Business Values in The Trump Age
Right now, I’m not interested in business as usual. You shouldn’t be either.
Just prior to the election, Kelly stumbled across an article on HuffPo about a project called Queer Kid Stuff. We were over the moon. If you’re a parent, you already know how difficult it can be to even broach the topics of race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation with your kids. It’s really important to get this stuff right and I, for one, am terrified that I’m going to mess it up and confuse or scare my poor child. So suddenly it felt like we had a unicorn on our hands: an amazing short-form series that speaks directly to young kids about what it means to be gay. No more struggling with what to say: Lindsay Amer already says it for us, in a super kid-friendly, entertaining, thoughtful way. Score!
Aware that Lindsay was bootstrapping Queer Kid Stuff through Patreon and a small grant, Kelly reached out to her anyway. On occasion we’ll do small pro bono projects for causes we strongly believe in, and this was one brand we knew could make a big, global impact. So we dove in, gave Lindsay some ideas to grow her efforts, and reconvened on our usual internal company wrap-up call.
Which, for the very first time, went in a totally weird and uncomfortable direction.
Generally when we complete Doobry client work we write a little thing on our blog, promote it via social media, and put the client logo on our website. But Donald Trump had just been elected the next President of the United States. With a fresh onslaught of hate crimes on the election result’s tail, we’re aware that there’s a slice of the US population who feels bolstered in their bigoted points of view — and are more than ready to be more vocal about it moving forward. Were we really about to align ourselves with a brand called QUEER KID STUFF?
Were we ready, as a company, to take this stand?
The answer, really, was easy: Yes. Absolutely. Honestly, we were shocked that we were even asking the question.
“Business is business.” Except it isn’t.
Donald Trump has made it clear that one can rise to the highest reaches of power despite cheating consumers, vendors, systems, and loved ones
— but is that really what we, as business leaders, want the future of business to be? And are we ready to break contracts not with our clients, but with ourselves?
Where does that leave us ethically?
You know where you stand on your personal values. Now, more than ever, it’s time to reassess your company’s values. As leaders, whether we like it or not our personal brands influence our company brands — because our personal passions and values leak into everything we do. What we choose to read and learn. How we talk and teach and create.
Our passions and values are our drive. Don’t hide from them. Amplify them. Write them on your wall. Skim them whenever you find yourself in a business quandary — and be courageous every step of the way.
Marielle Henault is an ex-Disney exec and founder of Doobry, where she helps companies evolve their businesses into brands and intellectual properties into entertainment franchises.
If you’ve got a spark of a thing that you think maybe — probably — hopefully — other people might find cool, too, get in touch! I’m here to help with what comes next.
