I don’t think people buy Ford vehicles today because of what Henry Ford stood for, or what he contributed in his lifetime but I still think it would be amazing to read about what he went through to start his company.
We usually hear from people after they’ve become successful, but what about the early stages of the company. How did they get through a particular phase? What did they do when times weren’t so good?
Businesses don’t survive unless someone sees to it that they do. And the point I’m trying to make is that we ought to know a little about this person (ie. the business) before we contribute money towards it or we could be perpetuating the existence of it.
Can You Humanize A Brand
Larry Bruce left a comment on a post I wrote about branding businesses with a blog:
You can’t humanize something that isn’t human. It’s not the company that a blog can humanize, it is it’s people.
Larry Bruce @pcmguy
I agree that people are what create companies, and operate them, but I think collectively there is something (ie. the brand) that represents their combined efforts.
Take BP. I don’t blame the poor guy working at the BP gas station for the spill, nor do I congratulate him on another profitable quarter. I don’t give him a heads-up that the corporate office is doing it wrong.
They basically destroyed underwater life to the extent we’ll probably never really know.
So with that example, I’d wholeheartedly agree that BP is never going to be able to repair their brand, but I certainly wouldn’t say that each and every employee deserves to be punished for the crimes against humanity that they committed.
Can Companies Be Evil
You’ve probably heard that Google’s mantra is “Don’t Be Evil” – which to a degree requires the company to make moral judgements on behalf of their users privacy.
What happens if all of a sudden Google appoints a new CEO and that person say’s to hell with that, I’m going to due my job, which is to return the highest possible ROI to my stockholders – so evil it is.
That certainly could ruin Google’s reputation, possibly even the future of the company.
I have met some people like that too, they’d rip off their own mother to make a buck. And that’s the point, you can’t be like BP and be in social media, or have a blog, or build relationships with anything other than your own kind.
How about Goldman Sachs:
During 2008 Goldman Sachs received criticism for an apparent revolving door relationship, in which its employees and consultants have moved in and out of high level U.S. Government positions, creating the potential for conflicts of interest.
Were these people corrupt before they came to Goldman or after they left? And would it be the person or the company that should be blamed?
Leaving The World In A Better Place
Henry Ford was a proponent of a higher quality of life for his employees.
He believed in paying people the highest wages possible, which led to money flowing through the system.
What we have today is large corporations, the kind that leave nothing but a trail of pollution, corruption and genocide as they go.
What we need are companies that do good, contribute and help, invest in people and communities, and leave a legacy behind them that the likes of someone like Henry Ford would be impressed to the point of writing a post on his blog.
That’s my point, and although you can’t biologically transform companies into humans, you can certain make them accountable to the ones who created them and draw your own conclusions to whether or not you want to give them your business.
