I’ve been tossing a few ideas around in my head for a while, I started the business a few months ago and I’ve been very, very happy with how it’s been going. We’ve won a couple of great clients pretty quickly and all of the business plan projections, the ones which were drawn up on the back of a fag packet/beermat, have been dutifully chucked in the office bin.Whilst these couple of early wins have been great and have meant that I’m collaborating with some excellent people, one of the things that has been playing on my head for a while now is having a bit more structure to my work. I’m not someone who necessarily lends themselves to much structure and it’s safe to say there was a fair bit too much of the beastly stuff in my last few jobs but now the structure could be mine and I’m finding that a bit exciting.
The first of the ideas is a bit of an abstract one but one I’m convinced will work. Those who know me will know that I’ve always been a bit of an amateur theologian, I like to read about the way religions work and the arbitrary rules they set themselves, as a committed atheist I find it fascinating.
One thing I have always liked was the concept of tithing. Put simply “The tithe is that tenth of our income that we give to God, which enables Him to move on our behalf in the area of blessings”. Now, I’m not advocating that I randomly bestow a tenth of my income on a random church, after all some of these organisations are some of the richest in the country, and anyway I’m an atheist. The idea that I had was that I should give ten percent of my time, ie. one afternoon or morning of the week, over to doing stuff for free. At the same time I happened upon Matthew Knight of yarned, and we hit up a discussion about it. After a brief chat I decided that if he could do it than so can I, so I will. Being a new business, I think 10% is logical as a start figure. I already do about that amount, if not more, of unpaid advisory work but formalising it somehow makes it more real.
From now on Totaal, as a company rule for anybody on the payroll, shall henceforth have one morning or afternoon of the working week as “Tithed Time” to do something good. That means something charitable, something that gives something back to a community or something that is downright cool.
Also, something else that has been troubling me is the lack of perceived ethics in what I do. Now, that’s not the same as a perceived lack of ethics, even if we are a Social Media company, we have so far – and always will have – 100% client satisfaction. I’m as strict a critic as an agent as I was when I was a client and that wont change. More specifically, what we do as a company needs to be framed by what we wont do and what we don’t do.
It’s probably too big an issue to tackle right now but over the next few months I’ll be blogging, and speaking to people I respect offline too, about the best way to develop this ethical policy in more detail. It’s a given that I wont work with, or work for anyone owned by, arms dealers, oil companies or any companies responsible for acts of mass pollution like Union Carbide. What’s really interesting though is can I refuse to work for tobacco companies? I smoke, would that not just be massively hypocritical? Do I try and remain apolitical? I certainly have failed at doing that in my personal life even if I’m avowedly unaffiliated to either of the major parties.
I know some pretty ace people read this blog so if any of you have any thoughts on either of these issues it would be great to hear them. I could really do with some help on the ethical stuff, I want to make an interesting and considered, thought-provoking ethical policy and not a polemic. How do I do my bit for the planet or at least not muddy my environmental karma? HELP!
Really interesting post. We’ve had similar ‘discussions’ here at kilo75. Firstly you’re doing the right thing with regards the ‘free work’. Being clear about where and how this will works gives you a kind of freedom to be able to do it without feeling liking your robbing your free time or paid client time.
On the ethical policy. I definitely feel that actions speak louder than words here. And much of your ‘ethics’ will be tied up with your own personal sense of values or the values of a collective in the case of a large corporate. We’ve opted not to write it down but we have a clear idea on what we will/won’t do and most of that is about what we are comfortable with ourselves.
I’m looking forward to seeing where this takes you!
There is a school of thought that suggests CSR can improve the bottom line and that it is ethical to admit it! For me it’s about fulfilling my inner reward system by providing my time for free. The payback is the network of value you build through that activity. I truly believe people don’t forget when you help them, take time out to teach them or spend time supporting them. How you articulate this may be problematic as the frame of reference is subjective and relative to the person and the context.
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