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Culture

How to Avoid Becoming a Destructive Leader

You possess immense power and resources as a leader at the helm of a major brand. However, even the wealthiest and most successful individuals can be entangled in a metaphorical cult of their own making—one that stifles innovation, impedes growth, and jeopardizes the very essence of effective leadership. Drawing inspiration from the recent Netflix documentary, “Waco: American Apocalypse,” we unravel the gripping tale of the Branch Davidians’ tragic standoff to shed light on how to avoid becoming a victim of your success.

Unveiling the Blind Spots:

In your quest for greatness, you must remain vigilant and recognize the signs of a destructive cult within your organization. Cult-like behaviors such as excessive control, silencing dissent, and stifling innovation can gradually erode your company’s potential. Conversely, awareness of these red flags ensures you maintain an environment fostering individual growth, collaboration, and creative thinking.

Embrace Critical Thinking and Autonomy:

Leadership should inspire, not dictate. Encourage a culture of critical thinking and autonomy, empowering your employees to question the status quo, challenge assumptions, and explore new avenues of success. By fostering a sense of personal agency, you create an environment that values diverse perspectives and fuels innovation.

Cultivating a Supportive Ecosystem:

Great leaders are not solitary figures but rather architects of thriving ecosystems. Foster strong support networks within your organization that promote open communication, trust, and collaboration. By cultivating a sense of belonging and encouraging teamwork, you create a powerful shield against the allure of divisive cult-like behaviors that breed discontent and hamper progress.

Education as a Catalyst:

Continual education and dialogue act as powerful catalysts for transformational leadership. Encourage a culture of learning and curiosity within your organization. By providing growth opportunities, investing in training programs, and promoting knowledge-sharing initiatives, you create an empowered workforce equipped to navigate the complexities of the modern business landscape.

Seeking Expert Guidance:

Even the most successful leaders benefit from expert guidance. Recognize that seeking professional intervention when needed demonstrates strength and wisdom. Cultivate relationships with trusted advisors, mentors, and coaches who can provide valuable insights, challenge your assumptions, and help you navigate the evolving dynamics of leadership.

By remaining vigilant, encouraging critical thinking, fostering a supportive ecosystem, promoting continuous education, and seeking expert guidance, you can redefine the boundaries of effective leadership.

June 2, 2023 by

Uncover Your Company’s Organizational Culture

Knowing your organization’s culture is essential. It molds your workplace’s values, attitudes, and behaviors and can significantly impact your team’s efficiency and overall success. In addition, identifying the predominant culture type can provide insights into your company’s strengths and potential areas for improvement. 

The four types of organizational cultures are:

Clan Culture: This is a people-oriented, highly collaborative work environment where everyone is valued and communication is prioritized. Clan cultures emphasize solid relationships and foster a sense of belonging. They promote open dialogue, teamwork, and mentorship opportunities.

Adhocracy Culture: This culture thrives on adaptability and innovation. It is an environment that promotes risk-taking, individuality, and creativity. Adhocracy cultures value flexibility and focus on converting innovative ideas into business growth and success.

Market Culture: This is a results-oriented work environment where success is measured by external factors rather than internal satisfaction. Market cultures are competitive and goal-driven, emphasizing meeting quotas, reaching targets, and achieving measurable outcomes. 

Hierarchy Culture: This traditional, risk-averse work environment values stability and uniformity. Hierarchy cultures prioritize following established rules and guidelines, minimizing adaptability and change. 

We’ve developed a questionnaire containing eight comprehensive questions to assess your organizational culture. These questions cover various aspects of your company’s values, communication style, approach to innovation, leadership dynamics, and response to change. Once you’ve completed the questionnaire and tallied your responses, you’ll be able to gain valuable insights into your company’s culture type.

