The SHIFTPOINTS Blog

Every company has a corporate brand.

But most are undifferentiated and uninspiring.

Here’s the problem: people don’t align with undifferentiated and uninspiring brands.

So, you must start by evaluating your corporate brand. (While your company may have many brands, it is your corporate brand that ultimately creates alignment.)

Your corporate brand has many functions.

First, your corporate brand must be an umbrella. It must be large enough to cover all your products and services. It must work in all your geographies. It must appeal to all your stakeholders.

While some will debate the “extendibility” of a corporate brand, Virgin uses theirs for every business they enter. Obviously, this creates alignment across their entire portfolio.

Second, your corporate brand must identify who you are and differentiate you from your competitors. Some of the key components of your corporate brand include:

• Your company name
• Your corporate logo
• Your corporate visual identity
• Your corporate value proposition
• Your corporate personality
• Your corporate tagline

So, perhaps you are thinking, “We have these things … so, we are aligned, right?”

Remember, people don’t align with undifferentiated and uninspiring brands. So, just because you have them does not automatically mean that they are any good.

Finally, your corporate brand must be a powerful magnet. It must attract the right people—including employees, customers, partners, and investors—to your company.

This week, we will explore how fast-lane companies like Virgin, UPS, the Government Employees Insurance Company, Chick-fil-A, and De Beers unleashed the accelerating power of alignment by creating a corporate brand so powerful that millions of people want to align with it.

NOTE: These stories are excerpted from my book, Drive One Direction.

Note:  This is an excerpt from my latest book, Drive One Direction: How to Unleash the Accelerating Power of Alignment. In the One Code chapter, we highlight companies who unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with an intense focus on their values.

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is the world’s leading internet entertainment service with over 109 million members.

They unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with a very unique Culture Code.

In 2009, Netflix’ CEO Reed Hastings, Chief Talent Officer Patti McCord, and a few others collaborated to create a 127-slide presentation about the culture they wanted to create.

Since it was posted online in 2009, the Netflix’s “Culture Code” deck has been viewed more than 10 million times. Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, described it as one of the most important documents to ever come out of Silicon Valley. (The current version is now a long text page on their corporate website.)

Many of their ideas are antithetical to the traditional HR approach. Their vacation policy is, “Take vacation.” Their expense policy is five words long: “Act in Netflix’s best interests.”

Another unique aspect is “the keeper test” that managers use to evaluate employees: “If one of your employees told you he or she was leaving for a job at a peer company, would you fight hard to keep that employee at Netflix? If the answer is ‘no,’ then Netflix will move that person out of the business. Sustained B-level performance, despite ‘A for effort’, generates a generous severance package, with respect.”

Perhaps most interesting is their approach to alignment, which they describe as “Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled.” Here is how they explain it:

As companies grow, they often become highly centralized and inflexible. Symptoms include:

• • Senior management is involved in tons of small decisions
  • There are numerous cross-departmental buy-in meetings to socialize tactics
  • Pleasing other internal groups takes precedence over pleasing customers
  • The organization is highly coordinated and less prone to error, but slow and frustrating

We avoid this by being highly aligned and loosely coupled. We spend lots of time debating strategy together, and then trust each other to execute on tactics without prior approvals. Often, two groups working on the same goals won’t know of, or have approval over, their peer activities. If, later, the activities don’t seem right, we have a candid discussion. We may find that the strategy was too vague or the tactics were not aligned with the agreed strategy. And we discuss generally how we can do better in the future.

The success of a “Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled” work environment is dependent upon the collaborative efforts of high-performance individuals and effective context. Ultimately, the end goal is to grow the business for bigger impact while increasing flexibility and agility. We seek to be big, fast, and nimble.

Netflix’s unique approach to alignment has produced stunning results. Since publishing the culture deck in 2009, Netflix has grown nearly tenfold!

Does your company have a radically unique corporate code?

Note:  This is an excerpt from my latest book, Drive One Direction: How to Unleash the Accelerating Power of Alignment. In the One Code chapter, we highlight companies who unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with an intense focus on their values.

The Mayo Clinic has over 4,700 physicians and scientists. Like many companies, they have a list of core values.

But they are crystal clear about which one is Number One.

In 1863, Dr. William Mayo opened a private medical practice in Rochester, Minnesota. His sons, William and Charles, continued to build the practice around a relatively innovative concept at the time—hiring a diverse staff of specialists to work as an integrated team. Their model produced better health outcomes and quickly began drawing patients from around the world.

