Culture: first fix it, and then it won’t break
A few years ago, I did some writing work for a great client. They were lovely, smart, enlightened people. They had integrity and purpose. They had an outstanding product (I became a client and still am one). It was early days – they were just about to launch – but they were on to something, and it seemed like they had a big future.So I had a conversation with them about doing culture work. The response was surprising. In short, it was: our culture’s great, and if it ain’t broke, why fix it? My...
Mike Joubert on Culture and Purpose in Marketing
Mike Joubert and I have known each other for about four four years. Introduced by mutual friends, we never met through work, even though we worked in the same industries, on both sides of the table in marketing and advertising. To ruthlessly summarise Mike’s bio: he has worked at Ogilvy; as marketing director at Diageo; at Levi’s, first as Managing Director in South Africa and then Vice President of Marketing for Europe. He returned to South Africa and started his own agency, BrandsRock, which...
Christo Davel on karmic debt, poetry and profit
For most of his entrepreneurial career, Christo Davel has worked at the intersection of finance and technology, even before “fintech” was a thing. Among other businesses, he founded what became Old Mutual Direct, 20twenty (South Africa’s first pure online bank), and 22seven – which is where we met. Disclosure: we have become friends and have worked together on and off since then. In that time, he’s used some expressions that struck and stuck with me. In this interview, I asked him about them.
Mind the gap between actual and aspirational values
If you want to know what an organisation actually values, don’t look at what it says. Look at what it does.
Decisions, decisions
Some organisations make decisions based on data. Others base theirs on something more enduring.
Say culture like you mean it
A lot of people use the word “culture” without really knowing what they mean by it. Here are four ways to understand what it is.
Start With WHO
Simon Sinek says we should “start with why”. But perhaps we’d be even better off starting with “who”.
Purpose is positioning
Businesses and marketers have gone to quite bizarre lengths to differentiate their brands, products and services. But is it really necessary to define yourself in relation to others, or by what you’re not?
Purpose is the new Mission Statement
Unlike mission statements, purpose may actually change the way businesses do business. And purpose will probably put mission statements out of business.
Try your values on like a shirt
Some clients have got a bit upset when I’ve said this to them, but there are times when it’s okay, even advisable, to take company values for a kind of test drive.