Strategy #45: Give people something to crow about

What would you guess is one of the most boring business entities someone could go to work for? How about a company that makes high volume, low speed industrial fans? Remember the strategy from above of giving your people a great way to answer the universal icebreaker question “What do you do?” What would you do with that? “I work for HVLS Corporation making industrial fans.” I don’t know about you, but I would find it pretty hard to crow about that. But how about this:

I work at Big Ass Fans Corporation making Big Ass Fans. We also have our own apparel line for our the fans of Big Ass Fans. Oh, and the money we make selling Big Ass Fans stuff we use to rescue stray donkeys.

Several years ago, the CEO of the HVLS Corporation of Lexington, Kentucky decided to change the name of the company to reflect what people actually called their products – big ass fans (as Dave Barry might say, I swear I’m not making this up – see for yourself at www.bigassfans.com). When they painted an oversized jackass on the side of the plant, some neighbors got upset and started to picket. Knowing that nothing attracts the media like a crowd, the folks from Big Ass Fans gave the picketers coffee and donuts in the mornings and soda in the afternoons. The company’s business doubled the next year and doubled again the year after. To this day, they encourage a lively debate on the “kudos and complaints” section of their website (for a good time, check it out, and as long as you’re there, spend a moment or two at the “geniuses not at work” section). And they really do have their own line of apparel, not to mention dinnerware.

Okay, you might say, so changing the name was good for sales. But what about recruiting and retention. You might be thinking that having a name like Big Ass Fans, a website that features lots of donkeys, and generating that sort of controversy must make it tough to find and keep great people. Well, I checked out the “careers” section of their website (December 7, 2006), and here’s what it said:

We're on the move & looking for revolutionaries! Working at Big Ass fans is serious fun!  If you're hard working, intelligent and driven, enlist now! Join our ranks in the following areas...

There are no job openings at this time.

Now, if the folks at (formerly) HVLS industrial fan company can change their name to Big Ass Fans and give their employees something to crow about (there I go again, mixing my metaphors), why can’t you lighten up, step out of the box, take off the grey flannel suit, and if necessary take medication to treat your terminal professionalism – and then give your people something to crow about, something to laugh about, and something to brag about.

“Business (and public service in the public sector) ought to be about… service… growth… innovation. I.E., THAT DAMN DAY JOB SHOULD MATTER!  IT S-H-O-U-L-D BE AIMED AT CARING AND ATTENTIVENESS AND INCREASING HUMAN POTENTIAL (yours, mine, our colleagues’, our customers)… It is JOB NO. 1 for ALL bosses to… make sure that the day job is something that ALL of their employees can BRAG ABOUT to kids, spouses, neighbors, significant others.”  (emphasis – ALL of it – in the original)

Tom Peters: The Circle of Innovation

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