Tierney Rocky's Blog

Apparently, making mistakes can actually allow your company’s brand to be more positively perceived. I recently read this interesting post in a blog called Duct Tape Marketing, by John Jantsch, called “Fail in Favor of the Customer”. In it, he seems to blend a bit of marketing and HR. Essentially it is the idea that

“you can define your company’s brand in a way that generates a reputation for remarkable service, loyal customers, and confident and supported employees.”

Although a boss should not encourage mistakes, being flexible in such a way can actually lead to empowering your staff. With the spot light lately being turned onto companies like Google and Lulu Lemon, who are treating their employees extremely – almost unbelieveably – well, this is now an aspect that job-seekers want to be offered. So why aren’t more companies adopting similar strategies? Besides the fact that they may not have the financial resources to offer so much to employees, the major roadblock is simple; they can not figure out how to install this culture into their own business.

Perhaps they need just need to make the jump. Indeed, you may absorb a few projects gone bad,

“but the potential good buzz created by making a decision that has a positive outcome for the customer, will pay dividends far beyond the decision to jump in and spend money to fix something gone awry.”

If all goes well and companies in the next ten years increasingly follow this trend, then our graduating class will be eating at fine dining, sending our children to daycare, and taking breaks at the gym – all paid for by our company.

For insight on a different view of how treating employees well is more like treating them like kids, click How Google Keeps Employees by Treating them Like Kids.