1. How would you describe the communication style within your company?

   a) Open, frequent, and collaborative

   b) Informal and flexible

   c) Goal-oriented and focused on results

   d) Formal and structured

2. Does your company encourage mentorship and learning opportunities?

   a) Yes, mentorship programs are actively promoted

   b) There are some opportunities for mentorship, but not a strong focus

   c) Limited mentorship opportunities are available

   d) Mentorship is not a priority within the company

3. How does your company approach innovation and new ideas?

   a) Encourages and rewards risk-taking and creativity

   b) Values new ideas, but implementation is limited

   c) Innovation is not a top priority but is occasionally considered

   d) Innovation and new ideas are discouraged or ignored

4. What is the primary focus of your company’s culture?

   a) Building solid relationships and collaboration

   b) Driving innovation and breakthroughs

   c) Achieving market success and meeting targets

   d) Maintaining stability and following established processes

5. How would you describe your company’s hierarchy and decision-making level?

   a) Flat hierarchy, decisions are made collaboratively

   b) Some hierarchy, but decision-making is decentralized

   c) Clear hierarchy and decision-making authority

   d) Highly hierarchical with limited employee involvement in decision-making

6. How does your company respond to change and adaptability?

   a) Embraces change and encourages flexibility

   b) Adapts to change when necessary but prefers stability

   c) Resists change and prefers to maintain the status quo

   d) Change is rarely considered or implemented

7. What is the relationship between executives and employees in your company?

   a) Executives are accessible and engage with employees regularly

   b) Executives have some interaction with employees

   c) Limited interaction between executives and employees

   d) Executives are distant and have minimal contact with employees

8. How important is achieving internal satisfaction and employee well-being in your company?

   a) High priority, with emphasis on employee happiness and well-being

   b) Moderately significant, but external success takes precedence

   c) Not a significant focus. Results are the primary concern

   d) Not a priority. Employee well-being is primarily overlooked

How to Score and Interpret Your Results: 

For every question, assign points as follows:

  • For each “a” response, give 4 points.
  • For each “b” response, give 3 points.
  • For each “c” response, give 2 points.
  • Finally, for each “d” response, assign 1 point.

Add up your total score. The maximum score you can achieve is 32, and the minimum is 8. 

The higher your score, the more your company leans toward a Clan or Adhocracy Culture – focused on collaboration, innovation, and adaptability. Conversely, if your score is lower, your organization is more likely to align with a Market or Hierarchy Culture, focusing more on results, structure, and stability.

By understanding these four types of organizational cultures, you can better assess the present culture within your company and make informed decisions about whether you want to maintain or change it. In addition, this awareness will allow you to create an environment that best supports your organization’s goals, values, and team success.

June 1, 2023 by

How “nudges” can become your best leadership tool

Culture is the lifeblood of every organization. It sets the tone for how your employees work, interact, and contribute to your company’s success. When building a robust, resilient, and people-centric company culture, it might be surprising to learn that small interventions or ‘nudges’ can create meaningful change. This technique leverages behavioral economics and cognitive psychology to influence decisions subtly and encourage actions in the right direction.

The Power of Nudging

Nudging has shown effectiveness in various fields, from promoting healthy habits to environmental conservation. A famous example of nudging was Volkswagen’s “The Fun Theory” initiative, where a set of stairs was transformed into giant piano keys next to an escalator. The stairs-piano saw a 66% increase in usage over the escalator, proving that a fun and engaging nudge could encourage healthier choices.

Similarly, Copenhagen Airport introduced singing dustbins to encourage passengers to dispose of their trash correctly. These playful nudges were successful in significantly reducing littering in the airport.

Nudging in Action: The Home Depot’s Success Story

Even in a corporate setting, nudging has shown remarkable results. A prime example is The Home Depot’s leadership development strategy. The Home Depot faced a significant challenge in scaling its high-touch, highly customized “High-Potential Program” to its more extensive “New Director Program.” The success of the High-Potential Program was based on “action learning,” a method that facilitates behavior change through practice and habit-building. The high-touch coaching approach worked as a nudge, promoting active learning.

Michael Cabe, Senior Manager of Learning Strategy at The Home Depot, and his team used email nudges to deliver action learning directly to the learners’ inboxes to scale this approach. These nudges served three primary purposes: action learning delivery, reminders for mandatory work, and follow-ups after peer meetings.

By nudging new directors to engage with action learning, The Home Depot saw an increase in attendance at peer meetings and in-person sessions and significantly improved engagement with content and the quality of discussions in peer meetings. This success story underscores the potential of well-designed nudges in driving behavior change at scale.

