Manifesting brand values as workplace experiences
How do you build a culture that accelerates your business objectives?
Your team helped us become a better version of ourselves, and positioned us for the greatest success possible… years from now we will look back and proudly say, I was there.
The need
Our client started life as a research oriented biotech start-up. Ten years in, a substantial round of investment funding necessitated a rapid evolution in strategy to become a fast-paced commercial business.
Company rituals, attitudes and behaviours developed over time now jarred with this new mission. The research-focused old guard was being challenged to adopt new processes in line with the new commercial focus.
To successfully make it through clinical trials and launch a treatment that would change patients’ lives, the team – both old and new – needed to unite under one vision and a shared leadership intent.
What we did
Working with partner firm, Brand Paradigm, we developed a new employer brand with the executive team. This defined values and a cultural framework that realised specific objectives as the organisation moved through clinical trials. These made the organisation more agile, more competitively aware, and most importantly united in their goal.
Meaningful adoption of these values by employees was key to their success. Co-designing with staff and leadership, we designed a comprehensive range of colleague experiences that demonstrated the new culture in everyday workplace interactions. The experiences were prioritised by specific behavioural challenges and the impact they would deliver.
The outcome
We translated the employer brand and cultural pillars into an engaging and emotive handbook, that became affectionately referred to as the ‘company bible’. This was supported by twenty-five workplace initiatives across the physical workspace, ongoing staff comms, processes, and systems.
Following the rollout of the new cultural framework, our client made significant steps towards clinical trials and secured additional investment from a major pharmaceutical corporation.
Other times we’ve made a difference
Turning ‘pub chat’ into an investable start-up
Incubating an eco start-up with little more than a mission and a spark of a concept, turning it into a business with an investable product.
Transformational customer service
Helping one of the UK’s largest commercial banks to transform their service model across all channels, designed with their customers at the core.
Customer Wednesdays
Co-creating a powerful, repeatable design research playbook that mobilised a culture of customer-centric design across an entire organisation.