cults or communities

Vinay Kamat

In the age of interactivity, will brand cults dissolve into communities? Will fanaticism morph into romance? Will consumers be swayed less by brand myth and more by brand awareness? As brands become transparent in the online world, will cult be shorn of mystique?

After all, brands are learning to live with online communities. They are not averse to being criticised by bloggers; they even pick marketing and user insights from them. Here’s what Microsoft's own blogger Robert Scoble posted on March 14. “Microsoft is a consensus culture and consensus (which means everyone has to sign off on things) does avoid trouble, but it also makes for uninspired products and marketing. That is our internal challenge to figure out, that's for sure!”

Why are brands willing to go the extra mile to reveal themselves to their communities? It makes them transparent; it provides an opportunity for users to interact with the brand and offer useful feedback; it develops tons of trust; and it makes the brand highly accessible. In the interactive world, brands cannot afford to be inaccessible.

Openness creates communities; mystique creates cults. Importantly, brand cults are driven by symbolism and ideology. Brand communities are driven by interactivity and transparency.

Here's why brands become cults. "Brands are symbols. We live in a world dominated by commercial icons, total design initiatives, and completely integrated marketing efforts, where products are consumed less for what they are (materially) and more for what they represent (spiritually, or at least socially)," writes Douglas Atkin, in The Culting of Brands, a solid account of customer loyalty.

As customers group themselves into communities, they seek solutions, not symbols. They seek convenience, not sophistication. They desire performance, not promise. Communities don’t just create a feeling of belonging. They ensure that the brand belongs to them.

“Customers ultimately determine what your brand means,” says marketing expert Guy Kawasaki in his blog: "For decades Apple has tried to make the Macintosh brand stand for power. For decades consumers believe the Macintosh brand stands for easy to use. Ultimately, you flow with what's going, and you’ll be thankful that it's flowing at all."

So, have Google and eBay formed cults or communities? By constantly interacting with users, they have created tribes which are not swayed by myth, mystery and mystique, but by the brand attribute of convenience. It is a lifestyle of cutting-edge simplicity. It is a community of critics, not a cult of worshippers.

romancing money

Vinay kamat

Risk is the biggest differentiator. Take it, and you separate yourself from the crowd. If that doesn’t tickle you, just think: If the economy is beaming, salaries are galloping, and jobs are exploding, what should you do? How do you sense change and pocket it? How do you junk conventional thinking and position yourself for the next big leap? How do you power your career? How do you hitch your wagon to India’s growth engine?

Look around. Your friend has trebled his salary in one year by jumping jobs. Your ex-colleague can’t stop talking about her SUV, the first piece of prosperity she gifted herself on becoming a veep. Your cousin, who runs a VC-funded startup, has bought chunks of real estate across the country. Everyday, you read about IIM freshers setting salary benchmarks. In this cat race, would you like to be a bystander or a marathon man?

More than stamina, you need insight. If you map the change around you, you will see something profound: Even as you are battling IIT freshers in the workplace, your job is rapidly turning obsolete. Two years ago, you could have hung in—even performed—by reinventing yourself. Now, you need to jump on another bandwagon: wealth-creation. It is the mumbo-jumbo of material salvation.

Perhaps the best paperback to carry around these days is a 1997 book that pops frequently on bestseller lists: Rich Dad Poor Dad. Its racy plot lies in the sub-title: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money—That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not. If you present you daughter with Rich Dad on her 11th birthday instead of Pride and Prejudice, don’t feel guilty. This is the age of wealth- creation, where hyper mobility, obscene sign-on bonuses, and lavish penthouses, are signs that you have arrived. And, if greed is ethical, why not pay for it through EMIs?

Rich Dad’s author Robert Kiyosaki has a portfolio of tips for the uninitiated. The controversial financial bible can be reconstructed into a few commandments:

1.Focus on assets, not income.
2.Understand accounting, investing, marketing, and law.
3.Master communicating skills.
4.Don’t fear risk.
5.Remember: you are one skill away from success. Find out which.
6.Employ money

Well, you need to read the book to put the canons in perspective. You may even come up with an alternative title: How To Romance Money.

Next time you hear about an executive who has chucked her job at 33, don’t dismiss it. It is the surest sign that India’s middle class is moving into asset class. Interestingly, filthy rich dads may call it rational exuberance.

fun and turf

Vinay Kamat

Will tomorrow's organizations be bothered too much about culture? After all, culture, as we know it, is linked to hierarchy, process, brand image, strategy, and most importantly, history. But these goal-posts are being constantly shifted in a fast-changing marketplace. In fact, by default, process is becoming culture in today's organization.

But, gradually, process will shrink as firms outsource sub-processes to suppliers. Culture, then, will be a set of shared values. John Micklethwait and Adrian Woolridge argue in The Company that the "dicrete" company could well be replaced by the "network" or the "boundaryless firms of Silicon Valley". These could be an ecosystem of individual entrepreneurs or organizations turning fractal by creating internal entrepreneurs.

Even as the reorganization of the organisation is under way, how do companies prevent themselves from being cultural clones? Indeed, how do they retain their cultural buoyancy and exclusivity despite living on the edge? How do they become cultural enclaves first and profit centres afterwards?

In a piece on Google (June 2004, www.cioinsight.com) management expert Warren Bennis outlined the challenge of creativity: "Even obsessed geniuses burn out. Once the bomb is built, or the PC is invented, the members of the group suddenly realize that they have been working 20-hour days for a long time, and they can't remember the last time they petted the dog or ate a meal with their children. Suddenly, work that seemed like play isn't fun anymore."

Still, despite being in a domain where the business model must always be flexible, Google may have just got its cultural algorithm right.

Who's the typical Googler? What makes her tick? You can get the answers to those questions on Google's site. "Googlers range from former neurosurgeons, CEOs, and US puzzle champions to alligator wrestlers and former-Marines. No matter what their backgrounds Googlers make for interesting cube mates."

"Google engineers all have 20 percent time in which they're free to pursue projects they're passionate about. This freedom has already produced Google News, Google Suggest, AdSense for Content, and Orkut – products which might otherwise have taken an entire start-up to launch."

What Google has done is simple: it has created virtual organizations and individualized corporations within. It has wired itself for tomorrow's necessities. It's a future that Tom Peters has been reminding us: "Buildings are tumbling. Boundaries are vanishing. Temps…are coming. Where 'you' start and where 'I' stop are no longer clear. Where 'I' stop and where 'you' start are no longer clear. How far will it go? Very far."

Yet organizations like Google may have found an answer by creating a fun atmosphere in the workplace. "Forget turfs. Think of people innovating across functions--and delivering. That's Google," says Google's Ashish Kashyap, country head, India sales and operations.

Fun knows no turf. It requires no buy-in. It is a feeling that is equated with quality of life. Just imagine discovering fun where you least expect it: the shopfloor. For the corporation, it is the only way to pre-empt the boundaryless organization.