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Good Is Actually Good

By: Mistie Thompson | 03/09/2009

Call me dumb, or delusional, or desperately in need of a long tropical vacation (guilty as charged), but in an effort to find a bright spot in the chaos that seems to be surrounding us these days, I believe I've identified one: we now must live what we say we believe.

Stay with me for a moment. In the good times, most businesses trot out their core values and/or their mission and vision statements like the Clydesdales in the Rose Parade. They post them prominently in their lobbies, print them on the back of their business cards and plaster them all over their Web sites, which apparently is all it takes for many of us buying what they're selling to think they're an "ethical" company that "truly cares" (cue the heart-swelling background music here). Isn't it easy to live by principles when everyone's too busy making money hand over fist to question whether they're actually true?

But here we are, going down a wormhole the likes of which no one’s seen before. And a whole bunch of companies are scrambling. Scrambling to define who they are at their core and why they exist. Scrambling to live up to lofty promises made to clients and customers. Scrambling to give employees a reason - other than fear - to do their best work.

The good companies will figure it out and manage to survive. The not-so-good ones simply won’t. But the best ones – the businesses that will emerge even stronger from the ruins – will be the ones that have been living what they say they believe all along. The ones that succeed will have recognized early on and consciously lived by four simple points:

·         Create quality products or services for a fair (not necessarily the cheapest) price,

·         Treat customers and employees with honesty and respect,  

·         Listen to those who care enough about what you’re doing to give you feedback (good and bad, especially bad), and (most importantly),

·         Always do what’s right.

Not always what’s easiest or what’s best for the bottom line, but what is right. What is good. What is honest and what is ethical and what allows you to lay your head down at night without feeling sick about how you made your money that day. It’s making sure your core values are alive and radiantly evident to everyone who comes in contact with your business every day. It may sound simplistic. It’s not. It takes hard work, diligence, patience and sometimes uncomfortable levels of accountability.

So if your company has been living what it says it believes, keep it up. It’s going to get rough, and you’re probably going to be tempted to compromise at some level. Don’t.

And if your company hasn’t, stop trying to plug the splintering dike by cutting costs and corners that will only damage your reputation with the people you need the most right now – your customers and employees. Step back and figure out who you are, what you believe and what you’re trying to do. Then live it in every aspect of your business, not with meaningless “stunts” and hollow “initiatives”, but with strategic, deliberate, common-sense actions that clearly demonstrate just how much you get it. And if you really do, I bet your company will find its own bright spot on which to pin a future worth fighting for.

Posted in Brand Positioning, Reputation Management