Hello!
How are you?
As you can tell, your period of peace is now officially over as I’m back.
Sorry.
It goes without saying I had an amazing time with my Mum in Polar Bear territory … an amazing, special, wonderful time … but don’t worry, I won’t be boring you with it – instead I’ll be boring you with this:
In the last month, I’ve been exposed to the whole gamut of human emotions.
Happiness.
Sadness.
Pain.
Hope.
Love.
Worry.
Adulation.
Peace.
To be honest, it’s been quite amazing for both good and bad reasons … but through it all, I have seen how family and friendship helps you embrace, celebrate and overcome almost every situation in a way, nothing else can match.
Now I know what you’re thinking, “what’s new with that Rob?” and you’d be right, there’s nothing new to it at all – and yet life continually conspires to let us forget the value and importance of being surrounded by people who care … who share the same beliefs and values … who want the best for the common good, not just personal success.
While I was away, I watched a wonderfully amazing program on the famous London hotel, Claridge’s.
For all the talk of corporate culture and team building, this show demonstrated the difference between brands that spout ‘mission statements’ and brands that lead and live by example. It also served as a good reminder that to create strong and powerful brands, you have to maintain and execute your standards, values and beliefs rather than simply viewing your goal as ‘making cash’.
There were so many brilliant things in this show, but for me, there were 10 lessons all business could do with remembering and following:
1. Make sure everyone knows the role, goal and purpose of your company..
2. Hold yourself to the highest standards possible. Not the ‘best practice’ standards … but the standards others aspire to.
3. Train. Not in a lip-service kind-of-way, but done properly and with purpose.
4. Hire the right people.
5. Empower those people to do their job.
6. Keep your staff. In the case of Claridge’s, they had a huge amount of people who’d been there 20+ years.
7. Treat everyone with respect.
8. Be stubborn in your desire to maintain standards and traditions.
9. Embrace the new and the uncomfortable … it will be tomorrow’s standard & tradition. It will also keep you relevant and interesting.
10. Never underestimate the importance of strong – yet inclusive – management.
I know all of that sounds utterly obvious – and it is – but having watched the show, you realise how often companies fail to do these things … preferring to either execute a diluted version of these lessons or ignoring them altogether.
Now I appreciate some will claim there are valid reasons for avoidance – and maybe there are – however what I can say is that if more agencies and brands operated in the way Claridge’s acts, I’m pretty sure we would not only have an industry that was better positioned to grasp the future, but we’d have offices full of colleagues who were happier, more productive, more collaborative and imaginative than anything we have today.
Yes, the show was that good. Well, at least for me.
Anyway, have a look at the show and let me know what you think.