What We Need Now is Love and Leadership
A Statement From Loomis Marketing, LLC
My advice usually goes out to companies and executives, but what we’re facing now regarding systemic racism transcends organizations. It’s about our small towns, our cities, our states and our countries. Most importantly, it’s about the amazing variety of unique people who make all those places so special. Unless we unite now, not only will our businesses suffer, our very way of life is at risk. If we don’t come together, the least of our worries will be how to promote our stores, restaurants, products and services.
First, About Business
One of the things I do for a living is help companies and individuals improve their brands. I have a saying that “marketing is everything we do”, which can apply to businesses and to people. When we set our minds to serving customers (and those around us), we ask better questions, we become better listeners and we help others accomplish their “jobs to be done”.
I have said for some time now that we should love our customers. After all, they’re what keep our businesses running. Loving them allows us to eliminate judgement of them, accept them for who they are and concentrate on serving them.
The opposite of love is hate and it doesn’t work too well in business. If you’ve ever been mistreated, received terrible customer service or bought a shoddy product you know what I mean. It’s not fun. We don’t go back for more. And we tell a lot of people about our disastrous experience.
When companies get off track, it’s often because they’ve lost touch with customer needs – in effect, a lack of love. I’ve introduced the concept of Servant Innovation, which explains that, over time, companies rely more and more on their original products or services while building up overhead costs to support growing sales. Before long, companies concentrate more on selling what they have in order to cover overhead rather than serving customers’ changing needs and adapting accordingly.
The most effective leaders avoid this “overhead trap” by modelling and encouraging Servant Innovation. They understand that marketing is everything a company does. They remember to love their customers. They inspire their employees to do the same. They unify the entire ecosystem of stakeholders. There is no “us and them”; it’s all “us.” The result is a positive virtuous cycle, not a negative vicious cycle.
Next, About Everything Else
Love and Leadership are two of the most vital ingredients for success in business, but also in life. Why are these two elements so important?
Love conquers fear. We need to reduce fear because it fuels misunderstanding and violence. When[HL1] we love others as our brothers and sisters, we accept them for who they are. Returning to love also eliminates the human equivalent of the “overhead gap”, which occurs when we try to perpetuate the same systems for longer than we should. Just like companies, we have to wake up to the realities of changing beliefs and adapt accordingly. Otherwise, we’re out of business as a society.
When leaders step up, they bring people with seemingly different beliefs together. Leaders help find common ground on which to agree and forge compromises – yes compromises. They listen, empathize with people who have very different perspectives and create unity. Leaders may also need to be practical, charting short- and long-term courses in order to accomplish grand dreams. They help communities of all sizes – from counties to countries – to defend against the negative, vicious cycle and find the positive virtuous cycle. Leadership and collaboration go hand in hand.
About Right Now
At this point in history, media and technology magnify the polar extremes of almost every topic imaginable. They’d like you to believe the word is black or white and we have to choose a “side” on everything. Nothing could be further from the truth. Almost everything in life exists as a spectrum all the way to light itself. In a rainbow, we can see that spectrum of color. In today’s debates on race, health, food, housing, environment and economics, the broad range of options is much harder to see, especially amidst sensationalism and shouting. But the workable solutions are there for us to grasp. Almost none of them will be at the polar extremes. We have to take it into our own hands to find the middle ground. Everyone has to be willing to give a little – and sometimes a lot. Finding agreement is not a path of weakness as many would claim. It’s the road to peace[HL2] .
We’ve become more agile and innovative in our businesses over the last several decades. It’s time for our public institutions to catch up. When a company has a problem with inventory, they put a laser focus on it and, for a given time, that issue gets special attention. That’s not to say that manufacturing, shipping or sales isn’t worthy or to be forgotten. Right now, the impacts of systemic racism are too evident to ignore and require special attention. Black Lives Matter.
To be honest, being able to articulate these thoughts and acknowledge my own privilege has been a journey. Without the help of some Black and Brown friends and colleagues I would be still be quiet and internally defensive. I was particularly influenced by work from the Racial Equity Institute and their Groundwater Approach. As the light went on, I finally realized this not as much about me or anything I personally think or feel. It’s about systems and behaviors put in place long before I came along that continue to manifest themselves in our society…sometimes very visibly, but most often hidden away.
If there was a chemical spill in your town that seeped its way into all the soil, would you go about your daily life pretending it wasn’t there – just because you didn’t think you were the direct cause? Or would you pitch in with everyone to help clean it up so your kids and grandkids will have the life they should? It’s our nature to assign blame. But let’s just skip that part, look at the facts and fix things[HL3] .
About The Future
Loomis Marketing has regularly contributed time and money to organizations that help the those less advantaged gain access to the arts, education and housing. Beyond that continued ongoing support, we’ve made a donation and will provide future support to the Third Space Action Lab, which works on creative, place-based solutions to socioeconomic problems using human-centered insights. I understand this is just a drop in the bucket, so to speak, but I’m heartened to so many people and companies pledging support to so many organizations. To me, it feels different. We can only hope and pray there’s real momentum.
This new awakening and effort should rise above political parties. It must. Of course, policy and approaches are involved and those are often associated with established parties and platforms. But this has become a public health issue. This is about human decency and we’re all human, not just walking and talking defenders of our opinions or preferred strategies.
None of us are flawless individuals…as employees of companies, as family members or citizens. So, let’s be open to examining those flaws however much it may hurt. Then let’s work together to ease that pain and improve ourselves in those areas. Instead of divisive actions and words, let’s use love and leadership to heal our communities and our countries, just the way we use those tools to improve our organizations. Together.
Dave Loomis
Founder and President
Loomis Marketing, LLC