Saving The Drowning Brand 'ME'
Saving The Drowning Brand 'ME'
Monday, 13 February 2006 06:27
John is a professional. He is young, energetic and very intelligent. He is the sort of person with whom you are likely to discuss all manner of issues from President Bush's policies to wading through Kenya's political noise, to mozart and even discuss the truth in Lao Tzu's philosophy. He knows the trends of the internet and he rides on the crest of the trends.
But lately John is broke and depressed. While he is one of the top most consultants in his business, it turns out that people do not pay on time and he is not the sort of person who collects debts with the savvy of an auctioneer. The thing is, John delivers on the work that is expected of him and expects his clients to be honourable - which they rarely are.
For years, John has been working as a consultant - sourcing the work, getting it done and following up the payments, all the while educating himself to keep himself at the top of his form. for some reason however, the hard work is not paying off and he was wearing down. he was considering dropping his career altogether and moving to something easier - yet he really is the best at what he does.
There are many people who find themselves in this situation and in many cases they give up or give in and move on to other professionals. Yet the answer lies right before their eyes: they are doing too much.
The principle of specialisation as set out by the legendary king of economics, Adam Smith basically states that people will pick one thing and be the very best they can at what they do for maximum productivity.
Branding takes it further: be the best in what you do, the the most unique brand you can be and communicate it.
In the case of John, he is not so much a business person as he is a technical person. He is a nice guy who will not push too hard for clients to pay him and often he sympathises with them when they give a good sob story - whether it is true or not.
In his work he communicates his values: honour, hard work, straightforwardness. But it seems not to work for him. The reason is, that he is a nice, honourable guy and that is his brand. He must find a 'rogue' brand in the person of an operations person to do the dirty work.
In essence, John would probably want to take himself to the next level and have a company that will allow him to do his work and have someone else worry about the business details. This way, he can be true to his brand and he can have time to develop it.
