The trial of Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of disgraced blood-testing startup Theranos, has begun in a San Francisco courtroom. Holmes sits accused of defrauding patients, doctors, and investors of more than $700 million — charges which she denies but which may land her in jail for up to 20 years. It’s...
Organisations are made of unheroic work — those thousands of everyday actions and decisions that keep your particular engine turning. Hidden and often unexamined, it is the lion-share of what people do in their jobs.I call the gap between what you say is most important and how people do that...
You know the page. There might even be one in your organisation. At the top is purpose, and from there, the cascade continues…PurposeVisionMissionCore ValuesStrategic pillarsBrand promiseBrand valuesEssencePersonalityExperience principlesPositioningEtc. I frequently see organisations that have the entire shebang including some I haven’t even listed. It’s madness. No one can hold all of...
A recent article here on SmartCompany highlighted the findings of a “Breakthrough Brand” list. Put together by agency Interbrand, the list included a grab bag of companies they like, chosen using an approach that reflects their brand world view. So far, no big deal. There are plenty of best of brand surveys and lists out...
The book “Noise, A Flaw in Human Judgement” by Daniel Kahneman, Cass Sunstein and Oliver Sibony explores the information and choices that interfere with judgement when people make decisions.Reading it got me thinking about noise of a different kind.Brand noise.The interference comes from many quarters (and here I am adding...
Values are not there as a billboard for your goodness.Frankly, I don’t care what someone who doesn’t work for me, with me and buy from me thinks of them and nor should you.So, when I talk about good and bad values, it’s not with any moral judgement. Instead, it’s the...
Are you a trust given or a trust earned person?In my experience, everyone is one or the other, and like oil and water, the two don’t mix. When earners run into givers, things quickly become the trust edition of a Mexican stand-off.It’s one of the things I look for when...
Breaking promises has consequences, and Crown Resorts and its Melbourne Casino are under the microscope because they chose to break theirs to the government about how they would run the casino. Not because there weren’t enough people keeping watch. It’s like a kid stealing from the cookie jar, and now they’ve...
Consequences always follow promises, and the nature of the outcome is determined by whether you keep or break them.At first glance, broken promises appear to exert a more significant impact. And indeed, the hurt caused deserves attention. Less examined are the gains from keeping them.It’s easy to overlook the rippling...
Anyone who has ever tried to change an organisation’s culture can attest to legacy’s sticky hold, where the pull of the past routinely stymies good intentions.How to break through the inertia is the question wrestled with by every organisation taking a deliberate approach to their culture. Culture is built one action...