Applying Nudging to Your Company Culture
According to Daniel Kahneman’s dual-process theory, nudging appeals to our intuitive, automatic thinking, subtly influencing our choices without consciously realizing it. Developing a successful nudging strategy requires deeply understanding your organization’s objectives, employees’ behaviors, and the overall work environment. As leaders, here are some questions you can ask yourselves to help formulate an effective nudging strategy:

  1. What are our organizational objectives? Understanding your objectives, including a nudging strategy, is the first step in any strategy. The goals will guide the direction of your nudges.
  2. What behaviors do we want to encourage or discourage? Identify the specific actions you want your employees to take or avoid. These could range from encouraging more sustainable behaviors (like using less paper) to promoting healthy habits (such as taking regular breaks from the computer).
  3. What are the current behaviors? To design effective nudges, you need to understand the existing behavior patterns of your employees. Use surveys, observations, or data analysis to understand how things currently work in your organization.
  4. What obstacles are preventing the desired behaviors? Once you know what you want to achieve and the status quo, identify the barriers that prevent your employees from behaving in the desired way. These could be a lack of knowledge, motivation, or structural barriers such as inconvenient processes.
  5. Where and when can we best deliver the nudges? Timing and location are crucial for effective nudges. Consider the context in which your employees decide about the behavior you want to change.
  6. How can we make the desired behavior the path of least resistance? Nudges work best when they make the desired behavior easy and frictionless.

By answering these questions, you’ll be well on your way to creating a nudging strategy that can positively influence behavior and contribute to a more productive, engaged, and positive company culture—nudging works by tapping into how our brains make decisions.

May 19, 2023 by

Leading a Cult Brand: Take this 3-part journey to become an empowering leader

Executives are expected to produce results, but the way they achieve them has evolved. The focus has shifted from heroic individual leadership to empowering and enabling employees, requiring strong people skills. Many executives struggle to adapt to this new reality, but we’ve identified a three-stage journey, inspired by Joseph Campbell’s concept of the “Hero’s Journey” from his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, to help leaders develop the necessary skills for today’s environment.

Stage One: The Departure (Call to Adventure)

The departure stage marks the beginning of the leader’s transformation, akin to Campbell’s “Call to Adventure.” Here, they recognize the need for change and intentionally leave behind their familiar ways of working. A study conducted by Spencer Stuart, a top leadership advisory firm, highlights the importance of self-awareness and adaptability in leaders, as they must become more people-centric and relinquish control.

Stage Two: The Voyage (Trials and Challenges)

During the voyage, leaders face trials and obstacles that teach them valuable lessons and pave the way for personal growth. This stage parallels Campbell’s “Road of Trials” in the Hero’s Journey. This transitional phase pushes leaders out of their comfort zones and forces them to confront their own limitations. In a study of 75 CEO successions involving 235 candidates from 2009 to 2019, researchers found that executives who were able to overcome challenges during this stage demonstrated stronger people skills and delivered better results for their organizations.

Stage Three: The Return (Master of Two Worlds)

In the return stage, leaders have a newfound understanding of their role and the kind of leader they aspire to be. They begin to apply the people skills they’ve acquired and share their learnings with others, much like the “Master of Two Worlds” in Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Research shows that by embracing a more enabling and empowering style, leaders can inspire and motivate their teams, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and psychological safety. A study by Google’s Project Aristotle found that high-performing teams often had leaders who focused on building psychological safety, enabling open communication, and promoting collaboration.

Developing people skills is a continuous, often uncomfortable process that unfolds over time. By embarking on this three-stage journey leaders can successfully transition from a directive approach to one that empowers and enables their employees, ultimately unlocking the full potential of their organization and themselves in the process.

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Unleash your team’s potential with the Brand Vision Workshop. Develop a powerful brand vision that drives growth, loyalty, and advocacy. Partner with us to co-create an authentic brand that resonates with your audience. Learn more at www.cultbranding.com.

May 3, 2023 by

Creating a Winning Company Culture

The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley is a classic self-help book that outlines the mindset necessary to achieve success in all areas of life. Although the book is primarily focused on personal achievement, the insights it offers can be applied to creating a strong company culture. 

