Do People Line Up to Work With You?
Before I get to the real (financial services) point, I’ve an admission to make.
I don’t understand HANDBAGS.
Not that I try to communicate with handbags, you understand.
Just that I don’t understand the obsession around them.
For example…
I don’t understand why my wife’s handbag collection could fill a large lorry.
(Here’s hoping she doesn’t get to read this week’s Blog!)
Nor do I understand why someone – anyone! – would pay £11,000 for a Hermès ‘Birkin’ bag (as I read recently). Nor why they’d wait 5 years to receive it!
At least I didn’t understand, until I read this…
In a humorous ‘Gapingvoid Culture’ blog.
“Hermès $6 billion revenue leather good division… is all about one thing.
MASTERY.
And they play a long-term game.”
(Two centuries seems a pretty long-term game to me)
While everybody else was outsourcing their manufacturing abroad, Hermès did the opposite.
They quietly cornered the market on top-end artisans.
Meanwhile they channelled their revenue to opening schools in deprived areas in France to train apprentices.
Yes, it took over ten years.
But suddenly, there’s not a company on earth that can compete with them at scale.
At least, not for another couple of decades and many hundreds of millions of Euros later.”
It’s a classic example of devotion to creating a CULTURE.
It’s a classic example of playing a different game entirely.
While other firms are the capturing of assets… chasing growth… revenue…
A business with a Hermès mindset uses MASTERY of their craft as the heart of their culture.
What they’re offering is an utter devotion to CRAFTSMANSHIP… a sense of MEANING… a sense of HISTORY.
Of course, this is not just about Luxury Goods, is it?
This readily translates to business environments like Financial Services.
While others blab on about “Look How GREAT and Award Winning We Are!”…
A culture like Hermès connects their people to what “Great” actually LOOKS LIKE in daily practice.
In their commitment to outlandish technical expertise.
In their contribution to the LIVES of their clients (rather than merely to their money).
In their devotion to multiplying the genius of ever team member.
Didn’t Maslow posit that the highest form of human existence is Self-Actualisation?
Where we strive towards our greatest capabilities.
Where we strive for MASTERY.
I wonder…
What would have to change in the way you’ve designed YOUR business…
to accomplish that?
