The values trap

I really enjoyed this blog post from Rob Campbell over the weekend.

As always it was tight and economical, getting straight to the heart of the matter.

Everywhere you look this challenge exists. At client organisations, at agencies, at media owners and platforms. Organisations say they want and value one thing. Then they behave in a way which is utterly incompatible with those values.

Campbell skirts round the outside of that famous Bernbach quote… that (something) “is not a principle until it costs you money”.

At the heart of this issue are trade-offs. What are you or aren’t you willing to do in service of making money. What are your priorities.

I once spoke with a client who when describing the process they were undertaking to manufacturer their platform and their product said quite explicity “We have made a conscious decision to not be shit. To avoid mediocrity. Even if that costs us more than we realise”.

I’d sketched out the image above in a note book some time ago. Largely because of a similar observation in a situation I observed at work.

It’s easy for brands to outwardly market themselves as all sorts of things: As strategic, as creative, as progressive, as innovative. These things make for good copy. But, they’re hard to actually build into a culture, let alone encourage and propogate. Especially when other characteristics such as an adherence to process, rules and discipline command a large share of the working culture.

It’s easy to take the position of James T Kirk in Star Trek 2. The position that no-win scenarios don’t exist. To make a wish that ‘you can be both’… (across whatever polarity that choice might exist)

In reality they do exist. For every action an equal and opposite reaction.

Choices have to be made.

Something has to be sacrificed. What, is up to you. What, is a matter of your true values and beliefs. Your principles, and what you’re willing to pay for them.