Building Brand for the Journey Ahead

IN THE COMMUNITY 

Our focus is on innovation, creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and those who hold those values dear.  

Together we're leading a movement to break rules and challenge convention.  We are a brand of builders.

Here's how my head works.

I'm reading an article about how violence is not a product of mental illness when I see a Frank and Oak ad on the right side of the page.

What makes this add really stand out?  Why, the beard, of course.  The model's sporting one manly face carpet.

Kinda like this gent on the right.

Mark MacDonnell is a serious dude with a seriously awesome, ZZ Top-worthy beard.  

Mark's a confident guy, comfortable in his own skin.  He commands authority with his presence, which is the look Frank and Oak was going for in their add.

This gets me curious, for reasons to be made clear shortly.

I go to Frank and Oak's website to suss out what they're all about, if their overall brand holds true to the emotional impression I've formed from their ad.

Turns out it does.

Innovation.  Entrepreneurial. Challenge Convention. Brand of Builders.

And my favourite - For the Journey Ahead.

Frank and Oak believes that every day is Day One - that's the mentality that keeps them motivated, keeps them open, keeps them moving.  They've got a mission to shake things up a little.

Which is, to a tee, what the Open Community is all about.

The tech geeks, civil servants and agents of change like Richard Pietro are all about breaking new ground, harnessing new tools and disrupting the status quo of government to build a truly responsible society with a matching Open Government.

It's a long road, a challenging ride, but an adventure worth taking.  In fact, it's one we can't avoid.

This summer, Richard Pietro will be taking the sweet, sweet ride Mark's sitting on across Canada on an OpenGov Tour.  He's going to be exploring the country, connecting with its people.  He's also going to be spreading the word about what Open Data is and why it's such an amazing opportunity for Canadians of every rank and station.

Richard's a pretty confident guy.  He tends to have a beard, too.  And he's taking a motorcycle across the country, paving away for the journey ahead towards an Open Canada.

The connections form.  Frank and Oak represent the same basic theme as Richard and the OpenGov road tour, #OGT14.  They want to disrupt, to build, to innovate a community.  Those are the same themes that permeated yesterday's #GOOD14 conference.

How might we break down the walls that separate us, overcome the biases of the past and build an Open Community together?

Frank and Oak have the same basic mission; best of all, the look and attitude they champion is Richard's Road Trip personified.  Or vice versa.

Opportunity knocks.  A tweet gets sent.  

Now, Richard has a set of values that I respect a great deal and would never dream of challenging.  His tour is his, and his alone.  The message he carries is a universal one, but he is committed to not being a signboard for any organization.

Web Not War has provided him a great deal of funding for the trip because they believe in his mission, not for direct personal gain.  But they gain anyway, of course; altruism is really just selfishness that plans ahead.

There's an opportunity for Frank and Oak to do the same, building their brand along the way.

And the journey begins...

On Youth Employment, Chow is Half-Way There

Her Tuesday plan said she will "approach our city's business community" to ask them to "match the city's efforts."  Chow said her proposed interactions with business would be different than Tory's because they are attached to a "very specific proposal" while his are not.  Tory's campaign suggested Chow is proposing the same thing he did.

Let's skip past the candidate fun and games, because there's a real challenge here with tangible solutions that are pretty awesome.

Here are the facts:

- Particularly in the work culture we have now, employers want low-risk, low-commitment and cheap hires.  Only a few firms are getting ahead of the curve and recognizing that "spend money to earn money" applies equally to investing in your workforce

- What are the training opportunities that exist for youth out there?  We can talk about a specific trade - construction, for instance, or programming - but we're moving back towards a top-heavy, laissez-faire market where would-be employees are expected to do all the sales and convince the employers of their value (on the golf course, as an example).

- Customers, for their part, are looking for more than products - they want experiences.  They want to engage with firms, products and services where they get to be a bit of the process and can tell that the teams love what they do and feel empowered to take ownership of their work.

- Canada's corporate culture is largely stuck in a 20th Century, Industrial Economy mentality; they don't get the dynamism, interactivity and post-transactional relationships that are defining modern HR practices and economic opportunity.

- One-off employment opportunities for youth, especially marginalized youth, isn't translating into full-time offers; too often it's companies taking the matched, cheaper labour costs for a short-term project then moving on, which doesn't help youth at all

That's all the bad news.  The good news is that the tide is turning.  

- There's a move towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) not just as a branding exercise, but a means to add value to a companies work, empower employees and develop in-kind partnerships

- User Generated Content (UGC) is a growing thing - corporations, political parties and a growing host of organizations are making users part of their solution and part of their team, with engaged staff serving as the interface - this is what the whole Open Data and Open Government building a city that thinks like the web thing is about

- Many organizations, such as Make Web Not War, are looking at doing CSR through in-kind donations of time and expertise rather than just donating cash.  It's a bit of the teach an individual to fish mentality 

- instead of a lump-sum grant, dedicate staff hours to do organizational, communications and other activity while teaching the tricks of those trades to members of the team being supported

- youth with great ambition but less access to specialized skills training or traditional job opportunities are trying to strike out on their own through entrepreneurial efforts - what they lack, more than anything else, is the refined skills to excel at and sell what they do

So, with all that in mind, here's something for Team Chow to consider:

Don't just hire youth for government infrastructure projects; match those contracts with entrepreneurship/life skills training opportunities.  Find partners (maybe Swerhun, Exhibit Change, Canadian Training Institute - build up some vendors of record) you can put on retainers that get funded by successful applicants to go in and provide life-skills, communications, etc. training for hired youth.

A company landing a city contract will have access to a cheaper pool of youth labour, but those youth are going to walk away with more than just a line on their CV; they'll be spending some of their time in class, at events or in the field learning and applying the value-add skills that will really help them succeed in the future.

Start wiring these engaged, empowered youth into social movements like SoJo, Girl Geeks TO and Open Data TO, you're actively shaping the next generation of community leaders, and they will remember you for it.

There's a market for this; there's precedent for this; there's a need for this.

Chow's half-way there, it seems; just imagine how much further she could go if she committed to bringing Toronto's youth along with her.