Twenty years after Jeff Battin founded his company, people have finally stopped asking if he sells fax machines for a living.
Communifax, the marketing company Battin founded, confused clients because the message wasn’t strong and clear. So last summer, Battin guided 82 employees through a rebranding process that restructured the company’s mission, down to the name.
Communifax became Communifx, with a nod toward the company’s “effects” on customers.
“Everybody is charged with part of the process,” says Battin, the chairman of the company. “That project is only as strong as its weakest link.”
Smart Business spoke with Battin about how to drive a change as big as rebranding through your company.
Q. How can a leader involve employees in rebranding the company?
I have to be out there listening. We’ve grown so fast that it’s hard for me to keep up with the new faces. I’m constantly out there, putting my hand out, introducing myself. I don’t introduce myself by title; I introduce myself by my name: ‘Hi, I’m Jeff. What’s your name? What do you do?’
I think it says a lot for the chairman and owner to reach out and learn a little bit about these people that are actually driving your business. I get a sense of whether or not that vision’s shared by keeping my ear to the ground as much as possible.
Every single employee was interviewed as a part of this [rebranding] process. We involved the associates so that they felt they were part of it. Every employee was interviewed for at least 15 minutes to half an hour through an independent company and so we learned our weaknesses our strengths. Based on that, we developed the brand personality, the brand pillars, the essence.
Q. What’s your advice for a leader during the change?
Commit yourself in a very passionate way. If you’re not almost to the point of overzealous about your position and your new strategy, then you’ve not sold yourself on it. And if you haven’t sold yourself on the new vision or the new strategy, then it’s going to be impossible to sell your associates. And if you can’t sell your associates, then you’re dead in water.
A lot of it starts with your passion. You can’t walk in the office in a bad mood.
You have to leave your frustrations — whether they’re personal or even if they’re business-related — at the door. Passion starts from the top, and it works its way down. If I show up to work with an attitude or I carry issues or problems around the office, it zaps their vision, it zaps their attitude.
They view me as the leader, not only for my strategic vision but as the one who started the company, who drives the passion. I have to articulate that vision not in what I say all the time but in my actions.
