Brand Gemba
I like to refer to operating culture as “Brand Gemba.” In Lean Six Sigma methodology, Gemba refers to the “actual place” where value is created. For brand, Gemba is found in operating culture, where people and processes contribute to value (as the copartner of values) to reflect the ultimate expression of brand reputation.
Thus, true ownership of the organization’s brand promise exists in its operations — and specifically the people and processes that devise, develop, and deliver value via products and services. If that’s true, then operating culture must behave accordingly and align its practices to brand-affirming outcomes.
A brand-aligned operating culture should be what many organizations mean when they invoke “The Way” to describe “how things get done around here.” However, it’s the rare organization that actually articulates its operational imperatives in the form of brand outcomes.
If we believe the brand acts as a spirit guide for the organization’s intentions and aspirations, it follows that the brand’s value proposition should be stitched into the fabric of daily operations.
Indeed, brand reputation hinges upon operational fluency, with the seasoning of organizational culture. Certainly, organizational culture works in the background of employees’ everyday routines; however, while whispers in the ear can remind people about the brand, they can’t convince people to care about the brand. That’s where operating culture steps in.
It’s nice to have workshops, town halls, seminars, etc., to reinforce the brand and culture, but these episodic engagements are logistically challenging and largely impractical in the era of remote workers, time pressures, short attention spans, and competing priorities. It’s better to integrate the spirit of organizational culture and the promise of the brand within the daily rhythms and runnings of the organization’s operations.
An operating culture should be relentless about efficiency, simplicity, consistency, and performance. These are hallmarks of value creation, in support of an organization’s value proposition.
It is through this value lens that we see clearly that operating culture owns the brand promise. The brand system arranges around this principle, whereby operating culture creates the framework for an integrated organizational network predicated on value-driven outcomes. This network acts as the infrastructure of brand.
Organizations seeking operational fluency may implement an operating system that promotes predictable, repeatable, and reliable brand outcomes — which the phrase, “operational excellence,” implies. When functioning under the aegis of a quality-centered operating system, operating culture governs the methodology of brand experiences.
Still, people are at least half of the operating culture infrastructure, which makes predictable, repeatable, and reliable brand outcomes tenuous without a coalescing catalyst. To that end, employees are more likely to coalesce in support of the brand when they gain insight into the organization’s value proposition, strategic priorities, and operational priorities. In turn, this awareness nurtures a covalent bond between the organization’s brand and employees’ goals. Or, in other words, brand alignment.
In developing brand-aligned employee goals, the brand promise serves both as a reminder of the value the organization purports to represent as well as how to honor the brand’s implicit and explicit commitments through any given role and related responsibilities. When it comes to organizational cohesion, it’s not an overstatement to say that annual employee goal-setting exercises could be best contextualized as “brand commitments.”
Certainly, a brand promise that’s simply stated, pragmatically grounded, yet meaningfully aspirational provides serviceable grist for the goal-setting mill. For example, citing work from my last career stop, Herc Rentals’ proposed* brand promise — “Equipment Rental Solved – Easily, Expertly, Efficiently” — creates a ready framework for goal-setting, with room for both quantitative and qualitative targets.
Moreover, adding the brand perspective to the goal-setting process allows employees to contribute to a larger organizational mission versus a narrower, responsibilities-based, frame of reference. That builds organizational cohesion in a more ecumenical and, perhaps, sturdier fashion.
*While this proposed brand promise was circulated through some parts of the organization before my departure, I cannot attest to its longevity or ultimate application. Certainly, at the time I handed over the reins this brand promise was still aspirational in some respects. Still, the organization regarded the brand promise as an authentic intention and a valid expression of its operational imperatives, against which it planned to orient a distinctive, value-focused operating culture. Time will tell.