Management Matters Blog

The Name Game, Part 2

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

--This week's column is part two in a three part series on naming. Last week's column contained advice on how to select a naming firm and today I'll address the elements that go into creating a great name.

Contrary to popular belief all of the great names have not already been taken. So, what are the components of a great name? While the answer varies a bit from industry to industry, the following rules of thumb should be kept in mind:

1. Keep it short: Short names are more memorable, easier to design around, more suitable for domain names and e-mail extensions, and possess a number of other advantages when contrasted with longer names. Another by-product of a short name is that it will likely be easier to spell.

2. Make it memorable: What good is a name that no one remembers? Your name should be distinctive and creative. Stop and think for a moment about names that you feel are great names, and you find that it is likely those catchy, memorable names that your brain will recall.

3. Your name should describe what you do: If your name is short, memorable, and descriptive you have hit the naming trifecta. Most of all, your name should not confuse the market about what you do. If you refer to the use of the name “Alfalfa” for a tax and financial planning firm described in last week’s column you’ll see what I mean. If you work for a company where you consistently have to explain who you are, and what you do, then you may want to reevaluate your choice of name.

4. Your name should be Internet friendly: The domain name exactly resembling your brand name should be available so that you can maintain continuity in your branding. If you find that your name is either not available, or that you have to shorten the name to make it work you may want to think twice. Additionally you should enter your domain name into all of the major search engines and if the returned search count is too high it is a good indicator that you will have a difficult time securing high search engine rankings and that there may be confusion in the market with regard to your name.

5. Color pallet: Make sure that the colors you choose work well across all mediums, and that the color is memorable while still being appropriate within your industry. Have your naming firm provide you with several different color pallets to work from so that you can make sure you end-up with something that is credible, works across mediums, and still has some “pop” to it.

6. Your name should be easy to design around: In a perfect world your name should consist of an integration of your name, logo and tagline into a single design concept. Okay, I can’t resist a little shameless promotion…Look at the N2growth logo (www.n2growth.com), and I think you’ll agree that it is short, creative, memorable, internet friendly, associative, descriptive, relevant and contains an integrated design.

7. Your name should be conflict free: Step one is to do an internet search to see if others are openly conducting business using your name. Step two is to check with the municipalities in which you will be doing business to make sure that someone has not registered the name, step three is to search the database at the United States Patent Office (www.uspto.gov), and step 4 is to do a linguistics check to make sure that you will not be offending other cultures with your name selection. There is little sense in selecting a name that is going to be fraught with future legal battles.

If you make sure to follow the seven steps noted above it is likely that your name will be effective and have some staying power to boot.

 

The Name Game: Part 1

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

--The disciplines of branding and corporate identity have long been personal passions of mine, and nothing within this genre holds greater fascination for me than the practice of corporate naming. This column is the first in a three part series and will discuss whether corporate naming should be handled as an internal initiative, or whether it should be outsourced to a professional naming firm.

Done well, corporate naming can be one of the most powerful assets in a company’s branding arsenal. A great company name can support, energize, and leverage your brand. The right name will also create strong competitive separation while at the same time establishing a bond of trust and loyalty with your target market(s).

Given the critical importance of selecting a great company name I’m always amazed at the haphazard approach that many organizations use in their methodology (or lack thereof) when creating a name. There are basically two paths a company can travel when creating a name, they can create it internally or they can collaborate with a service provider. Both options are assessed below:

1. The Do it Yourself Approach: In all but the rarest of circumstances companies that attempt to develop a name internally usually do themselves a disservice.  Names should not be developed in a vacuum. I have seen pride of authorship create many a naming train wreck. Just because it is your idea doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good name.

Naming is a competency that spans mediums, cultures and geographies. Naming is equal parts art, science, linguistics, strategy, competitive positioning, research, business intelligence, marketing, branding, creative, intellectual property and above all else talent and experience. If you can’t honestly say that your company possesses all the aforementioned capabilities then you should not organically pursue naming.

Even if your organization possesses the aforementioned abilities you may still want to think twice when you consider the fact that companies like Disney, Coca Cola, Microsoft, Time Warner, ABC, MTV, Apple and many others outsource naming to experts. There is something to be said for third party objectivity.

