I mentioned that ’Passion’ had joined the list of much used FTSE company values along side integrity, trust and teamwork.
I am not alone, just have a look at this You Tube clip

'A principle is not a principle until it costs you money’ – the role of ‘values’ in an Employer Brand

This quote came from the great Bill Bernbach, founder of the celebrated ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach, made famous by their distinctive work for Volkswagen and others which broke the predictable mould of advertising towards the end of the ‘Mad Men’ era in the 1960s.

I think of that line when I see the value statements of most large companies. A statement of values and the behaviours and processes they drive should be a fundamental building block of any employer brand – vividly demonstrated in the way the place works. People in Business recently studied the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 top UK businesses (The FTSE) and established that 65 of them have stated values which are on their websites. The 35 who do not may believe that a formal statement is superfluous since the culture, style and positioning are clearly in the DNA and do not need added promotion in that form.

Frankly, looking at the 65 value statements there maybe another reason for not going public which is that non participants may be aghast at the samey obvious values which dozens of large organisations trot out. Maybe they just don’t want to join that club. You can see why from the PiB analysis ie 31 mentioned ‘Integrity’ and if you add similar words like ‘Trust’ and ‘Honesty’ that rises to 55. ‘Respect’ is claimed by 22 of the 65, ‘Responsible’ 20 and ‘Teamwork’ 19. Another 15 companies, trying perhaps to push the boundaries, state that‘Passion’ is a value of theirs.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with any of these as words which should underpin the basic stance of any organisation but value statements like these cannot form the basis for an employer brand which is distinctive and compelling. After all, unless you are Bernie Madoff or in organised crime, then are not such noble sentiments fundamental to all of us? They just do not add anything other than tick the box that ‘we have a set of values’

I think a great value statement should stop you in your tracks and make you think. It should give you an indication of what is expected of you and tell you what is really important to the organisation and what it stands for. Consider these for starters:

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité for post revolutionary France in the late 18th Century

The Declaration of Independence for the United States of America. A brilliant example of where succinct prose works better than a few stated beliefs. In 1776 it was also a global first.

Down the street from PiB's office is the Lutyens memorial to the nurse Edith Cavell shot at dawn in Brussels, October 1915. There are four words in the stone ’Fortitude, Humanity, Sacrifice, Devotion’. Eighty five years on it strikes me as timely right now for the 20 health care volunteers killed at one time by the Taliban in Afghanistan earlier this year and all those who continue do that brave and vital work under such circumstances.

We have a new partner in Turkey and the basis of that country’s continuing stance is based on the stated beliefs of its leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk post the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 - ‘Westernization, Modernisation, Solidarity, Secularization and Equality for All Turks’. Turkey today is still driven by these values and the behaviours that represent them. Ataturk also knew the power of one simple edict to demonstrate a new order – in 1925 he made the Fez (the traditional hat of the ruling class) illegal stating that ‘civilised men wear civilised hats!’. He wore a fine Panama hat from then on.

Values should be at the heart of any worthwhile Employer Brand if the leadership can sign off on statements which are compelling and distinctive and which they themselves can demonstrate. It can be very hard to establish statements which match the power of the examples I have used above but using words which are just worthy and commonplace will not do it for you. If you can’t do it right, wait until you can.


Simon Barrow
16 November 2010

Small businessess need an Employer Brand too

- a new frontier for the Employer Brand?

Most Employer Brand conferences are attended by delegates from large businesses, so it was a special event to be asked to talk about how the employer brand might be considered by 130 lawyers gathered at a recent NetLaw Media conference in London. While there were a few ‘magic’ or ‘silver’ circle firms present the majority were small businesses with not more than 10 partners . All the delegates were lawyers themselves, mostly senior partners facing with all the usual challenges of running a small business eg:
- cash management,
- client relationships,
- the pressure to bill (write offs can come in separate time period!),
- whether to concentrate services and build a reputation for particular expertise (in which case what to drop?)
- How and when to outsource (given the low prices for Asian work)
- Poor leadership –as one said law firms have rarely been led just managed
- How good are lawyers at being seen to deliver?
- The relationship between actual time recorded and that billed.
- Debtor management –why are lawyers last in the line to get paid?,

In addition to all that they had the impact of the Legal Services Act (coming into place in October 2011) to consider.

