Are you a Man or a Mouse?

This week the team in our new business, Investible spent some quality time getting really clear on our company values. As we discussed what we individually and collectively wanted the business to stand for and what values we wanted the business to be built around I couldn’t help but smile at some of the more unorthodox choices we’d made in our determination to ensure that our values were not just words on a dusty corporate plaque but a living expression of our business. Take Motivational Mouse for example…

In Blueprint one of our core values was ‘Fun and Focus’ and I would regularly climb into our seven-foot tall Motivational Mouse costume to demonstrate our commitment to fun and focus and help lift the vibe in the sales office. Whoever wore the costume wasn’t allowed to speak and was sworn to anonymity. Jumping around the office handing out lollies on slow days, recognising the team with ice blocks in summer or handing out the weekly director’s message, Motivational Mouse was always a welcome relief. He would appear to shock our prospects on our client pitches, run in the City to Surf fun run and was occasionally spotted soliciting for staff in Sydney’s CBD. He even made an appearance during the final, nail biting stages of selling our business.

During those nerve-wrecking moments of selling our business, I remember sitting in the marble foyer of Grosvenor Tower - one of the most prestigious corporate addresses in the city. On the 34th floor my business partner Trevor Folsom was meeting our prospective buyer’s law firm (he is also my new partner at Investible). Negotiations were taking months and over a couple of beers during the previous evening, Trevor and I decided that we needed a strong message that our company was much more than the dollars and cents that made up its commercial value. So there I was a river of sweat dripping off me into my size 22 slippers, squeezed into a tight fitting giant mouse costume with a three-foot head and inadequate ventilation through his oversized grinning mouth! Trevor was supposed to go ahead and if he thought it was OK he would call down for me to make the grandest entrance as a giant mouse. Only it had been hours. Was the $109 million deal to sell Blueprint, the company we had founded with $5,000 each, dead in the water? Were the rumours of pending global financial meltdown coming true?

Plus the building security guard didn’t seem that amused. I was even chastised for bringing the building into disrepute and was asked to leave. To be fair I had been around the revolving doors a few too many times and my poor attempt at a Marcel Marseau impersonation, performed by following behind some very serious looking suits might not have helped but I couldn’t leave - Trevor was sure to call down any minute!

I tried to explain what I was doing to the junior security guard. Pointing to the list of blue chip companies on the wall I found the law firm in question and mimed the fact that we had a big deal going on upstairs (signing papers in the air, making ‘very very big’ arm gestures etc). She didn't really understand what I was saying and got on her walkie talkie. “Boss, we've got a real problem in the foyer” she said. “There’s been some complaints and I’ve got this mouse down here that won’t leave.” To which he replied, “A mouse? Just get rid of it!” The poor woman then responded, “I can’t. It’s not a normal mouse. It’s like a really, really big mouse.” Her boss suddenly sounding alarmed, “What?! A rat?!”

Anyway, we managed to sort it all out and I wasn’t evicted - so long as I stopped following the patrons. And thankfully the deal went ahead and we sold the business.

It still amazes me how few entrepreneurs and business owners actually take the time to clarify their values and invest the time and energy to bring them to life. And whilst I can appreciate the urgency and drive to ‘get down to business,’ leaving values undefined is a mistake. If you don’t define them someone else will, if you don’t gain clarity on what your business stands for, it will stand for nothing. Be clear, be inclusive and be precise.

I’m not sure Motivational Mouse will ever come out of retirement. Each new business has different values and a different ‘personality’ depending on the sector and the people in the business but one thing I do know - spending time on clarifying your values is some of the most important work most businesses never do.

What are you company's values or values that you think are necessary to allow a business to thrive and achieve the greatest success? Anything to rival Motivational Mouse?