value creation agent
Ive been asked a few times recently
'What is it you do?'- ie what is your status?
Now Ive had various 'careers' and job titles through time and traditionally that's what's defined the answer to that question, however on reflection that's not really satisfactory. Where does that leave me if I'm a plumber from 9-5 and a stripper at night?
I quote from the scriptures...
And it is written:
'Keep your silly ways or throw them out the window
The wisdom of your ways, I've been there and I know
Lots of other ways, what a jolly bad show
If all you ever do is business you don't like'
Ian Dury - Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll (1977)
In the interests of creating some value here, this is an excercise in the bleedin' obvious (so obvious it's all too easy to forget).
Something I've come to realise is that;
as human beings 'status' is defined by a combination of the things we think, say and do.
This works for companies, teams or whatever as well, in case you were wondering when the marketing bit is coming in. Ive heard this described as 'inside-out branding'
By first setting a goal (not to be confused with status) - in a digital ad agency for example; give our clients quality, innovation, support and knowledge to help grow their brand and business, or something like that. What do we want to achieve? Stand for something, create value.
Meeting that goal will, more than likely, put you up there in the NMA respected agencies list (that's yer status)
How do you do that? Wisdom and action. That's the cheese and ham in the sandwich.
It's also the difficult bit.
Wisdom = Figure out what to do
Action = and then do it.
Simple - but not easy. What's easy is to bail out if starts getting too hard.
'What is it you do?' - be a value creation agent.
Hat tips to Jason Jarrett and Edward Canfor-Dumas