Focus on the Positive

One of the main themes of The Psychology of Winning is the importance of focusing on the positive. According to Waitley, success is not just about achieving goals, but also about developing a positive attitude and mindset. In the workplace, this means creating a culture that celebrates successes and encourages employees to focus on what is going well rather than what is going wrong. This can be achieved through regular recognition and rewards for outstanding performance, as well as creating a culture of gratitude and appreciation.

Embrace Change

Another key principle of The Psychology of Winning is the importance of embracing change. Waitley argues that success requires a willingness to adapt and change course when necessary. This principle is particularly relevant in today’s rapidly changing business landscape, where companies must be agile and adaptable in order to survive. Creating a culture of innovation and experimentation can help foster this willingness to embrace change and help employees feel comfortable taking risks and trying new things.

Build Resilience

Resilience is another important characteristic outlined in The Psychology of Winning. According to Waitley, successful people are able to bounce back from setbacks and failures, and use these experiences as opportunities for growth and learning. In the workplace, building resilience means creating a culture that encourages risk-taking and experimentation, while also providing support and resources to help employees overcome obstacles and challenges.

Develop a Growth Mindset

The concept of a growth mindset, popularized by psychologist Carol Dweck, is also relevant to creating a strong company culture. A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence and abilities can be developed through hard work and dedication. This mindset is in contrast to a fixed mindset, which assumes that abilities are fixed and cannot be changed. Creating a culture of learning and development can help foster a growth mindset among employees, and encourage them to continuously improve their skills and abilities.

Foster a Sense of Purpose

Finally, The Psychology of Winning emphasizes the importance of having a sense of purpose in life. According to Waitley, successful people are driven by a sense of purpose and meaning, and are motivated by a desire to make a positive impact on the world. In the workplace, this means creating a culture that values and supports employees’ personal and professional goals, and aligning these goals with the company’s mission and values. This can help employees feel a sense of purpose and fulfillment in their work, and ultimately lead to a more engaged and motivated workforce.

By focusing on the positive, embracing change, building resilience, developing a growth mindset, and fostering a sense of purpose, your organization can create a culture that supports employee success and drives business results.

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Elevate your team’s potential with the transformative power of the Brand Vision Workshop. This experiential team-building program is designed to unite your team around a shared brand vision, cultivate unwavering brand loyalty, and drive sustainable growth. Engage in immersive sessions, strategic discussions, and creative brainstorming activities to co-create a powerful brand vision that deeply resonates with your target audience. By partnering with us, you’ll gain invaluable insights and strategies to shape the future of your brand and turn your customers into passionate brand evangelists. Discover more about this one-of-a-kind opportunity to empower your team and elevate your brand at www.cultbranding.com.

May 2, 2023 by

7 Essential Steps to Cultivate a Cult Brand Through Positive Company Culture

Building a cult brand is not only about creating a strong product or service, but also about fostering a positive company culture where employees thrive and contribute to the brand’s success. In this article, we will delve into seven reasons why focusing on a positive company culture is vital for leaders seeking to create a cult brand.

1. Positive culture elevates employee morale and satisfaction

A positive work environment empowers employees to be engaged, motivated, and productive, fostering a sense of meaningful work that is appreciated. This leads to improved relationships, teamwork, and collaboration, which are essential for a cult brand’s success.

Tip: Facilitate open communication, acknowledge employees’ contributions, and ensure everyone feels valued and heard.

2. Positive culture attracts top talent

An attractive workplace culture is key to drawing and retaining exceptional employees, who are often seeking a company that aligns with their values, offers growth opportunities, and provides a supportive work environment. By cultivating such a culture, leaders can assemble a strong and successful team that contributes to the cult brand’s growth.

Tip: Showcase your company culture in job postings and during interviews, ensuring potential employees understand your organization’s values and opportunities.

3. Positive culture fosters collaboration and innovation

A supportive culture encourages employees to be creative, take risks, and collaborate to develop new solutions and ideas. This innovative mindset can lead to breakthroughs and advancements that propel a cult brand forward.

Tip: Encourage cross-functional teamwork, create opportunities for collaboration, and acknowledge innovative contributions.

4. Positive culture enhances employee retention

A sense of purpose and fulfillment in a positive culture leads to improved job satisfaction and higher retention rates. Employees who feel supported in their work are more likely to remain engaged and committed to the cult brand’s success.

