There are things we stand for or against. Principles, values, character. We have them in various degrees. We may or may not have them written down. But somewhere deep within our the darkness of our souls, they hide until we are tested.
The true test comes when we have kids. Then everything changes.
Even though we don't try, we start acting and talking like our parents. And your spouse does the same. The kids aren’t only a product of your upbringing. They are a product of the upbringing of your spouse, your mom, dad, your mother in law, father in law and also grandparents and great grandparents.
It takes a community to raise a child. That community is a culmination of ancestors going back multiple generations.
Times change but values are passed on from generation to generation until someone breaks the chain. To break the chain, an individual has to really work hard at defiance.
Company values are no different.
Recently I spoke to a successful businessman who was looking at growing his business substantially.
Just like a child, his business had incorporated his values, which he probably inherited through osmosis from his parents.
His problem was he couldn't identify the company's core values. Primarily because he couldn’t identify his own. Worse yet, his employees couldn't articulate them and act accordingly because everything was still in owner's head. This successful franchise system has not yet figured out some of the systemization required for future success.
I spent a whole day with the owner and realized that his company can have some success but its ultimate goals cannot be achieved for one simple reason: The owner didn’t know what his business was going to be when it grew up. His vision was about the number of stores, sales and profit.
We don’t set goals for our children this way so why would we do that for a business.
No one I know has ever said, I want my child to make $80,000 a year, live in a million dollar home and have two children of his own before he’s thirty. Sounds crazy, doesn't it.
We want to raise a happy, healthy child who will learn to be a productive, giving and loving. And to achieve those things, we instill our values back onto them in hopes that something wears off on them.
A company’s brand is a story embedded in the mind of the market. Emotion, and feelings are the true measure of a great story.
Emotion and feelings don’t come from sales numbers, good food, or good atmosphere. Feelings come from branding. And branding is created with core values.
Let me explain. If one of the brand’s core values is sophistication, the decision to implement or discontinue a product or service is dependant on its ability to be sophisticated.
If a core value is honesty and respect, then every conversation among owners, employees, partners and suppliers must exude the same values. If not, the core values have to change or the people do.
Once the core values are established, decisions become easy. Stories get told and customers start to live and feel the brand as a living, breathing organism.
Otherwise the brand is disjointed. The stories have no direction and the brand is null and void.
Don’t be fooled, branding is not about colours, fonts, logos and decor. Branding is about stories. The best brands tell the best stories. The worst brands tell the worst stories or don't tell any at all.
We tell stories about our kids to anyone who will listen. We brand our children the minute they are born by telling these stories. We teach them our core values their whole lives.
Businesses are EXACTLY the same as our kids when it comes to this stuff.
If you write out your values, and live them everyday, your kids will probably follow in your footsteps.
If you write out your values, and live them everyday, your brand will do the same. Long after your gone.
Discover who you are at your core, and you'll probably predict who you're children will become.
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