HR, Marketing and Communications people are naturally interested in the Employer Brand – it forms part of what is expected of them - but small businesses rarely employ such specialists. They have to live with the immediate issues and I would doubt that many of these firms have a strategic plan. Thinking ahead will be limited to a budget.

Yet small businesses do of course have an individual reputation for the working experience they offer. They will have to cope with managing that experience and they will have to recruit, engage and motivate their teams. They will also have to worry about how their business stands out versus their competitors. While they may not realise it in the mass of daily pressures they will need the insights, the planning and the implementation which an EB process can provide. We must make the case in a way which is relevant, ‘grabbable’and affordable in senior time and out of pocket cost – showing what EB management has done for a FTSE company is no substitute for that.

There is an opportunity to bring the best of EB to small businesses and we need to create the process for doing so. I suspect that there is a human as well as a commercial need – any analysis of where unfairness, prejudice and evasion or avoidance of employment law is most prevalent is likely to be found among small employers.

Simon Barrow

Courage and the Employer Brand

Courage is a vital EB ingredient

Any one who thinks that Employer Brand work is an endeavour that does not need courage is unlikely to produce an effective result. Something which is really distinctive, compelling and true will usually need it. Sadly, one only has to see the number of predictable working experiences, and the platitudinous ways they are described in second rate copywriting, to see the need for greater courage among HR and Marketing people. That in turn may reflect on the precision of the demands which their senior management place on them

Courage in business starts with one individual and I saw three examples of this in the past few weeks. People like that develop great EBs

‘The Bravest Man in Britain’ was how the Daily Mail described Jim McAuslan, General Secretary of BALPA, at the recent TUC conference. With the whole conference supporting a motion to resist all public service cuts (despite them not yet being identified), McAuslan’s hand was the only one to vote against it. The Chair initially thought he was joking but up he went to the platform and said that he could not support the motion since the TUC must first understand the views of the general public ‘beyond this hall’. Without doing so he believed that the TUC were presenting the coalition government ‘with an own goal’. He walked back to his seat in total silence.

Small wonder that ,with him as General Secretary, the British Airline Pilots Association commands the respect it does as partners with employers, supporters of 75% of UK pilots and pioneers on safety management, pilot fatigue, cabin air quality among many other relevant subjects. Furthermore, when BALPA thinks right is on its side it can be a formidable opponent. Leadership like that deserves a following and his BALPA colleagues and members will have been proud of him.

Catholics will have been proud of the Pope on his UK visit for the same reason. Given the negative publicity on clergy wrongdoing and cover ups, the atheist attacks and apparent apathy, it is hard, whatever your spiritual views, not to admire the clarity of his message and the strength of his beliefs

Final example. A large European company kindly invited me to a dinner to thank University Careers leaders for their support in helping to recruit some outstanding graduates this year. We were addressed by graduate recruits who were about to join and by three members of the executive. They took some toughish questions and overall it left us all with the evidence of a courageous and innovative business with a clear idea of its role in the community. Passion is an overused word in business but in this organisation you could feel it

I am reminded of the Chicago writer Philip Bliss’s famous lines

‘Dare to be a Daniel
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known’

So many people who could be Daniels somehow fail to deliver.
I mention the graduate recruiters evening not only because the company had such a clear point of view and meant every word but also because of the venue hosts. The dinner was held in the west nave of the vast Liverpool Anglican Cathedral where earlier the Canon had welcomed us in the Lady Chapel proudly stating that St Pauls would fit comfortably into this building.. We then walked to dinner to the sound of an immensely powerful organ.

Now for the Daniel moment. We got to the round tables and found our names. Some sat down, others stood or shuffled about and then dinner started. I just wondered why the Canon had not given a short interdenominational grace. OK perhaps he felt that night he was just the venue operator as he might be if we were dining at the Adelphi Hotel nearby. Yet here we were in a building dedicated to a faith which is the Canon’s life’s work. Did he feel it was non PC and therefore, even in the most modest way, believe he was not able to recognise what he believed this great building was all about? Surely a missed opportunity.

We all have to answer the question ‘what do you do?’ and those who are proud of their job and organisation let it show.in their answers. Particularly the leaders.

