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 and substantially influence 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 preponderance of 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.