Tip: Offer regular feedback opportunities, invest in professional development, and ensure employees feel valued in their day-to-day work.

5. Positive culture bolsters communication

In a supportive environment, open and transparent communication flourishes, resulting in improved understanding, collaboration, and reduced conflicts. A harmonious work environment where problems are resolved collectively contributes to the cult brand’s success.

Tip: Encourage regular check-ins, provide feedback opportunities, and give employees access to essential information.

6. Positive culture enhances brand reputation

Employees who feel appreciated will speak positively about the company, leading to an improved reputation. A positive workplace culture can attract top talent and help a cult brand remain competitive and successful.

Tip: Align company culture with brand messaging and values, and share stories about your culture and values with stakeholders.

7. Positive culture promotes personal and professional growth

Within a thriving culture, employees are motivated to learn, develop, and take on new challenges. This drive for continuous improvement benefits the cult brand as employees grow alongside the company.

Tip: Offer skill-building opportunities, encourage new challenges, and recognize individual growth and development.

Focusing on fostering a positive company culture is crucial for leaders aiming to create a cult brand. Open communication, employee recognition, growth opportunities, and consistent alignment of culture with brand values are key to achieving this goal. By concentrating on company culture, leaders can cultivate a successful cult brand that stands the test of time.

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With over 20 years of experience as The Cult Branding Company, we’ve honed our strategies and methods to help companies identify their brand’s DNA, gain deep consumer insights, and understand the marketplace ecosystem. We are an independent agency that creates strong and provocative relationships between good companies and their customers. Visit us at www.cultbranding.com and unlock the secrets to building a brand that resonates with your audience and stands the test of time.

April 19, 2023 by

The Newest Cult Brands: The Organizations We’ve Been Keeping an Eye On

Over the years that we’ve been researching and assisting Cult Brands – companies like Apple, Coca-Cola, and Kohl’s – it’s become clear that there’s a reliable process for identifying organizations that have the potential to achieve Cult Brand status. 

It’s this process – illustrated with examples drawn from the current class of emerging Cult Brands – that I’ll be writing about over the course of the next few weeks.  I’m doing this because while it’s relatively easy to spot Cult Brands when they’re on top, it can be challenging to discover them before that. 

Additionally, I think it’s important for leaders and brand managers to understand that Cult Brands are deliberately created. There’s a series of decisions that Cult Brands have to make and consistently implement in order to achieve and maintain strong customer relationships. Cult Brands don’t just spontaneously happen – they choose to exist. 

Then, Now, Forever, Together: The WWE’s 40-Year Legacy as a Cult Brand

Two years ago, the WWE updated its tagline. They changed “Then, Now, Forever” to “Then, Now, Forever, Together”. In Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon’s statement about the change at the time, we find the following language:

“WWE has always been about inclusivity. … We are all about bringing people together, putting smiles on people’s faces, and creating moments and memories that last a lifetime.” …  “No matter who they are, no matter what they do for a living, no matter where they live, no matter how much money they make, they belong, they are a part of WWE and that’s the inclusive nature of our community and the bigger WWE family.”

This focus on the customer relationship is at the heart of every Cult Brand. Without this aspect, achieving Cult Brand status is impossible. However, the WWE has over the years done many other innovative things to continually attract new customer interest & render their competitors irrelevant.

Are You Ready to Rumble: Wrestlemania & the Customer Experience

Prior to Vince McMahon founding the WWE – then called the WWF – watching professional wrestling was a somewhat fringe experience, held in cheap venues not generally of the sort you’d bring your family to. 

McMahon was the first promoter to put the event focus on the customer experience. Everything became much more theatrical. Entrance music, pyrotechnics, and a consistently high caliber of ring talent delivered an exciting experience people wanted to be part of. The first Wrestlemania was revolutionary, putting the fun right in the middle of Madison Square Garden.

Pay Per View was another innovation the WWE made good use of. Giving the fans a way to access the fun while removing the need to travel a great distance or spend lots of money was very smart. Fan groups gathered to watch PPV matches, strengthening their bond to each other and the brand.