Many people find it difficult. I once interviewed an engineer who worked for the Metropolitan Police – he said when asked what he did that he was an engineer who worked in the civil service. A great EB should have helped him to stand up for his employer

Simon Barrow

M&A and 'Mad Men' - an employer brand disaster

From the mid seventies to the mid eighties I ran an advertising agency. We worked for Sharp Electronics, Chanel, Mercedes-Benz and Bassett's Liquorice Allsorts. It was a bit later than the early sixties period which is the subject of the acclaimed TV show ‘Mad Men’ but close enough to remind me of the extraordinarily delicate task of balancing client needs, new business development, getting the creative work right plus managing the egos and ambitions of the most talented people in a market always short of them. 'Simon, can I have a word with you? was a question I dreaded – it was always the start of a conversation about money or another job.

Mad Men’s writers are either brilliantly briefed or they too have been there and no better than when in Series 3 they cover the acquisition of the middle grounded New York agency Stirling Cooper by a large British company aiming to strengthen its US presence. Given People in Business’s work on the cultural integration aspects of M&A (27 transactions to date and just starting our 28th) this was a vintage lesson on some of the classic pitfalls which management can and does still fall into.

Misreading the business benefits.
The London firm has lots of mouth-watering global clients who they feel will be an easily persuaded to use the newly acquired US agency. Of course they aren’t. Just as the London clients chose the London shop for its own skills, their NY counterparts are just as picky. The agency must be a great choice in its own right. Common ownership is never enough.

Damaging the existing leadership.
London puts in a Brit to manage NY who predictably makes some classic errors like firing the Head of Client service and appointing two internal replacements while not telling each of them that this would be a joint role.

Chemistry misfits.
The Brit boss and his wife take the NY Creative Director Don Draper and his wife Betsy to an excruciating dinner in a grand restaurant where the Brit wife succeeds in insulting both guests by complaining about NY cockroaches. On the drive home to Rye, Don tells a surly Betsy Listen, I didn’t enjoy that anymore than you did

Interference on new business.
Stirling Cooper is close to winning Madison Square Gardens property development – a prize piece of business likely to lead to the imminent Worlds Fair project in NY. London blackballs the pitch on the grounds of high service costs..

It sounds like the last straw. Don Draper pushes back, asking “why on earth did you buy us ?” the Brit boss, at the end if his tether, replies “Frankly I just don’t know”

The aftermath of all this makes for more great writing in the rest of Series 3 and now Series 4. In real life of course, events like this continue to happen when deal makers and top management anticipate the rewards of doing a deal (in Stirling |Coopers case to pay for a partners expensive divorce) without sufficient planning of what is likely to happen in real life on the ground.

Of course deal makers don’t spend much time helping to assure sustained value post merger. M&A advisers are paid for getting a deal done not making it work by building a shared Employer Brand reflecting the best of both organisations and contributing to future success.

As a great Editor of Campaign, Bernard Barnet, once said ' There are many ways to ruin an advertising agency but I have never come across anything more effective than merger or acquisition'

Simon Barrow

Does upmarket and mass market thinking apply to Employer Brands?

Last week results from two hotel and travel companies came out on the same day - TUI Travel and Intercontinental Hotels. Business commentators made much of the fact that the mass market TUI's results were down and Intercontinental's were up. Did this show the more confident spending power of the rich and big business versus mass tourism and the effect of continued uncertainty on the latter? Last week we also saw the sale of the UK's most expensive flat(in One Hyde Park for £140m).
Yes of course there are often two paths for customers according to how confident you feel.
BUT, is that thinking relevant to Employer Brands? should skilled people be heading up market too and seeking to grow in companies who specialise there?
My answer is NO. Big mass market companies are the best bet certainly for many early and mid career years for several reasons:
a) They are flexible and they have more cash- if there is an up market opportunity they will grasp it - think of Cadbury's acquisition of Green and Black
b) they generally have better strategic and planning capability
c) whatever short term shocks they may face the best have the reserves to stay to stay on course, I'd rather be employed by BA than Net Jets for example however strong private air travel has been in recent years
d) the training is better whatever the discipline (ditto the market research they do)
e) look at the alumni - I can't prove this but I suspect there are more success stories coming out of places like PepsiCo (as Martin Glenn did) than out of up market food and drink businesses.
Of course one place suits one person and another place suits another. There are some great stories coming out of up market companies and bringing new skills to them can be an admirable career option. Buying one with private equity finance can be even better.Similarly, if for instance you love fine art then what better than Christies and Sothebys? However, the great Employer Brands for most talented people are probably going to remain those in the mass market or heading fast in that direction.
As Damon Runyon I think said 'the race may not always be for the swift or the battle for the strong - but it helps to bet that way!'