What about cost you say? If you think you can’t afford a professional naming firm think about all the money you’ll spend down the road trying to breath life into a bad name, the future cost of a rebranding initiative, the legal fees you’ll spend defending an intellectual property infringement claim when it turns out that you’re using someone else’s name, or the fact that you can’t do business in foreign market because the name you’ve chosen happens to be an expletive. It just pays to get it right the first time.

2. Select a Third Party Naming Expert: Your second option is to outsource naming. For all the reasons noted above the undisputed best practices approach to naming is to hire a third party expert. The tricky part associated with this method is determining what it is that actually constitutes an expert. For if you select the wrong firm all the negative aspects of the do it yourself approach referenced above will also apply here.

Let’s start by defining who does not qualify as a naming expert. While there are clearly exceptions to any rule of thumb, generally speaking graphic designers, printers, PR firms, logo shops and yes even many advertising agencies don’t qualify as naming experts. They may dabble in the practice, but you’ll find that it is rarely a competency.

Complicating matters even further is that many firms who profess a competency in naming are simply not very good at it…Just for kicks and giggles let’s put some naming companies under the magnifying glass and see what they’ve done for themselves…

The Avant-garde firms: Avant-garde is defined as way out or ahead of its time. Firms that fall into this category tend to confuse off the wall and ridiculous with being creative…Trust me when I tell you there is a big difference. Point in case: The first thing that comes to mind when I see “A Hundred Monkeys” is what were these guys smoking when they came up with that name? A Hundred Monkeys is a naming firm that created the name “Alfalfa” for a tax and financial planning firm; Go figure…Firms that try so hard to be cool at the expense of all the other critical factors that go into creating great names should be avoided.

The Completely Predictable and Boring Firms: Firms such as “The Naming Firm” clearly understand relevant association, but there is a certain lack of creativity in this name, don’t you think? Firms that have no sense of flair should be eliminated from the search as well. There is no need to make sacrifices when it comes to selecting the right name. It is possible to be relevant, associative, creative, memorable, and distinctive.

The trick to selecting a great naming firm is to avoid the extremes represented by the firms mentioned above. There are two main factors to focus on when selecting a naming firm. The first is to find a firm who has a portfolio that is really good. Their work should reflect a variety of styles that demonstrate relevancy to the industry they were created for. This type of diversity of work history will give you a better chance of ending-up with a style that is compatible with what you are trying to accomplish. The second is to find a firm that is very collaborative. They should spend time getting to know your company, your industry, your competitive value propositions and your vision. Great naming firms achieve success based upon their ability to align their talent with the client’s vision.

Now that you are armed with what to look for in a naming firm, Part 2 of this series scheduled for next week’s column will discuss the individual elements contained in great names.

 

Knowledge Is Power

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

--The ability of an executive to sort out who, what, why, when, where, and how while contemplating how decisions are made will largely determine the qualitative outcome of said eventual decisions. Even though people often treat theory as knowledge, and opinion as fact, they are not one in the same. In this week's column I'll address what I refer to as the hierarchy of knowledge which will provide you with some logic surrounding how to filter the various sources of input.

One of great challenges for any business is to learn to efficiently and cost effectively leverage knowledge on an enterprise wide basis. We have all heard the saying that “knowledge is power.” We’ve all also heard the refinement of that saying which states that “the application of knowledge is power.” I prefer to take it one step further and say that “the successful application of knowledge at the right time, for the right reasons, and with the proper emphasis results in a certainty of execution that creates power.”

Understanding that a hierarchy of knowledge exists is critically important when attempting to make prudent decisions. Put simply, not all inputs should weigh equally in one’s decisioning process. By developing a qualitative and quantitative filtering mechanism for your decisioning process you can make better decisions in a shorter period of time. The hierarchy of knowledge is as follows:

* Data: Raw data is comprised of disparate facts, statistics, or random pieces of information that in-and-of-themselves hold little value. Making conclusions based on data in its raw form will lead to flawed decisions based on incomplete data sets.

* Information: Information is simply an evolved, or more complete data set. Information is therefore derived from a collection of processed data where context and meaning have been added to disparate facts which allow for a more thorough analysis.

* Knowledge: Knowledge is information that has been refined by analysis such that it has been assimilated, tested and/or validated. Most importantly knowledge is actionable as a result that proof of concept exists.

