The Ten Commandments for Business Failure - Don Keough [57]
You, of course, could have anticipated the results. No matter what the food was, the individuals preferred the McDonald’s package. Even the carrots tasted better to them.
A brand is magic and it will thrive when it is in the hands of those who understand its magic and treat it with passionate care. A law firm becomes a brand. A hospital becomes a brand, and in a very real sense, the U.S.A. is a brand. Treated with love, a brand will stir passion among consumers, and, I might add, investors.
Treated badly, like Schlitz beer was, the brand and perhaps the whole company will just disappear.
Make an Emotional Connection with Your People
It is said by many companies, “People are our most important asset.”
I’ve been fortunate to be a part of companies that actually took the wisdom of this cliché to heart. My current corporate home, Allen & Company, has a unique culture that, as Herbert Allen once described it, is “a welfare state for employees, and raw capitalism for the principals.” Under his highly effective management philosophy, staff employees are generously salaried and they often receive rich bonuses that in great years match their pay. Managing directors, however, have no safety nets. They earn a percentage of only the business that they are able to generate. This arrangement might not work well in all firms, but it seems to satisfy everyone at Allen & Company, and the loyalty rate reflects that fact. The Allen culture treats people as if they were truly our most important asset because they simply are.
Based on the evidence, however, not too many companies actually believe that. If they did, they would all make the Fortune list of best places to work, and they wouldn’t find their top talent drifting off to other firms.
I’ve mentioned one reason why people may leave a company—the bureaucracy stifles them.
Another reason they leave is that they simply don’t have anything to be passionate about. Towers Perrin, a recruiter, conducted a survey and found that more than 35 percent of employees worldwide described themselves as disengaged and disenchanted.
For good employees, while money and power are important, even more important is the opportunity to be a part of something that kindles a passionate fire of enthusiasm. There simply is no greater motivation than giving an employee a challenge that demands a deep, passionate involvement, requiring their best effort.
In 1907 Ernest Shackleton was trying to raise a crew to sail with him on his exploration of the South Pole. He took out an ad in the London Times that read: “Wanted. Men for hazardous journey. Low wages. Bitter cold. Long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in the event of success.” The next morning, so the story goes, more than five thousand men lined up outside the newspaper’s office hoping to be one of the few selected for the trip.
Most people have a strong desire—a passion—to achieve something worthwhile, even when the odds are against them. Give them a significant piece of the puzzle and they will try to solve it for you. In any business, if a worthwhile challenge is given to employees and presented with passionate enthusiasm and if they are shown how their own passionate dedication and talent can be applied to meet that challenge, in my experience a vital sense of excitement will flow like electricity throughout the business.
Passion in one area sparks passion in other areas. It is contagious and leads to new ideas and new energy.
Make an Emotional Connection with Your Dreams
Dreams do not come true by wishing, but if you internalize them and determine to grow into them and visualize them coming true, then there is a greater chance that they will be realized. We are all in what Teilhard de Chardin calls a state of “becoming.” He wrote about striving to reach the omega point,