Flash forward twenty years, and the WWE still has a loyal, strong fanbase. After launching a fairly successful independent WWE network, they’ve recently made the migration to Peacock, one of the largest streaming platforms. The fanbase is now global – India in particular has many fans – and a widely reported yet currently uncompleted sale to the Saudi government is in the works. 

What’s next for the WWE remains to be seen, but if they maintain their focus on the customer relationship, providing a superior level of entertainment, and remaining flexible and adaptable as new technology becomes available, we see no reason why they shouldn’t be considered fully as a Cult Brand. 

What do you think? Do you consider the WWE a Cult Brand? Can you name any of their competitors? How would you explain the multi-generational nature of their fans? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

March 13, 2023 by

Free McDonald’s for Life? That’s Not Boring

Anyone who is serious about brand building pays attention to what McDonald’s is doing. Over the years we’ve seen some really great ideas executed by skilled teams determined to keep on top of a very competitive industry.  When I saw CMO Tariq Hassan comment in a recent CNBC story that he tells his team to be comfortable being boring, I had to laugh.

Google “McDonald’s Free Food for Life” to see how much editorial coverage the brand’s latest campaign has generated. Designed to increase the number of McDonald’s customers using the brand’s app, this campaign offers customers one entry per purchase into a chance to unlock free McDonald’s food for life – for them and for three of their friends. This type of global attention is not boring.

In fact, here are a couple of points McDonald’s is making that I think are well worth paying attention to. 

Focus on a Channel to See It Flourish

It was interesting to see Hassan pointing out the value placed on app-using customers – he called them ‘more meaningful and profitable’ – and also talking about the efforts required to attract and retain those customers. A significant investment in marketing and paid media brings new users on board; after that, it’s all about the channel experience. There’s a similar significant investment at this point as well – app users have access to special online concerts, limited edition merch, and other pretty cool perks.

The key point is this: you have to focus on a channel if you want to see it flourish. Ask any gardener – if they have some area of the yard they want to fill with beautiful flowers and lush vegetables, that’s where they’ll concentrate all of their energy. The soil will get the best nutrition, there will be plenty of water and sunshine, all the weeds will be pulled away – basically, focus – and as a result, the garden will flourish. 

Apps don’t attract customers simply by being there. You have to have a well-defined user acquisition and retention strategy.  Have a compelling reason for customers to download the app and even more compelling reasons for them to keep using it. 

Keep Channel Experience Consistent with Larger Strategic Objectives

Since the pandemic, McDonald’s has simplified its menu. Core classic items – cheeseburgers and fries, let’s say – remain, while trendy, underperforming items like salads and parfaits are gone. Hassan calls this strategic consistency, and it appears customers appreciate having a smaller, more affordable array of options. 

What’s important to understand here is that the McDonald’s app experience is consistent with the rest of the brand narrative – you can get your Chicken Nuggets, you can get your Big Mac – while adding a layer of community and fun. Over the three weeks the “Win McDonald’s Food for Life” campaign runs, people will be discussing what it would be like to win that prize. They contemplate which three friends they’d share the experience with. What would it be like to share french fries with the same people for the next fifty years?  Downloading an app is a small way to take part in the fun and be part of the conversation. Meanwhile, the savings incentives are focused on classic menu items, helping customers strengthen their connection to the brand’s chosen path forward. Smart. 

What Do You Think?

Are you a McDonald’s app user? If you are, has the relationship you have with the brand changed over the time you’ve been using the app? Would you want to win free McDonald’s food for life? Inquiring minds want to know!

December 7, 2022 by

Love K-Pop, Love Korea? It Might Be That Simple

In July 1970, American Top 40 was born – dominating the radio airwaves for decades and cementing Billboard Magazine’s iconic charts as the relevant metric for the industry. Just last month, they launched the “The K-Billboard Awards” to celebrate the accomplishments of K-Pop artists. 

K-Pop is absolutely a musical phenomenon. Combining fun tunes, precisely coordinated dance routines and flashy fashion, the bands have gained popularity around the world. BTS is perhaps the most well-known group, but there are literally hundreds of others. If you’re reading this, the odds are pretty good you’re involved in brand building – so you know this type of global enthusiasm doesn’t just happen. So what’s going on?