Making executive decisions in today’s world has never been more complex, and when under extreme pressure I have seen many a savvy executive blur the lines between fact and fiction resulting in an ill advised decision. Decisions made at the data level can be made quickly, but offer a higher level of risk. Decisioning at the information level affords a higher degree of risk management, but is still not as safe as those decisions based upon actionable knowledge.

Another aspect that needs to be factored into the decisioning process is the source of the input. I believe it was Cyrus the Great who said “diversity in counsel, unity in command” meaning that good leaders seek the counsel of others, but maintain command control over the final decision. While most successful leaders subscribe to this theory, the real question in not whether you should seek counsel, but in fact where, and how much counsel you should seek. You see more input, or the wrong input, doesn’t necessarily add value to a decisioning process. Volume for the sake of volume will only tend to confuse matters, and seeking input from sources that can’t offer significant contributions is likely a waste of time. Two other issues that should be considered in your decisioning process as they relate to the source of input are as follows:

1. Credibility: What is the track record of your source? Is the source reliable and credible? Are they delivering data, information or knowledge? Will the source tell you what you want to hear, what they want you to hear, or will they provide the unedited version of cold hard truth?

2. Bias: Are there any hidden and/or competing agendas that are coloring the input being received? Is the input being provided for the benefit of the source or the benefit of the enterprise?

Good luck and good decisioning.

 

How to Manage Passion's Downside

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

--In a recent speaking engagement I was talking about the downside of passion and was quickly interrupted with the question: "How could being passionate about what you do ever be a bad thing?" As most people understand, anything taken to the extreme, or in excess, can in fact be harmful. Therefore I thought it might be of value to examine the downside of unbridled passion in this week's column, so that passion can remain an asset and not end-up becoming a liability for you or your company.

Most of the professionals I know would agree with me that passion is a necessary ingredient for success as an entrepreneur or C-level executive. While I have always been a champion of passion as a key success metric, I have on numerous occasions witnessed passion impeding purpose, which in turn hinders success. As I have observed this situation on more than a few occasions over the years, it has been my experience that passion only becomes a barrier to success when it is misunderstood and/or misapplied.

Passion is an emotion of exuberance that can almost single-handedly fuel greatness. History is littered with accounts of marginally talented individuals who have risen to greatness based upon little more than being passionate about the pursuit of their objective. Passion creates a “refuse to lose” mentality which can enable the average person to move outside comfort zones, take-on greater risk, go the extra mile and achieve phenomenal results. That being said, passion without perspective and reason can actually serve to distort one’s perception of reality allowing them to slip into very dangerous territory. Have you ever known someone who wanted something to be true so badly that they started to adopt positions and manufacture circumstances to support their own false reality? Just because you can convince yourself that your position is correct, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is.

Just as there exists a very fine line between brilliance and insanity, there also exists a fine line between passion and many negative traits such as narrow-mindedness, narcissism, fanaticism, delusion, and even paranoia. For instance, there is a big difference in an entrepreneur who is passionate about his business, and one that is emotionally over-invested in his business. Healthy passion for one’s business actually brings focus and clarity of thought, which serve to accelerate growth and create sustainable success. However being emotionally over-invested in one’s business can lead to irrational decisioning, prideful or ego-driven actions, the use of flawed business logic and poor execution, which can in turn lead to unnecessary loss and/or failure.

It is not at all uncommon for entrepreneurs and executives to be too close to the forest to see the trees. Passionate professionals thinking clearly will seek independent outside counsel and advice to continually gut-check and refine their thinking. Emotionally over-invested professionals will either avoid counsel or surround themselves with the proverbial yes-men.

Another trait of healthy passionate thinking is to recruit tier-one talent at the executive leadership and senior management levels in order to stimulate innovation and thought growth. Effective leadership teams have a balance of left-brain and right-brain thinkers from a variety of backgrounds so that they can draw from the broadest possible array of experiences when formulating positions and options. Emotionally over-invested professionals tend to surround themselves with very small teams of like minded individuals from similar backgrounds who tend to reinforce one another’s thinking instead of challenging it.

I applaud those of you reading this column who constitute the passionate minority. I would, however, also counsel you to take pause and evaluate your current positioning and thinking. Are you operating in a vacuum? Do you seek advice and counsel from those who will tell you the truth, or from those who will just tell you what you want to hear? Is your passion creating clarity, focus and purpose or is it blinding you from seeing the reality of your current situation?

My advice? Be passionate where prudent and justified, and always stay grounded in reality.