I’m a big believer that businesses have distinct personalities. On first reflection you might think this is just a reflection of the personalities of the people who own or run the business in question – at least for small/medium sized firms – but I feel it goes further than that. Business personality is also a function of the business model too, and I’m going to explain that with the use of some first hand experience, and some crude (read basic!) metaphor.
If you look at my about page, you’ll see two black cars.They share a lot of ‘DNA’ and have a lot of similarities. Both are two seater, real-wheel drive, high power-to-weight ratio lightweight British cars, and to all intents and purposes, both are Lotus (Caterham Cars make a modern-day Lotus 7 under licence, and have been since they bought the rights from Lotus). You might imagine both have similar ‘personalities’ as a result of everything they have in common, but the truth is they have very distinct personalities: the Caterham has a rawness compared to the Lotus which somehow makes 0-100 in 10 seconds seem almost civilised, even with it’s ‘stage 2′ exhaust. You even feel different in each, plus, each attracts very different reactions from the ‘outside world’. In a nutshell, very different vehicles..
Both our SSL company, and JobisO (also mentioned on the about page) are rather like the above comparison. They have the same DNA – the same backers and directors – and they are both “online” companies. They both share common features like sales and accounting practices, technical staff, office space and overall work ethos. They both sit in the small/medium business sector. Both have a healthy combination of ‘startup mentality’ and ‘old-school’ common sense, yet they are very different beasts. The SSL business uses polished, market-leading CRM and email marketing software, yet JobisO uses a lot of open source software to perform the same functions.
The overall difference is almost tangible – each has it’s own personality. Each is true to its ‘roots’ if you like – the SSL business is polished and serious because of the industry it is in (internet security) and the customers we attract (globally recognised brands like Sega, UNESCO, Siemens or Ferrari) and JobisO feels like a friendly recruitment company that practices what it preaches: taking the best of the web to deliver a low-cost but effective recruitment service.
The healthy upside of this is a company that knows what it stands for, and this is distinct from ‘corporate culture’ you hear so much about in management theory. I like to think they both have the same culture, yet different personalities – rather like siblings in a family maybe.
Our next venture – no details until it launches, sure you understand why – will also have it’s own personality. As it develops, I’ll blog about it. Until then, interested to hear your take on the topic..
