Fun

Richard Branson with the band at San Francisco airport

Not everyone in business, by any means, subscribes in practice to the idea of business values being crucial, or even just important, for a business.

From what we learn of the more egregious examples of corporate misdoings, and personally from some of the negative experiences I’ve had as a business owner and as a customer over the years, I believe the term “business values” is for some business owners and executives an oxymoron.

As for me, I no more wish to do business with such people, or to have a values-free business myself, than I would wish to live in a values-free society, with everyone for themselves and the Devil take the hindmost.

It’s not just a matter of pragmatism. I firmly believe it is a key part of how most of us want to live our lives.

For those of us in business, we spend a lot of time at it, and to an extent and to varying degrees what we do or don’t do in business defines us and is going to be our legacy.

Do we want to be, and be remembered, as shysters and tricksters, for whom business is solely about making a profit by whatever means we can manage, or as as business people of principle, with high values, with alignment between our stated values and how we actually run our businesses on a day to day basis?

Does that sound serious? Well, it’s meant to be.

But does it exclude having fun?

Far from it.

Every now and again I remind myself of a set of business values adopted and applied by legendary entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.

In one version I read of those, for his Virgin brand, the list was:

Value for money
Quality
Reliability
Innovation
Sense of fun

One reason I like travelling on planes with the Virgin brand is that the cabin crew practise that sense of fun.

Without in any way creating a sense that they don’t take their job, and the passengers’ safety, completely seriously.

It’s a nice balance.

Not that we should expect to always get the balance right.

But in my business, if there is a risk that sometimes people will mistake my intention to have fun doing business for a lack of appropriate seriousness of purpose about providing great service, then that’s a risk I’m prepared to take. I reckon in the long run it will play out well for everyone concerned.

Is a sense of fun, or something similar, one of your business values? Or doesn’t the idea appeal?

Image credit: “Branson posing with the band”, courtesy riz94107 on Flickr, Creative Commons

Richard Branson, London Marathon, pic by Nick J. Webb

Looking today for some inspiration for a blog post, I decided to take a dive into the archives (a standard tip as one of the ways to deal with blogger’s block).

I noticed that back in October 2004 I had posted here about some key principles to which Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson is said to have attributed the brand’s success – Virgin’s “brand values”. The book Business the Richard Branson Way: 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder, by Des Dearborn.

The principles were:

value for money
quality
reliability
innovation
an indefinable, but nonetheless palpable, sense of fun

So I was thinking, how would a home based business go, applying those principles or taking them as a model set of brand values?

I can’t imagine anyone arguing seriously against the first three: value for money, quality and reliability. So surely we can take them as read.

I’m personally ok with innovation in any business context, including for professionals working from home. For example in my coaching business I am always keen to learn about ways I can coach more effectively from a distance – e.g. I love Skype for that, both the audio and video versions.

Sense of fun as a brand value

But what I found really interesting to be reminded about was the Branson/Virgin commitment to fun.

Then I realized I am reminded of it whenever I get on a Virgin flight, which I do fairly frequently. The crew always seem to have a genuine sense of fun, while at the same time having an air of knowing what they are doing professionally, just as much as I see with crew on planes of their competitors.

And by the way, now that I think of it, I wonder why the crew on the competitor planes don’t give any sense that they are having fun, any sense that they might be feeling – if I can put it this way – that right now the best thing they could be doing in the whole world is helping to make my flight and that of a crowd of others on the plane as comfortable, safe and enjoyable as it could be. As the Virgin crews seem to be able to do.

My sense is that it’s that kind of “sense of fun” the adventure-loving, knighted tycoon Branson means as one of the key Virgin values.

So back to the professionals working from home.

I’m trying to think whether having and displaying a sense of fun (indefinable, but nonetheless palpable) is part of how I do business now.

I certainly feel it is. I know I enjoy the coaching process, including when it is dealing with quite serious business issues. I enjoy helping companies develop and implement their social media strategies. In that sense I have a sense of fun about what I do. And I enjoy continually learning more about coaching and social media and sharing what I learn.

I quite like the idea of elevating the sense of fun I *feel* in doing business to being a key brand value. After all, if I’m not having fun doing business and letting that show, I believe I’m going to have a difficult time trying to help clients look to having a sense of fun in their business – however indefinable, but nonetheless palpable that might be.

What do you feel about all that.?

Is a sense of fun a useful, appropriate value for a business?

Is there anything about working from home that makes it particularly appropriate – or inappropriate?

Can you share an example of how having and displaying a sense of fun might help (or has helped) your business or a business you know about?

Or the obverse – how it has been present but has not served your business, or someone else’s, well?