how” of your offering? Does it mostly talk to senior management in the cryptic language only MBAs understand?

If so, your brand isn’t hitting the right notes in today’s marketplace. Today’s most innovative and successful brands are built upon a different premise. They seek to forge meaningful connections with people, not solely through products or marketing claims, but through the added idea of purpose-beyond-profit. As such, they build their brand strategies out from the greater world in which they operate, not from the deep, dark corners of the C-suite.

Continue reading “Meaningful Brands Keep Promises”

Meaningful Brands Are Led by Meaningful Leaders

Posted on by Jerry Holtaway

The key to meaning is empathy: the ability to step outside one’s own life and see the world from another’s perspective. In both branding and leadership, the value of this ability cannot be underestimated. Both areas depend upon engaged followers. Engagement only comes when followers see leaders connect the dots between their personal needs and desires, the goals of the business, and the greater good.

Brands and leaders that are inward-focused and self-absorbed fail to connect with people who are increasingly attuned to the needs of humanity and the planet. This puts them in a precarious position. That’s because these people are increasingly applying these altruistic criteria to the products they buy, the brands they support, and the companies for which they choose to work.

The result for brands? More meaningful competitors steal your customers and profits. Your brand’s real and perceived value drop. Your brand’s ability to attract top talent diminishes.

The result for leaders? Those you hope to have as followers drift away. Your reputation for generating results suffers. You experience defections and cannot hire the people you need.

When people see that what’s lying behind your brand or leadership is an honest effort to use business in a positive way that will pay them emotional dividends and address their altruistic concerns, brands and leaders thrive. Of course, meaning is easier said than done, and must flow from a sincere and authentic base. It must be routed in the truth as nothing more readily violates the social contract than lies and deception.

You are born with empathy.

It’s there within you, waiting to be rediscovered.

Pull it to the surface, apply it to your business, brand and your leadership thinking, and discover the power of truthful and meaningful connections that positively change the way people think, feel and act.

Additional reading: Transforming business: the four faces of empathy 

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco Branding Agency.

Should Your Business Embrace a Purpose-led Brand Strategy?

Posted on by Jerry Holtaway

Purpose-led

The notion of purpose-led  does more than make brands appealing to people – it makes money for the businesses that embrace the concept. So claims the chairman of Deloitte, an active evangelist for the “squishy business attribute” called purpose.

Why invest in a woolly, emotional, and squishy idea like purpose? Won’t it be hard to get everyone in my organization and all my customers to understand and embrace it? What is it really beyond a set of words? What value does brand strategy deliver?

These are the questions I often confront as a proponent of empathy, purpose, and emotion. It’s the question of the never-relenting ROI monster, “What’s in it for me?”

Well, here’s the answer, from no one less than the chairman of the world’s largest audit, tax, and consulting firm, Deloitte.

Majority of employees and executives sense lack of purpose and meaningful impact

In a past interview with Bruce Rogers, Forbes’s Chief Insights Officer, Punit Renjen put it simply: “Our research reveals the need for organizations to cultivate and foster a culture of purpose.”

Deloitte’s research has revealed that 91% of respondents who said their company has a strong sense of purpose, also has a history of strong financial performance. Yet, 68% of employees and 66% of executives believe businesses do not do enough to create a sense of purpose and deliver meaningful impact on all stakeholders.

Walking the talk with a $300 million investment to bring mission and purpose to life for Deloitte’s customers and employees

Punit practices what he preaches, and has invested $300 million to ensure his own firm’s mission and purpose is clearly understood by its customers and its nearly 60,000 employees in the U.S. “It’s not just words on a piece of paper,” said Punit.

“My goal is to change the conversation about what makes companies succeed,” Punit continues. And certainly the mission is good for Deloitte and serves to position the firm as a thought leader in how businesses operate best in today’s complicated, global economy. But perhaps more importantly, as Punit states frankly, “it just feels good.”

From squishy idea to profitable business practice

I believe in the concept of purpose when it recognizes, through an empathetic attitude, the needs, values, interests, and aspirations of people. Not a bunch of corporate mumbo-jumbo, but a clear, heartfelt, and human statement of purpose.

Brands need to create a reason for being that resonates deeply with everyone from the C-suite to the night guard; from the close-in, long-term customer to the distant prospect; and from the most loyal employee to the hungry-for-meaning young recruit.

Oh, and there’s one more thing

Brands need to seriously invest time and money to transform the purpose concept into an active driver of personal ambition, behavior, and gratification. In other words, to do what it takes to create a culture of purpose that goes beyond “just words on a piece of paper”. That is, a culture that creates meaningful impact each and every day. It’s not easy to do, but the rewards are there for the brands that want to stand above the rest. We have authored a white paper entitled The Meaningful Workplace which you might enjoy.

Is it time to kick-start your brand strategy and embrace these ideas? Click here  to see what clients have worked with Emotive Brand to implement purpose-led brand strategies.

A Brand’s Purpose is Not a Tagline!

Posted on by Jerry Holtaway

Once again drawing from our white paper, “Transforming your brand into an emotive brand“, we explore another of the key drivers of our thinking, “Purpose Beyond Profit”.