The Mayo Clinic’s core values “are an expression of the vision and intent of our founders, the original Mayo physicians and the Sisters of Saint Francis.” There are eight of them:

1. RESPECT—Treat everyone in our diverse community, including patients, their families and colleagues, with dignity.
2. INTEGRITY—Adhere to the highest standards of professionalism, ethics and personal responsibility, worthy of the trust our patients place in us.
3. COMPASSION—Provide the best care, treating patients and family members with sensitivity and empathy.
4. HEALING—Inspire hope and nurture the well-being of the whole person, respecting physical, emotional and spiritual needs.
5. TEAMWORK—Value the contributions of all, blending the skills of individual staff members in unsurpassed collaboration.
6. INNOVATION—Infuse and energize the organization, enhancing the lives of those we serve, through the creative ideas and unique talents of each employee.
7. EXCELLENCE—Deliver the best outcomes and highest quality service through the dedicated effort of every team member.
8. STEWARDSHIP—Sustain and reinvest in our mission and extended communities by wisely managing our human, natural and material resources.

However, they specifically identify One Value as their primary value: The needs of the patient come first.

Elevating One Value to be Number One makes things incredibly clear. It takes courage and discipline, since every value is important.

It has worked for Mayo. In 2018 over 1.3 million people from 136 countries went to the Mayo Clinic for care, and in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings, the Mayo Clinic is the Number One hospital overall and Number One in more specialties than any other hospital in the nation.

What is your company’s Number One Value?

Note:  This is an excerpt from my latest book, Drive One Direction: How to Unleash the Accelerating Power of Alignment. In the One Code chapter, we highlight companies who unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with an intense focus on their values.

Hilton (NYSE: HLT) is a global hospitality company with a portfolio of seventeen brands, 5,700 properties, and over 923,000 rooms.

Hilton improved alignment by creating One List of core values.

Perhaps you are thinking, “Of course they have One List of values.” However, this was not always the case.

When Christopher Nassetta took over as CEO in 2007, he discovered that Hilton had over thirty different lists of core values.

Here is how he described the process of consolidating them into One List:

“We did a lot of work with teams around the world, and asked people to look at all their values statements and boil them down. Then we took all those ideas with us on a two-day offsite with about 12 of us. There was a lot of overlap, and we tried to consolidate it. What I ended up saying to them was, let’s use some of our own skills and brand it, not because I want to be cute about it, but because people will remember it. I started looking around the room and at the letters and they came together as HILTON—H for hospitality, I for integrity, L for leadership, T for teamwork, O for ownership and N for now. To reinforce them, we are constantly referring to the letters—in newsletters, in town halls—almost to the point where we are driving people crazy. But it works.”

For your reference, here is the One List of Hilton values:

• HOSPITALITY—We're passionate about delivering exceptional guest experiences.
• INTEGRITY—We do the right thing, all the time.
• LEADERSHIP—We're leaders in our industry and in our communities.
• TEAMWORK—We're team players in everything we do.
• OWNERSHIP—We're the owners of our actions and decisions.
• NOW—We operate with a sense of urgency and discipline.

As you can see, each value has both One Word and an expected behavior. This extra step turns static values into a dynamic corporate code that can drive behavior.

Of course, this starts with having One List.

Does your company have One—and Only One—List of core values?

Note:  This is an excerpt from my latest book, Drive One Direction: How to Unleash the Accelerating Power of Alignment. In the One Code chapter, we highlight companies who unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with an intense focus on their values.

The Blommer Chocolate Company (www.blommer.com) is the largest cocoa processor and ingredient chocolate supplier in North America.

Blommer unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with One DNA.

Blommer Chocolate was founded in 1939 in Chicago, Illinois, by three brothers; Henry, Al, and Bernard. For almost 80 years, the Blommer family has run the company.

The company now has over 800 employees, including the third generation of Blommers: Peter, Rick and Steve Blommer, Peter Drake, and Tori Blommer-O’Malley.

(Although these Blommer family members come from different branches of the family tree, they still share some common DNA. This could actually be confirmed by Autosomal DNA testing, which measures the number and length of common DNA segments.)

Peter Blommer, the grandson of Henry, started working for the company in 1991 in the Union City, California, plant. He became the President and Chief Executive Officer in 2009.

To manage the rapidly expanding company, Peter needed to recruit and incorporate outside executives who were not part of the Blommer family but shared the company’s DNA.

After all, your company’s DNA—just like your personal DNA—defines who you are and differentiates you from everyone else.

Here is how Peter Blommer described it, “Our unique company DNA is a function of several factors, including our history as a family business, our company values, our philosophy of management, and more. Creating company-wide alignment with the Blommer DNA was a top priority when I became CEO.”

At this point, roughly three-quarters of the senior management team is comprised of executives from outside the family.

The results from Blommer’s investments in strategic alignment have been sweet. (Pardon the pun.) The business continues to grow, the family relationships are healthier than ever, and the company is positioned to thrive for generations to come.