Understanding Hallyu: The Rise of South Korea’s Cultural Economy

It was in the mid-nineties when South Korean economic officials began to realize how profitable popular culture could be. The profits from Jurassic Park – a mega-hit at the time – was the equivalent of exporting 60,000 Hyundai cars.

At this point, South Korea began investing heavily in developing its music and film industry. There’s been some critiques of how K-Pop musicians are trained in an assembly-line fashion, but no one’s knocking the cinematographers: Squid Games, Love and Leashes, and other South Korean offerings are earning rave reviews.

It’s important to understand that there’s absolutely an economic incentive to create and export great content. But we’d be naive not to examine this phenomenon in its greater context. The K-Pop phenomenon results in more people loving (or at least being quite fond of) South Korea. In geopolitical terms, that’s known as Soft Power.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which began writing about the K-Pop phenomenon in 2020, explains soft power this way:

“…being home to popular shows and bands is not in itself a form of soft power. There is a distinction between nation branding—a country generally promoting a positive but relatively shallow view of itself—and soft power. Soft power takes the appeal of soft resources—attractive pop culture fixtures like movie stars and pop icons, tourist attractions, and a welcoming environment for study abroad programs—and combines them to create, and solidify, new long-term changes in how people think about or interact with the country in question. After all, as the father of soft power, Joseph Nye, wrote, soft power is all about getting another party to want what you want.”

But Does It Work?

It’s one thing to say that creating a legion of fans for a particular country’s culture can influence politics – but does it work? Well, K-Pop fans famously (and fraudulently) registered for hundreds of Trump-rally tickets they never intended to use. This led to the former President to give a speech to a nearly empty house in Tulsa. Cable news had a field day playing and replaying the story, which, ultimately, to some degree, influenced the election. 

Was this coordinated by the South Korean government or a spontaneous action of a cohort of like-minded individuals? These lines blur, don’t they, when we stop thinking of art as an end in itself and consider it instead as a strategic asset in an increasingly uncertain world?  If you had Kim Jong-Un living next door to you, you’d want lots of friends too.

And if that means making beautiful music, beautiful music you will make.

November 14, 2022 by

Who Do You Love: A Look at Hot Chicken Takeover

In the course of my research into what makes customers love some brands more than others, it’s become clear that a brand’s relationship with its employees carries a significant amount of weight. 

One of the reasons Publix Super Markets enjoys its dominant position in the competitive grocery industry is the positive relationship they maintain with its employees. Because the employees are well treated, well compensated, and eventually become eligible to take an ownership position in the store, they go out of their way to be nice to the customers. This, in turn, helps build love and loyalty. It’s a strategy that works very well. Showing your employees you care about them makes it easier for your employees and customers to love you back.

But sometimes, it’s hard for people to get into positions where their employers can love them. Bad life decisions can result in criminal records, bankruptcies, and homelessness – all factors that make getting a job extremely difficult. 

One restaurant chain – Hot Chicken Takeover – is gaining much positive attention due to its policy of hiring men and women who need supportive employment. In addition to providing people with jobs, Hot Chicken Takeover also provides mental health referrals, connections to housing services, emergency cash, and a savings matching program. These additional benefits play a pivotal role for people transitioning into better lives – and receiving their results in a workforce that’s loyal and hard-working. Best of all, Hot Chicken Takeover customers love the restaurant for both its food and its mission. 

When Harvard Business Review considered the question of whether or not businesses should hire people with criminal records, they did a good job of examining the structural inequalities currently present in this country. People of color are far more likely to be arrested and convicted of crimes than white people who commit the same offense. While many employers say they will consider hiring someone with a criminal record, the data shows these applicants receive significantly fewer callbacks and are hired very rarely. 

By taking a stand and being willing to invest in the health and well-being of its workforce, Hot Chicken Takeover has done more than build a strong brand. They’ve changed hundreds of lives for the better. They’ve made it possible for people to build lives of dignity through hard work. And they’ve earned the lasting love of those employees as well as the public, who understands and appreciates the rare opportunity this restaurant provides. 

Who Do You Love?

 Is your organization open to hiring people who have troubled pasts? Is your brand capable of providing the type of supportive environment that allows employees to thrive and grow? Do your brand values allow for second chances?  These are the type of questions that can change an organization’s future – but you have to believe in the power of love to make it work.

September 6, 2022 by