Here’s how we recap this idea in our paper:

As an emotive brand, your brand lives to a promise that embodies a purpose that goes well beyond profit. As such, you use your brand’s promise to establish and reinforce the higher-ground connection that customers and employees find emotionally meaningful. By thinking beyond profit, you reveal your commitment to connecting with people in truly significant ways.

Look beyond profit and thrive 

For decades, enterprises have had “mission” statements, “vision” statements, and  “values”. Check almost any corporate website and you’ll find these “drivers” of the business buried deep down and many clicks away from the surface.

Despite having taken on these important steps to say what their business is all about, there’s often a big difference between what they intend, and the effect they have. The fact is, these tools of business have rarely gained much traction outside of the C-suite.

A “purpose” is a more powerful and effective tool because it engages in a way that matters to a wide range of people across an organization. It is not dry, administrative, and full of corporate jargon. It doesn’t set a goal that feels irrelevant outside the C-suite. Rather it is an idea that touches upon a quest for meaning and purpose that  is universal in appeal, while at the same time relevant to the business.

Continue reading “A Brand’s Purpose is Not a Tagline!”

Why All the Talk About Purpose and Brand Strategy?

Posted on by Jerry Holtaway

A HBR blog post by Graham Kenny details the difference between the increasingly popular idea of purpose and the traditional corporate drivers of vision, mission, and values.

His conclusion echoes our beliefs about the role and impact of a company purpose:

“If you’re crafting a purpose statement, my advice is this: To inspire your staff to do good work for you, find a way to express the organization’s impact on the lives of customers, clients, students, patients — whomever you’re trying to serve. Make them feel it.”

Mr. Kenny’s closing statement, “make them feel it”, goes to the heart of what it is to be meaningful as a company or brand. Meaningful ideas take the impact that you have on people beyond the cognitive level. Meaning goes much deeper by touching our universal, innate, and deeply-held aspiration to do good and worthy things in our lives.

Purpose changes the way people think, feel, and act

The feelings that flow from meaningful connections are profound, yet they often operate below the surface of consciousness. As such, people may not be readily able to talk about these feelings, but there’s no question that meaning resonates within us all, and has the power to change the way we think, feel, and act.

A strong and compelling purpose helps employees better understand, work to, and feel personally accountable for the company’s vision, mission, and values. Think of purpose as the energy that will make those elements work more efficiently.

Purpose leads to significant business outcomes

Energizing your workplace through purpose has further benefits:

– Purpose-led leaders and managers work with greater passion and in a more aligned and coordinated fashion.

– Engaged and motivated employees work with greater levels of collaboration, self-initiative, and innovation.

– Customer relationships prosper from more energized and purposeful interactions with the brand and its people.

– Sales, marketing, and advertising becomes more effective as they align more to the many outcomes that flow from the brand as it actively pursues its purpose.

What does this have to do with your brand strategy?

Why forego the beneficial energy that a purpose can bring to your company or brand? Why miss this opportunity to matter more to your employees? Why not use a purpose to elevate your brand above the competition by focusing on meaningful outcomes?

Purposeless is no longer an option for brands seeking to thrive and prevail.

For more information about how to transform your brand for the 21st century, please download our white paper.

Download White Paper

Download White Paper

 Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

Why Every CEO Should Pursue a Purpose Beyond Profit

Posted on by Jerry Holtaway

It’s textbook management practice to formalize a company’s “mission, vision and values.”

And while these are important steps in helping form a direction and way of being for a company, many CEOs are nonetheless challenged with a litany of business issues:

  • Unengaged employees
  • An inability to attract the new talent needed
  • Customer defection
  • Lack of marketplace differentiation
  • Dissatisfied shareholders

This list goes on and on, doesn’t it?

Behind each of these business challenges is a big question: How can my business matter more to people?

When your business truly matters to people, they are far more likely to do what you need them to do.

They work with enthusiasm. They line up to join your organization. They become loyal advocates of your company. They put you at the head of the competitive field. They invest in your future.

How do you get your business to matter to people?

Modern businesses identify a “Purpose Beyond Profit”.

They step back and look at what they’ve been doing with fresh eyes.

They distill all the good that is buried under the layers, the data, and the anxiety.

They think about what people are really connecting to these days: companies that are doing good things, making work worthwhile, shaping a better future, and being a good citizen.

They then create a purpose that bridges what the company does well, and what people want from the company.

Operating on a higher, more emotional level than the obvious and the required business goal of making a profit, a Purpose Beyond Profit lifts spirits, engages minds, and touches hearts.

Easier said than done.

The biggest challenge for a CEO and team is to get the necessary perspective needed to sift through their complex business situation, and to arrive at the “truths” about the company that will fuel a meaningful, impactful, and hard-working Purpose Beyond Profit.

Which is why we have developed a method of helping companies reveal the hidden meaning of what they do, and to bring that to the surface through a compelling purpose beyond profit. We do this through emotive branding which is our brand strategy methodology.

We also help activate workplaces and marketplaces around a company’s Purpose Beyond Profit – with the goal of changing the way people see, think about, and act on behalf of the company.

CEOs who want their companies to be stronger today, and better fit for the future, will define – and heartily embrace- a Purpose Beyond Profit.

Want to understand how we help CEO’s and their teams to implement new strategies? Download the paper below:

Download White Paper

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.