The customer response.
Building a transcendent culture is imperative to building a lasting brand. But that effort is never one of sheer benevolence, ego, or vanity. Building a great company, or a great brand is always in service to a customer transaction in the outside world, whether it’s selling products, serving customers, or aiding humanity. And as much as some companies might want a mutually exclusive relationship between their internal culture and external brand, there is an inherently osmotic effect that precludes that from being possible.
Think about your office. No matter what role your people play in building your brand each and every day, your team consciously (and subconsciously) soaks in every aspect of their environment. And, as a result, how your team feels about your company and your leadership bleeds into everything they do. Everything. How products are designed, how they’re manufactured, how they’re shipped, marketed, and sold. How food is prepared in a restaurant, how closely recipes are followed, what kind of service is provided, and in what kind of environment. Even in a caused-based non-profit with real life and death consequences, how the team is conditioned has everything to do with the effectiveness of their effort.
The brand and the culture you build are inextricably linked to the experience you deliver to your end consumer. That experience can be unbelievably positive. But it can also be catastrophically negative. The good news is that you have control over the way that narrative unfolds.
