Week 6: Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
The title of this entry is a quote from Peter Drucker, an American management consultant whose work contributed to the modern philosophy of business corporations. I think this quote can say a lot about any company. You can’t truly know a business until you understand its culture, even if you know all objective facts about it. That’s why it’s important to take note of other employees’ behavior when joining a business, so that you can understand the company and match its cultural expectations, making the most of your time with the company.
When I first arrived at Addison Whitney, I made it a priority to observe the behaviors of my fellow interns and of the experienced employees. AW has an open office layout, with everyone working right next to each other. This leads to a more laid back work environment.
Everyone remains on top of their work while also maintaining office connections. It’s not rare for an established employee to send out a email containing a funny gif or to hear jokes being told from the desk across the row. It’s a very fun and engaging culture, and I’m glad I’ve gotten to be a part of it. As for the chain of command, everyone works well together, with a consistent flow from top to bottom. This makes it easy to learn and gain new skills from various departments since they all communicate with each other.
A highlight from this past week was when I got to sit in on a visual branding client call. It was the third time the visual team was presenting logos to this particular client. Unfortunately, the client’s original name had been rejected by the equivalent of the European FDA, so the visual team needed to incorporate the logo designs into the new name candidates the client had selected. It was interesting to see how the logo placement as well as color can affect a brand and its name. This client call helped me understand more about how the brand name relates to the rest of a brand. A brand isn’t just one aspect (its name, packaging, product, social media, etc), its a culmination of all factors. But these factors need to all work together to create a cohesive message. That’s why it was important for the visual team to tweak the logo based on the new names; they need to mesh well with the company’s intended message.
This past week has been a very educational one about the overall branding process. I’m excited to learn even more come Monday.
