People are sometimes identified as brands just like products. This reference is not necessarily what their calling cards say. Such identification can be self-promoted attributes (the brightest in the room) or simply attributed to a person from her social inclinations (social climber).
Self-identification (how you are known by others) is actively promoted in the motivational lecture circuit — you are a rock star! Evangelical speakers insist on promoting “Brand Me” as a way to success. This can mean having the right attitude or even dressing the part — you are what you wear.
Is it possible to afford a nice house even if you are unassertive, stay out of the limelight, and move with the urgency of a snail to the buffet table? Is there a counter-trend in corporate behavior rooting for invisibility and aiming to be unbranded and merely generic?
Modesty is seldom considered a corporate virtue. Aggressive behavior, including shoving others aside to get into a picture with the celebrity boss, seems the hallmark of a winner. Yes, he is obnoxious but he gets things done, or at least gets credit for it.
In an acquisition, management takeover, merger, or reorganization, does the one who can keep his head down get to keep it joined to the shoulders for a longer time?
When voices are raised all around, the quiet one provides a calming presence with a smile and a reluctance to join in personal attacks. When asked to comment, he speaks in a soft voice — we need to check the impact of this on our supply chain. He rolls the apple of discord back to its source by bringing up a cliché — Instead of cutting costs, shouldn’t we be raising revenues?
A lack of interest in jockeying for a higher position than the one already occupied requires alertness too. Paying attention when a meeting is called allows the patient one to hear the sound of bones breaking (not his) or the loud thuds of falling bodies (his superiors’). Calmness through political storms all around is enhanced by the mantra — I need an umbrella.
Routine administrative work keeps Mr. Generic busy signing checks, initialing reports, sipping coffee, and approving leaves. He avoids taking any radical stand on issues, bouncing up approvals on everything to higher-ups, not starting a discussion with an opinion but a question — is this really a choice between bankruptcy and loss? He provides background information like industry trends as well as harmless observations — yes, the club sandwich has too much mayonnaise.
It may no longer be necessary to employ old-fashioned back-stabbing, rumor mongering, and bad-mouthing. It takes too much scheming and conniving work. Antiquated weapons of political intrigue leave fingerprints and eventually get traced back to their sources. Even deleted e-mails can be retrieved. It is enough to allow others to juggle hot potatoes, deal with individuals who have connections to the powerful, or push policies with foreseen disadvantages to entrenched interests.
Being generic and unbranded offers its own rewards. Pretty soon, those raising their brands by making difficult decisions and fighting battles that can’t be won become casualties of power plays. Rivals are eliminated by attrition and when the dust settles, the unbranded person who is merely doing his job is the only one left standing.
It’s a matter of time for the generic executive (cures headaches in 30 hours) to be groomed for a top position vacated by corpses. This patient strategy however is by no means foolproof. The meek ones can just as easily be bypassed as not tough or decisive enough for the road ahead.
Blending with the furniture may result in being sat on and vacuumed. An outside hire may then be considered for the vacancy which requires a hard-hitting body banger, rather than a mild-mannered insider who seems to have no opinions of his own.
Patience may run out and the previously mild one switches to a new strategy — changing into a werewolf. And many will say of him when he is finally unmasked as the one responsible for all the mayhem that he used to be so quiet and seemed incapable of hurting a fly.
One day, the meek one just grows facial hair and longer fangs and becomes too threatening. Then, it may be time for the silver bullet to the heart.
A. R. Samson is chair and CEO of Touch DDB.
ar.samson@yahoo.com
