Marketing requires passion. Brandon Lashley, Account Executive at Gallant Culture, discovered this early on in college. He was fascinated with the stories told by numbers in marketing, the evolving psychology of target audiences, and the strategic thinking that is necessary to advertise and communicate with each target market.
How does your military experience translate to project management?
I’ve always been a problem solver. To me, project management evolved from my desire to manage people and projects, and to improve or simplify complex processes. My mother has been a project manager for over 20 years, so I grew up around her expertise. But, it wasn’t until much later that I realized how much I enjoyed project management.
When I went into the military, I began to see inefficiencies; instead of resigning myself to the inefficiencies, I took action to fix the problems. Whether it was creating spreadsheets or finding small ways to improve process productivity, I kept finding ways to improve many repetitive processes. As I went through undergrad and grad school, I kept doing the same thing white I taught, learned, and wrote my thesis. As I began my career, I found myself working on large projects that required project management skills. I was able to take the skills I’d developed over the years and apply them in my everyday work. This realization – discovered during my first job out of college – made me direct my efforts toward project management instead of toward managing individual tasks.
What about Gallant Culture’s conception of culture design contributes to our successes and sets us apart from the rest?
Culture can be created one of two ways: either the culture is built naturally, or intentionally. What I appreciate about Gallant Culture’s conception of culture design apart from other companies is that the company is intentional with cultural development. If a culture is built naturally, an organization runs the risk of developing habits that can prevent or hinder growth, whereas good habits encourage growth and evolution in an everchanging world.
A great example of a culture of growth is Google. Google’s culture revolves around enjoying one’s work. Yes, they have things like childcare, game rooms, and other niceties, but what I believe makes their culture so compelling is the encouragement to spend time on personal projects while at work. They are allotted a specific amount of time throughout the day to work on their personal projects, many of which have become staples of the Google brand: such as the daily Google art seen on their search page. Although not all ideas are winners, Google actively encourages new ideas. What works for Google won’t work for every company, but knowing the internal target audience and creating a culture around that audience can provide a positive work environment that helps people love what they do; they will actively find ways to improve the success of the company.
What metric do you think we can use to best measure the success of a brand’s culture?
In short, an internal audit is the best metric. Asking the right questions will quickly reveal the culture – the shortfalls and opportunities. Now, the length of it will take a few steps. First, internal surveys can reveal if cultural values are effective. Can employees articulate corporate values? Second, see if the employees recognize that the organization is consistent in its values. If an organization values transparency, but a manager is not transparent with his/her employees, there is incongruency, and actions speak louder than words. Third, once the culture is evaluated and determined effective, assess whether patrons are noticing the culture. Chick-fil-a, for example, has a culture that is kind, courteous, and welcoming that its patrons experience during every visit.
The last step is to review the health of the organization. Although this check might occur over 5-10 years, the impact can be measured. Chick-fil-A is a good example of this as well. The restaurant was created much later than McDonald’s and Burger King but has become more prevalent in many places. Although they do many things similarly to McDonalds and Burger King, the atmosphere is what sets them apart. To me, that culture of customer service is why Chick-fil-A is so successful.
Want to work with Brandon at Gallant? Get in touch with us today.