Your company may not be a family business, but that does not mean you can’t run it like one. You can treat your employees like family. You can treat your customers like family. You can even treat your vendors like family.

Of course, this means that you must codify your company’s unique DNA.

Do your values emanate from the founder’s DNA?

Every company has values.

According to Wikipedia, a value system is “a set of consistent ethic values and measures used for the purpose of ethical or ideological integrity. A well-defined value system is a moral code.”

Most—but certainly not all—of the companies we studied had a codified list of core values.

Unfortunately, core values can also be a source of cynicism. Sadly, several CEOs we interviewed did not have their company’s values memorized. Dozens of employees shared stories of executives whose behaviors were in direct violation of their company’s values. Perhaps millions have been impacted by other forms of corporate hypocrisy.

Despair.com has built a very nice business selling posters mocking core values. Here are a few examples:

• Perseverance: The courage to ignore the obvious wisdom of turning back.
• Procrastination: Hard work pays off over time, but laziness always pays off now.
• Mediocrity: It takes a lot less time and most people won't notice the difference until it's too late.

Unfortunately, Gallup’s research revealed that only 23 percent of employees know how to apply their company’s values to their work. Nonetheless, we included core values as one of the Accelerators because many exemplar companies used them effectively to create alignment. Some of the common best practices include:

• They codified their values into One integrated value system. We call this your One Code.
• They passionately communicate the values, so everyone knows what they are.
• The employees—especially the senior executives—live them, breathe them, and personify them.
• They only hire people who share their values, and never tolerate behavior that violates them.
• They infuse their values into every fiber of the company, aligning every process, guiding every decision.
• They reward and recognize people who demonstrate their values.
• They justify them, so everyone knows WHY these are the values.
• They translate their values into a set of expected behaviors. (Netflix calls this their “Culture Code.”)

Core values can’t be seen on the balance sheet, but they can be one of your company’s most valuable assets. They can allow a company to withstand a crisis. They can guide leaders faced with radically complex decisions.

Assuming they are more than just words on posters in the break room.

This week, we will explore how Blommer Chocolate, Hilton, the Mayo Clinic, and Netflix codified their values to unleash the accelerating power of alignment.

NOTE: These stories are excerpted from my book, Drive One Direction.

So, perhaps you are thinking that your company could never be a Medtronic. Your purpose will never be as inspiring as saving lives.

One Way to align everyone is to create a nonprofit or foundation as your One.org.

Today’s workforce needs to be inspired.

To stay aligned with my One Theme, I thought it would be nice to profile ONE, the international organization co-founded by Bono from the band U2. ONE is focused on ending extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.

The ONE name was inspired by the belief that One Voice, coming together with many others, could change the world for the better.

And I’d like to challenge you to believe that One Company—yours—could also come together to change the world for the better.

For example, many companies have created their own nonprofit or foundation, often using the .org domain extension as part of the brand. This becomes a secondary corporate structure that complements their for-profit business.

For example, Salesforce created Salesforce.org. Here is how they describe the impact, “Over the last 18 years, Salesforce.org has become a vital part of the Salesforce culture—and has allowed us to engage our employees in their communities and support the effectiveness of the social sector.”

Salesforce is also one of the leaders in a corporate philanthropy movement called “Pledge 1%.” This challenges companies to give 1% of equity, 1% of employees’ time, 1% of products, and/or 1% of profits to philanthropic endeavors. Over 8,500 companies have now taken the pledge.

Since their founding, Salesforce has given more than $260 million in grants, donated 3.8 million hours of community service, and provided product donations for more than 40,000 nonprofits and higher education institutions.

Of course, there are other ways to align your company with an inspiring purpose.

In fact, the best companies find a way to align their corporate philanthropy with their core competency.

David Abney, the CEO of UPS, explains it this way, “We focus on areas where our volunteer efforts and philanthropy not only make a difference, but also where they align with our vision, which is to ‘connect a global community through intelligent logistics networks.’”

Of course, you could always adopt an existing corporate charity. Perhaps you should consider Bono’s ONE.

Does your company have One Cause that you support as part of a “we give back” culture?

Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) develops therapies that treat nearly 70 conditions, including some of the world’s most challenging chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, and heart disease. They have revenues in excess of $30B, operate in more than 160 countries, and have over 86,000 employees.

They keep everything aligned with their “One Company. One Mission.” framework.

This amazing success story started in a garage in 1949 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (And you thought that only happened in Silicon Valley!)

Normally, we advise companies that their mission statement should be just One Sentence. Otherwise, no one will remember what it is.

Medtronic’s mission statement, in contrast, has six sentences, multiple clauses, and is over 170 words long. While this violates our penchant for brevity, I must give them credit for longevity.

