Addressing Criticism: Staying Anchored to the Company’s Core Values
Oct. 13, 2017 – I would like to use today’s blog post to (1) emphasize the importance of staying true to who you are as a company and (2) address some positive criticism that we have received about our company’s new website.
Here we are mid-October and 2017 is quickly expiring on all of us, as the weeks seem to pick up momentum this time of year. As I reflect on the year, it seems like only yesterday that we launched the Affirm Consulting 2.0 website, which was our largest internal project for this year, and yet it’s been four months since the official launch of the website (My how times flies when you’re having fun). Since its launch on June 1st, we continually received compliments about our website and its content, however as every business leader knows, it’s a never-ending process to continually update and add new content to keep one’s website fresh and ranking high in all the search engine results.
Amidst all the compliments and positive feedback, we often get asked why we don’t show more pictures/images of our actual work to allow potential new clients see our team in action, working with clients. The short answer is, most everything we do with our clients is related to developing and implementing their company’s growth strategy, which typically includes business confidential information, so why would we want to put our partnered clients information for others to see just to promote our business.
That’s just not how we do business at Affirm Consulting, as confidentiality and trust are core values to our firm [Click here to learn more about ‘Our Values’]. We take a partnership approach to each and every client because we understand that our success can only be achieved by first helping our clients be successful.
Sure, there’s also the option of staging photos to ensure no client information is shared, but ‘staged photos’ do not convey authentic and transparent and thus does not represent our company’s values or fit with who we are as a company.
Although we appreciate those clients who have allowed us to share their company names and testimonials in our client portfolio, we have other clients who have opted not to be listed. Sometimes this request to remain unnamed is based on the competitive nature of their industry and other times it’s based on personal preference by the business owner or company’s leadership team. Again, we fully respect those requests and always give new clients the same option.
In closing, I’ll remind each business leader that as you grow your company, always stay anchored in your company’s core values and remain laser-focused on your customers and employees.
Hopefully you found this insight to be beneficial to you and your business. Please know if you ever have questions specific to your business, or would like more information about engaging Affirm to assist you in growing your company, please contact me and let’s schedule a time for us to meet. We would welcome the opportunity to buy you a cup of coffee and discuss ways to grow your business.
Remember: ‘Dream Big’, ‘Embrace the Process’ and ‘Affirm the Way’.
All the best,
Dennis E. Hough, Founder – Affirm Consulting, LLC