Simon Barrow

A summer story of an Employer Brand own goal

One of the biggest traps any management can fall into is creating an EB which does not deliver on the detail of the employment experience. This summer I saw this happen in a great company who are clearly doing so much right. The organisation is a leading brand in the global hotel and restaurant business and I know the story because a 21 yr old daughter just did a temporary month there as a waitress.

Good news first. On day one she returned with an experience to make any EB professional proud and in particular me as the originator in the first place. The whole session (for both full time joiners and temps) concentrated on the brand and what it meant, the standards, the values, the support and rationale. She came home proud as punch and really understood what her dad had been going on about for years.

That weekend the management had a party in the park for the new team. Superb food and drink and attended by most of the management (there cannot be many companies who would include a temporary waitress on such an event)

Then the work itself, she was a ‘runner’ making sure that the food was delivered to the right person at the right table coordinated with that for other diners in the same party. Working to the precise and high standards of this fashionable restaurant demanded attention to detail, teamwork, speed plus good personal appearance and ability to help others. Furthermore, it required quick learning and the preparedness to take detailed criticism on the minutiae of how the brand and its customer service standards were maintained. Great training for any job as the advertising man David Ogilvy described in his early days at the Ritz Carlton in Paris. Not everyone survived these first weeks and my daughter was proud she did.

Was not this experience what an Employer Brand should be like? a brand to be proud of, excellent training on the job, high standards and bright ambitious colleagues. That was ‘the give’ from the employers point of view, what was ‘the get’?

She was paid at the rate of £12,000 pa ie around £6 per hour for a 39 hour working week including shifts covering breakfast and lunch till 1600, then a two hour break and then on again at 1800 till 0200 the next morning. Awkward shifts come with the territory in the restaurant business. No complaints there. The problem was the unpaid hours. The contract stated that employees would be expected to work longer when that was necessary – but no overtime. Yet some weeks she was doing 55 hours and as the weeks went on so her respect for the brand, which the company had done so much to describe and burnish, started to decline.

However, her standards did not and she left with the good will of other staff and management. In my view the balance between ‘give’ and ‘get’ cannot have been right. Maybe unpaid long hours are a rite of passage in the hotel and restaurant business particularly where the standards are high and the brand on your CV is a benefit. Trainee solicitors in magic circle firms experience the same pressure though the prospects for them are perhaps more enticing in the longer term.

Did the employer pick up on this little story? Not really, she politely asked HR if there was an exit interview and was told ‘ no you’re only a temp’ (subtext, plenty more like you).

Simon Barrow

Bringing out the best in business people

Last week I went to lunch in the City and it’s worth writing about. Not because we enjoyed delicious food and wine and sat at a table in a big open room overlooking the river. Lunches like that are quite a rare event today– perhaps because it takes time (12.30 till at least 2.30) and there was plenty of wine to drink. That is not fashionable lunching in the 2010 financial services world.
What made it so worthwhile and thought provoking was because the guests brought out the best in each other by talking about subjects which prompted both interest and amusement among our diverse group. The guests included a Foreign Editor, a distinguished public servant (now a Bank Deputy Chairman), a business efficiency guru, our host with many years in the investment business and me. We talked about the events of the week, about the arts, about politics, foreign affairs and our own experiences. There was not a single ‘closed‘ question throughout. We were all business people but this was not a ‘business‘ lunch and I believe we got to know each other as individuals far better than if we had been under the focus and discipline of the typical commercial discussion. We were discussing subjects we all had an interest in and had no political or commercial axe to grind. Our role was to say something interesting and ask interesting questions. We were ourselves and that is when the real individual is so apparent.
Of course, as and when there is ever a need for any of us to talk business there will I hope be a basis of trust and respect to underpin that conversation

EMF will need a new treaty but how will it get one?

Angela Merkel is right to say that a European Monetary Fund needs to be set up post the Greek crisis and that that will need a new treaty among members. What a nightmare for everyone given the difficulties of Lisbon! If this was a multinational business the leaders would engage an independent specialist who could prepare the way, research all the key players, advise on the major issues and facilitate a way forward. The aim is to find a solution to a practical need rather than a political one.
After advising on 26 merger and acquisitions this is how to overcome the challenges to reaching agreement between different stakeholders. The EU is unlikely to hire People in Business but after 20 years this is an approach that works
Simon Barrow
People in Business