A few years back, I convinced a conservative and thoughtful CEO, that it was time to take some bold action if we were going to make big moves within the company. We started at the core-the people, the culture. Before you look at this work, it’s worthwhile to take you back in time to illustrate that innovation and inspiration were all but dead! Just 5 years prior, the company built the most innovative technology that solved many water and energy problems on a global basis. Our IPO was a huge success with valuations that were very attractive.
But times got tough and morale dissipated. Realizing that things needed to change, we tried to inspire our teams with a lofty vision & mission , re-branding the entire company. Yet, the halls were eerily quiet, the walls were bare and people were afraid to take risks. So like anyone who takes their profession seriously, I delivered a novel idea to the CEO. “Let’s make a music video!”, where all of the employees are actors/dancers/extras. At first, I was laughed at and scolded about expenses by some. No one signed up to be a part of it except a few bold souls. After about a week of thoughtful consideration and a little persuasion, we hired choreographers, top notch producers and built a studio right in our warehouse. I’m proud to say that this project offered a revival of sorts- cultivating new ideas, attracting high quality talent and energizing the culture with a renewed sense of identity. And the best part, it was a lot of fun!
Click link to see video: http://bit.ly/BoldCreative
Bold Marketing 
Great job Audrey!
As the “conservative and thoughtful CEO” mentioned in Audrey’s article, I can attest to the fact that doing this music video (aka “Lip Dub”) gave me pause at first but it ended-up being a huge success.
I’m a pretty adventuresome person but prior to Audrey Bold presenting this idea to me I had never heard of a corporate Lip Dub and I must admit that the idea made me squirm. Audrey is an extremely talented marketing executive so I took a lead of faith and I’m so glad that I did. This was a matter of taking a chance, having some fun as a team, building a community of people, and in the end crafting the right corporate culture for our company.
People were smiling for months and I knew that we had really done something special when I heard that our HR group – as well as our outside recruiters – were making a point of telling candidates and new hires to watch the lip dub because that’s “who we are”. Okay, but did it payoff in terms of benefiting our shareholders? You bet it did. Audrey’s lip dub was a big part of building a culture of innovation and risk-taking that ultimately led to the wildly-successful “VorTeq” technology which has taken Energy Recovery to amazing new heights.
My message to every CEO in America. Hire creative, talented executives like Audrey Bold, get behind their ideas and then take a leap of faith every once in a while. Something magical just might happen!
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