What’s King?

A couple months ago one of our designers asked me “What’s King here?” I had to ask him what he meant. When he clarified his question I understood that he was asking me what drives BrandExtract. It became clear that he was trying to find out who had the final say at BE and what our motivation as a firm was. As we discussed the question more we talked about creativity, money, people, ego and other things that drive companies to make the decisions they make. I had to think about it for a minute but we came to an answer pretty quickly.

• In some organizations ego rules so success means making the owner happy
• In some organizations creativity rules so success means doing cool stuff
• In some organizations the client rules so you do what they want
• In some organizations money rules so optimizing profit becomes king

In our organization doing the right thing rules

This means doing the right thing by our clients, our people and our work. I’ve worked in firms that have had all of these “kings.” None are really wrong or right and in many cases good organizations can be driven by any of these but we feel that it is our duty to point our clients and our people in the right direction.

It takes heart to be committed 

Doing the right thing takes heart. That means we need to take the time to do good research, listen to key stakeholders and really think about the needs of the problems were solving for our clients. Sometimes we have to stand up to each other and ask whether or not we’re just doing something cool or is our solution truly adding value for our clients. In other cases we have to choose the right thing for our clients even though they don’t have the budget to cover what it will take. And in some cases, we have to guide our clients in the right direction because they’re asking us to go the wrong way. Do we hit the mark all the time? No, but we’re working toward it every minute of every day.

Choosing to follow this “King” is difficult

It takes courage, commitment, communication and big thinking to be lead by this King. We’ve defined our mission as the following – We inspire organizations to create, transform and grow. With that promise we solidify our client’s goals and help transform their vision into reality. We drive them forward and we make things that matter. In this kingdom there are no shortcuts, sometimes we stumble, but we hit the mark. When all parties work together we end up with a solution that works for everyone.

Deciding on the King

What’s King in your organization? In many successful organizations the King can be something different than what it is at BrandExtract. Profit, innovation, service, customers, etc. are all good examples of Kings that we’ve seen work. Nothing is really right or wrong as long as your organization is true to it. It’s really about what fits your vision it’s critical to the success of your organization. It can be simple to determine what’s King within your organization, you just have to take some time to look internally, study your customers and look at why you do what you do. In some cases it’s nothing ground breaking or even different from what you do every day but it’s important to get it on paper and communicate it every day. It should be embodied in your mission statement, the things you say every day in your office and the way you treat people that are involved with your organization. At BE we want to be known for doing the right thing and doing it the right way. This way we can help our clients inspire their companies and key stakeholders to create, transform and grow.