Business and Blogging

Would You Rather Your Company Was Revered or Profitable?

by Des Walsh on August 3rd, 2007

As it’s the beginning of August, here on the b5media Business Channel each of us is riffing on some or other aspect of the meaning of “small a” august.

Incidentally, this word is just one example of the challenge for people whose first language is not English, in learning how to pronounce English words: the month “August” being pronounced “awe-goost” with the accent on the first syllable and “small a august” being pronounced “aw-gust” with the accent on the second syllable.

Anyway, small a august has various meanings depending on the dictionary you consult, but for the sake of this exercise we are looking at the meanings indicated at Dictionary.com, namely:

1. inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity or grandeur; majestic: an august performance of a religious drama.

2. venerable; eminent: an august personage.

And although it’s not in that dictionary explanation, isn’t there a bit of a connotation of “old”, “graybearded”, even “ponderous” in our mental picture of a person, or institution, or company that might properly be described as “august”?

Like those companies whose names you see built into the masonry of old, heritage-protected buildings in various cities. Companies long since merged, taken over, or variously disappeared.

A fate no company wants, unless the price is right.

So what if a company’s market research was starting to show that its image was of being “august”? Might that, given the connotations of “old”, “graybearded”, “ponderous”, be cause for concern?

You betcha.

And what if a company like that wondered how it could re-invent its image in the market? What if it started to look around to see what tools there were for it to communicate more effectively? To show that behind the facade of the 150 year old company there were real human beings, with families, with hobbies, with mortgages? People who could understand how their customers felt, people who were willing and able to actually listen to their customers comments and questions and provide direct, unfiltered, honest feedback instantly.

A company with the wisdom of years but still, or again, innovative, dynamic and of the moment.

“And what sort of tools would you say we could use for that, sonny?”

“A blog? Podcasts? A videoblog? Sounds pretty strange.”

“You mean communicate directly with our customers? And let them communicate directly with us?”

“Don’t know what the Board of Directors will say about all that. Pretty august lot of folks there.”

“Well, maybe we could try it. Probably beats being august and closing down.”

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