Initium – how and why we chose our name
Brand strategist Paul Graves writes: I’ve worked on many naming projects over the years — for a wide variety of globally well-known (and not so well-known) brands, across diverse markets. While each has presented unique opportunities, the general method has been more or less the same; brief, research, discovery, brainstorming, presentations, refine, testing, trademark viability etc. Then… drumroll, ta da… a new name is born!
Also, the same. Most companies claim their approach has been internally inclusive. Yet all too often, final discussions take place behind closed doors — with limited, if any real and reliable broader, team inclusion in the process — let alone the outcome. A name is agreed and presented as the bright, gleaming future of the business. That’s that.
“If all you’re trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it’s unlikely that you’ll be very successful.” – Michael Porter, founder of Modern Strategy theory
Yet, we know that strong NPS (Net Promoter Score), stellar-performing, enduring, high value-brands practice what they promise from the inside out – consistently and continuously. But this only happens where there’s internal trust, energy and buy in to what the brand really stands for — as well as what it delivers. This is more likely to materialize when teams are fully engaged in high stakes, strong-emotion initiatives such as company/brand renaming.
Why? Because people with varied roles hold unique, vital and often untapped keys into a company’s DNA — as well unexplored customer insights and market understanding. These diverse views are expansive; they shape a more reliable and rounded view; this all too often underestimated, underleveraged and unexpected internal, creative firepower — can change the game, not just the name. The alternative (in my experience) are teams who are distant and disconnected at best – or at worst, disillusioned; not the best start to launch and live the brand!
Leaders make a courageous and creative choice when they fully involve a cross section of voices across the business in the naming development process itself; they are deciding not to make the same choice that most businesses make — that is, to pay lip service to a process and chose a name largely in a vacuum. As Michael Porter puts it, “the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do… If all you’re trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it’s unlikely that you’ll be very successful.”
Making the alternative, different choice for greater team involvement doesn’t mean people have to be taken away from their daily jobs for days on end; however, it does mean they are fully involved in building the business and cultural case as well — as well the creative process for arriving at a name. It also means they may take a lot away as well as bring a lot to the table – which can only be good news for the business as a whole. Remember the days when we used to talk ad infinitum about the power of the learning organization to translate insight into rapid action, creating the ultimate competitive advantage?
Any up-front investment of people’s time is more than recovered because those involved are well equipped to champion the recommended name which translates into buy-in across a business. Not only is the outcome more authentic, it also results in heightened organizational momentum, downstream efficiencies and effectiveness that optimizes a new name for bottom line business-growth – as well as enhanced brand equity.
The Initium naming approach
That said, this fully engaged-team brand naming approach (unlike the majority) has been the no brainer way forward for the development of the Initium® name (formerly BCMS). This approach is surprising and counter intuitive for the Corporate Finance space in which they operate. But then, Initium is a surprising Corporate Finance Advisor in many ways. For starters, it was the first EOT (Employee-Owned Trust) Corporate Finance Advisor in the UK. Initium lives and owns the ‘ownership way’. They do what they say they do; they fully engage their owners, including deep involvement in the process of envisioning and developing their name.
Initium in Latin means ‘starting point’ or ‘initiative’; it captures the company’s essence – its identity, purpose, values, what it stands for — and what it delivers. For Initium, each new relationship, opportunity or problem to solve — starts with impact in mind — before, during and after the transaction. This is captured in a simple, statement that reflects the who, why and what of Initium. ‘Impact beyond the deal’.
Unlike the typical approach of ‘let the agency come back with some ideas’, team members across the business, at all roles and levels, were directly involved
The process kicked off with an overarching brand review and discovery exercise. All owner/employees were fully immersed in extensive discussion, discovery and initial ideation activities around the company’s identity, purpose, values and culture, value proposition/market position and client experience. A series of insights emerged, including resounding agreement that the company’s incumbent name – BCMS – did not fully reflect its brand idea/position, vision, personality, message to the market and so on. A decision was made to change the name to better reflect the company’s culture and vision; again — unlike the typical process – this was agreed by a company-wide vote, with over 90% of staff in favour of a new name.
Unlike the typical approach of ‘let the agency and/or folks in marketing come back with some ideas’, team members across all areas the business — with varying roles, length of tenure and experience — were invited to be part of a ‘Naming Ventures-Team’, with the remit to undertake a comprehensive naming-review, ideation, development and recommendation-process.
As an employee-owned business, it was crucial the entire team were involved in the process. Here’s our ‘situation room’ wall!
Brand deep dive and naming process
In summary (which doesn’t do justice to the team’s stellar work or the details of the process), emerging insights from the entire company’s input through the broader, brand review and discovery were used as raw material for mind-mapping and brainstorming explorations. At the outset, no ideas or were off the table – although it was decided early on that certain naming conventions wouldn’t work for business reasons or because they didn’t feel like the company’s personality – e.g. completely made up words.
A name-briefing and evaluation framework was created to assess initial ideas, and a selection/ranking-approach was developed to refine names down to those that were most met the briefing parameters -memorability, distinct in financial services sector and early trademark viability (although at this stage didn’t include a formal TM search), social media considerations etc. About six weeks and over 300 initial ideas later, seven recommendations were ultimately presented to the leadership team!
Criteria: the entire naming team had to be in support of all seven presented, even if someone favoured one name or two names over others. Each team member chose a name to ‘own’ and present, along with a synthesis of a brand and business case for their recommendation. This hugely assisted in gaining full support for all the names — as well as allowing each team member to substantiate their rationale and enthusiasm for the name they were presenting! The seven were shortlisted to two names, which were then filtered by a trademark lawyer. One name emerged as the compelling, viable candidate – Initium – capturing the authority as well as the meaning and mission of the business.
Initium was then presented to the business as a whole – supported by its brand and business case, and video that captured the spirit of Initium story. While only one name was presented, it was agreed that substantial support would be needed to move forward. In the event, over 90% of the entire company voted in favour of adopting Initium.
What’s perhaps most impressive, was the naming team’s willingness and courage to take on a task that was really new, quite foreign to their normal daily work – and perhaps quite frightening – as well the entire company’s ambition to adopt a brave new name that best reflects Initium’s three core values; putting people first, pursuing the exceptional and thinking big. In the words of one of the team: “It was inspiring to see the combination of creativity and rigour which my colleagues brought to the process, resulting in a name and brand which truly captures what the business today is all about.”
Quite simply, everyone agrees that Initium embodies the purpose, energy, authority and soul of the business – a business that transcends transaction – puts relationships, people and purpose above profit; a business with a name that starts every new day with impact top of mind. Initium: impact beyond the deal.