What's Your Company's Most Valuable Resource? (Hint: It Isn't a 'What')

A lot of companies will talk about how important their employees are, but how many actually put it on a moving billboard?

That's pretty much what Crete Carrier of Lincoln, Neb., has done to recognize its drivers. Maybe you've seen the trailers being pulled down the highways. They say in big bold letters, "Our Most Valuable Resource Sits Here," with an arrow pointing to the cab.

When the Brandtenders team saw this on the road, we just had to take a picture.

It's a reminder to us all, no matter which industry we're in, to make sure we recognize and reward co-workers at all levels of our business. A recent study found that over 70 percent of high performers in organizations don't even know they're high performers—because no one told them!

Sure, we might know how many people it takes to source a truck, load it, put it on the road and get to the destination in a timely, safe manner. But we also often take all those moving parts for granted because we're focused on the "it" (the product) more than the "who" (the people).

When we say "reward and recognize," our brains automatically go to money in some form, whether it's regular compensation or bonuses of some sort. But rewarding goes much further than that, and the little things that leaders do make all the difference for employees at every level.

More than your facilities, product or even trucks, your people are your brand. You need them engaged because everything they say and do—in the office or out on the road—is a commercial for your company.

Not surprisingly, Crete Carrier walks (or drives) its talk. In fact, the company received the 2013 Nebraska American Legion Employer of Veterans Award for establishing an outstanding record of employing and retaining veterans. They seem to be doing a swell job of employing and retaining employees, and one of the major factors for the company's success is an ongoing commitment to its drivers and other employees.

This sets the benchmark for the rest of us. You may not have the time or resources to paint a moving billboard, but you sure can take a few minutes today to acknowledge those people who keep you in business.

This post was originally written by Dan Day for another company that values its employees, GW Transportation of Delano, MN.

Team Sky Really Knows How to Pedal a Brand

Bradley Wiggins became the first Brit to win the Tour de France.

It’s amazing that since the Tour began in 1903, no one from across the English Channel could pedal to victory in France.

Maybe not so amazing when you look closely at how Wiggins, his teammates and their leader took to the roads. A lot like strong companies take to their markets.

Great companies do three things well: Help people understand and become interested in its story—its brand; teach employees to communicate that brand message consistently; and allow employees some freedom to represent the brand in their own style.

Seems Team Sky does all three of these and quite well.

Let’s start with gaining commitment to the brand. Team Sky immediately differentiated itself by doing something unusual: affixed to the top bar of each bicycle—on a blue background matching the team’s colors and staring straight back at the rider—were these words:

“This is the line
The line between winning and losing
Between failure and success
Between good and great
Between dreaming and believing
Between convention and innovation
Between head and heart
It’s a fine line
It challenges everything we do
And we ride it every day”

This is the brand statement by which this organization’s culture is created. That culture, whether you’re pedaling a bicycle with eight other guys or working for a Fortune 500 company, ultimately becomes your brand.

Every time a Team Sky rider looks down—and that’s a lot when he pedals over 2,000 miles in three weeks—he is reminded of the brand for which he works. The employees of this organization truly understand what the brand is about.

Not to remain just words on carbon-fiber tubes—like the dusty mission statements hanging on cube walls everywhere—the message is reinforced by Team Principal Dave Brailsford during practice sessions, pre-race meetings on the team bus and in conversations with the riders during each stage (teams use radios to communicate with the their leaders who ride behind them in small colorful cars with extra bikes piled on top).

Each rider knows his place in the organization and what his contributions are at certain points in the race. This became most apparent as “second lieutenant” Chris Froome, considered by many to be the best rider in this year’s tour, slowed several times on the mountain passes to allow Wiggins to catch up and save energy by drafting on Froome’s back wheel. You could literally feel Froome “dragging” the eventual winner up the mountainside.

How does such conformity to the team allow for individual expression and success? Team Sky catapulted itself to an almost too-easy victory because of specific individual contributions by each rider somewhere along the way:

Froome, the faithful domestique, carried his captain through the roughest terrain; Mark Cavendish, the sprinter, was allowed to break away from the pack at the last few meters of a stage, winning two of them (including the final one on the Champs-Elysées); and Edvald Boasson Hagen is a rare talent who is relied upon to both climb and sprint, depending on where the team needs him most.

Each was afforded the flexibility to showcase his individual talent and style during the race. Still, Team Sky determined beforehand that Wiggins had the best chance among its members to win the tour, so when it came time to concentrate on who would wear the yellow jersey for leading the overall standings, each rider rode that “fine line” to put Wiggins up front.

Sure enough, there he stood atop the podium after the Sunday’s last stage, sideburns growing to his chin, fresh off grumbling about stupid questions from the media, and ending his victory speech with “Don’t get too drunk.” A real character. A brand unto himself.

Froome came in a little over three minutes behind Wiggins in the overall standings, resulting in a rare occurrence: two riders from the same team finishing the tour in first and second places. The team placed second in the overall team standings.

Team Sky’s leaders know that a group of strong individual contributors rallying around a single brand leads to success and reward for both the individuals and the organization.

How to Sink a Brand

The captain of the Costa Concordia has certainly tarnished his reputation—his brand.

He's also extremely weakened our perception of the brands he works for: Carnival Corp. and its Italian unit, Costa Crociere SpA. Even though it's very possible no other captain in the fleet will make this kind of mistake, it doesn't matter.

All the advertising, branding and marketing you do is at the mercy of your employees. Even if the people who work with you don't have the ability to completely sink your brand, they surely can put holes in its hull.

Captain Schettino didn't set out to damage either the ship or the image portrayed by the logos adorning it. Your employees want to do good, mainly because contributing to the company Brand (notice the BIG "B") in meaningful ways helps to build their own personal brands (with a little "b").

(Don't let the caps and lowercase fool you into thinking one's more crucial than the other; they're equal when it comes to gaining market share.)

Only when one brand puts itself above the other does the water start to seep in. Say, for example, the brand decides to flex some muscle by showing off for a retiring team member or cute eastern European woman, disregarding what's best for the Brand. Bad things can happen.

But let's not pick solely on the little "b". It works the other way, too.

The genesis of Brand is derived from executive vision, but ultimately becomes what employees make of it. All too often, Brand runs itself aground by, say, making claims to the marketplace that can't be delivered on, or treating employees like, well, employees and not the important "Brandtenders" they are.