Their mission statement was written by their late founder, Earl Bakken, in 1960. They spent a few years locking it down and they have used it verbatim ever since.

THE MEDTRONIC MISSION

1. To contribute to human welfare by application of biomedical engineering in the research, design, manufacture, and sale of instruments or appliances that alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life.
   
   
2. To direct our growth in the areas of biomedical engineering where we display maximum strength and ability; to gather people and facilities that tend to augment these areas; to continuously build on these areas through education and knowledge assimilation; to avoid participation in areas where we cannot make unique and worthy contributions.
   
   
3. To strive without reserve for the greatest possible reliability and quality in our products; to be the unsurpassed standard of comparison and to be recognized as a company of dedication, honesty, integrity, and service.
   
   
4. To make a fair profit on current operations to meet our obligations, sustain our growth, and reach our goals.
   
   
5. To recognize the personal worth of employees by providing an employment framework that allows personal satisfaction in work accomplished, security, advancement opportunity, and means to share in the company's success.
   
   
6. To maintain good citizenship as a company.

When you stay with One Mission for six decades, it is easy for everyone to align with it, “Nothing I can say about Medtronic today makes me happier or more optimistic about the future than the fact that the Mission is deeply embedded as a permanent part of the culture,” explained Earl Bakken.

Will your company have the discipline to stay with One Mission for six decades?

In July 2016, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) updated their mission statement.

They changed One Word.

The original mission was to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport.”

The new one is to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

Here’s why they made the change. On August 1, 2016, Tesla agreed to acquire SolarCity, the largest solar provider in America.

Here is how Tesla explained the case for the acquisition,

“We would be the world’s only vertically integrated energy company offering end-to-end clean energy products to our customers. This would start with the car that you drive and the energy that you use to charge it, and would extend to how everything else in your home or business is powered. With your Model S, Model X, or Model 3, your solar panel system, and your Powerwall all in place, you would be able to deploy and consume energy in the most efficient and sustainable way possible, lowering your costs and minimizing your dependence on fossil fuels and the grid.”

Tesla has a big mission and has a big strategy to make it happen.

To ramp production to 500,000 cars per year, Tesla alone would have consumed the entire worldwide supply of lithium-ion batteries. Therefore, they built the Gigafactory (the name comes from the word “giga,” the unit of measurement representing “billions.”) Once complete, Tesla expects the Gigafactory to be the biggest building in the world—and it will be powered entirely by renewable energy sources.

One of the key aspects of the Drive One Direction^® model is the concept of “Aligned Agility.” We want companies to be both highly aligned and extremely agile. The fact that Tesla could pivot the entire company and integrate a major strategic acquisition by simply changing One Word in their mission statement is a testament to their agility.

As you might expect, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has a fascinating way to describe alignment, "Every person in your company is a vector. Your progress is determined by the sum of all vectors."

For those of you who did not get that, you might want to brush up on your linear algebra.

Tesla is a mission-driven company. By simply changing One Word, they were able to integrate Tesla Motors and Solar City.

Two companies with One (BIG) Mission.

Does your company have a mission … or a BIG One?

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) started out selling books. Now, it sells everything.

Amazon keeps the vast enterprise aligned with One Obsession.

Jeff Bezos has built Amazon into one of the most successful and transformational companies in history. And on October 27, 2017, he became the richest person in the world.

So, what was the secret to Amazon’s amazing success?

When Amazon.com launched in 1995, their mission was “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.”

In one of Bezos’ annual letters, he describes it this way, “There are many ways to center a business. You can be competitor focused, you can be product focused, you can be technology focused, you can be business model focused, and there are more. But in my view, obsessive customer focus is by far the most protective of Day 1 vitality.”

Let’s unpack this statement.

First, Bezos is obviously right. There are indeed many ways to center a business. In other words, there are many ways to align a business.

Second, Bezos presents the options as discreet choices. His implication is that your company must choose One of them. Do you agree?

Third, Bezos bridges from describing the other choices as “focused” to Amazon having “obsessive customer focus.”

“Obsessive” is an extreme word. In extreme cases, obsession can become a dysfunctional pathology.

Perhaps “obsessive customer focus” sounds extreme. But clearly, it has worked for Amazon.

Unfortunately, most companies are distracted, divided, and dysfunctional. Many others are obsessed with the wrong things.

Developing One Obsession is a tremendous way to improve strategic alignment. You will just have to agree on what to become obsessed with.

Finally, while becoming “the Earth’s most customer-centric company” was indeed Amazon’s original mission, they now describe it as one of the fourteen leadership principles that make up their DNA.

If you are inspired to copy Amazon’s example, complete this sentence: “Our mission is to become the most ________________-obsessed company in the world.”