Brand at the heart of business.

22/07/2010

The best brands have employees that are engaged and have an appreciation of what their brand stands for and what its promise to the customer is.

After our regular monthly meeting at Clipper, the HR director stopped me on the corridor for a chat. He wanted to give me some positive feedback on how (post the Brand Discovery programme we delivered) having a clear and defined brand proposition and set of values had really helped to define their appraisal process. I asked if he wanted to contribute a few words to our blog…so here they are.

Thanks Ted.

Clipper Logistics Group Ltd has enjoyed significant growth since its formation in 1992. This growth has been both organic and by acquisition. As a result of these acquisitions and TUPE transfers it was recognized that we needed to establish a single ‘One Company’ identity and proposition to the benefit of our customers, potential customers and our own employees. We therefore embarked on a rebranding exercise which created a stylish and innovative image, reflecting the culture and ethos of the business.

A significant element of the rebranding was to identify and reflect the values we believe we possess and offer to our customers.

These values incorporated:

Our attributes – savvy, entrepreneurial, inventive, tenacious & agile

Our promise – deliver the promise, flexibility, customer centric, ethos of partnership

Our personality – straight talking, pragmatic, direct, passionate, knowledgeable

Our authority – proven track record, strong management team

If the above represent the values we espouse to the market place it seems self evident that our employees must demonstrate the same attributes. It is no good Clipper claiming to be agile, fleet of foot and customer centric if we employ plodders who are not prepared to ‘go the extra mile’.

We have therefore reflected these values in our management appraisal process. Top quadrant managers do the ‘right things in the right way’. They are therefore assessed according to the extent to which they meet their ‘hard’ objectives (the ‘right thing’) and the extent to which their behaviours reflect the aforementioned brand values (the ‘right way’). We define each of the values described above and assess a manager’s behaviour against these attributes – quoting examples to substantiate the assessment.

This process really does help Clipper to live the brand and demonstrate its proposition of ‘agility matched by ability’.

Ted Johnson
Human Resources Director
Clipper Logistics Group

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