We have given many examples of Glue during this series. So let’s review.
Glue holds things together because it’s sticky. Duh. Seems obvious. But too many companies try everything else before they Glue. And there is no shortage of theories to try.
Sometimes they get a slight improvement from their varied efforts, but a relapse of failure follows because Glue is not a theory – it’s a discovery. For 25 years, we have worked with companies and watched success and failure on large and small scales. We have seen CEOs with MBAs from prestigious universities run successful companies into the ground. We have watched as people without even an undergraduate degree build extremely successful companies and brands. The difference was, the successes were built on the principles of Glue.
Glue is not a matter of education. It’s a matter of inspiration and execution. Glue is about truth and passion mixed with dedication and hard work. Glue is about outsmarting the competition, not outspending them.
After spending a lifetime as corporate voyeurs, we started noticing a pattern in how companies succeed or fail with their branding efforts. After reading a library of management books and talking to hundreds of CEOs, CFOs CMOs, CBOs and thousands of employees across dozens of companies and even more consumers, customers and average people on the street, we began to put an equation together that formed the framework of success.
Here’s what we found:
Successful CEOs search out the truth of their companies, organizations or brands. They never try to make up a reason for being. They want the real thing, straight up and pure. So they look everywhere for it – inside, outside and even with the competition. When they find it, they know they have a solid core, a firm foundation to build on. Sometimes, this truth is in the CEO’s own core and the reason he or she started the company to begin with (Leatherman, JetBlue, Starbucks, etc). Other times, the CEO must go on a corporate archeological dig to uncover it.
The result of such a search is not a mission statement, but an inspired, unassailable, compellingly relevant reason for being – the chorus of the song or the hook of a tune or plot for the brand or company story. With this unique core-truth firmly in place, they create a unique vision around that truth and begin the process of inspiring management to understand and grasp and believe the vision. This aligning of inspired vision with inspired execution is the first Glue opportunity, and is the starting point for the journey ahead. This seminal moment is Glued into the fabric of the brand with inspirational, creative rallying communication – not unlike America’s national anthem — which pulls everyone together, connects people to each other and the company and gives everyone a singular, corporate cultural experience.
With the CEO deeply involved in the process, the alignment begins first inside the company with its own people. Great effort is made to make sure everyone understands and believes the vision and is inspired to live the vision every day. The corporate anthem is communicated until it is second nature. This is accomplished by various connection points across the organization. It’s less of an internal branding effort than a brand “revival,” where people are brought into the congregation and made to feel the experience in religious terms (as strange as that sounds). Successful companies have this deep-seated belief and quasi-religious commitment to their people and success. They have a bond with each other and to the company and brand that is simply non-existent in most companies where people just have a job.
Those connections are where we started noticing the phenomenon we call Glue.
Glue connects and rebuilds broken parts of an organization, a company, a team or a group. Glue sticks business models and accounting to human profiles and company profiles and branding and HR and sales and advertising and operations and distribution. Glue dispenses with the theory and goes straight for the results.
As we studied this thing called Glue, we discovered that it is not just internal, but crosses over to the customer and potential customers. In fact, the Glue that holds the internal to the external is a giant pivot point build to withstand pressure and turmoil from either side, much like an aircraft wing keeps a plane in flight and steady even during turbulence.
Glue affects every single part of a company – always connecting the internal people to the external consumer. Glue is about connecting or reconnecting employees and management, to be sure. But it’s also about connecting or reconnecting brand promises and brand experience. It’s about connecting internal with external and operations with sales and distribution delivery. Glue is ultimately about reconnecting with results, and results can’t be separated from profits.
When a company is successfully aligned and Glued inside and outside, it has the highest degree of success potential.
Maybe this sounds like some academic explanation of the obvious. Truth is, it is obvious, so obvious that few companies even consider it. No model airplane gets made without Glue. No model success story gets made without it. Glue works because it’s not a business process, it’s a life process. It goes beyond business and fills emotional needs and rational wants. When you Glue your company or brand to your customers, you have created the bond that survives tough times. And there is never a shortage of those.