A blog about marketing, causes and a variety of topics in the “goodsphere”

Category Archives: Purpose

Ku Klux Klan, “Brand Doctor” and the Oklahoma Dust Bowl Crusader

Doctors are generally some of the most trusted people in America (#3 most trusted profession in a recent poll). They also tend to be some of the wealthiest Americans.

For the most part, we love our doctors. “Brand Doctor” works today. If a guy with a white coat & white teeth sells a product on TV, we’ll believe every word he says.

So it’s curious that “we the people” did not forcefully call on doctors & the powerful medical establishment to propose a viable solution for our 50 million uninsured people in the US over the past few years. Where were all the doctors in the debate over the uninsured? Surely they cared most about all the people left behind by our broken “big healthcare” system?

In the go-go 1920s, roughly 100 years before the latest round of healthcare debates, Dr. Michael Shadid cared.

Shadid was an industrious “foreign born” doctor who battled the Klan, racism and the medical establishment to help poor farmers gain access to quality health care in Dust Bowl Oklahoma. Dr. Shadid was a purpose driven doctor who bucked the system and dared to propose an alternative, cooperative business model in the face of traditional thinking.

Dr. Shadid’s book entitled Crusading Doctor highlights his struggle to start the first cooperative hospital in the US. It also shows just how hard the entrenched establishment will fight to keep the status quo. While reading the book, you’ll like be surprised to discover how ruthlessly and violently Shadid’s fellow doctors openly opposed and slandered him. Many of Shadid’s opponents focused on “what’s good for business” instead of “what’s good for poor, under served people.”

Crusading Doctor & Crusading Marketer
After observing the small community of Carter, Oklahoma build a thriving farming cooperative movement (cotton gins, grocery stores, etc) Dr. Shadid founded America’s first cooperative hospital in Elk City, Oklahoma (where I went to high school).

In 1929, Dr. Shadid’s alternative business plan looked something like this…he would organize 6,000 families who would buy a $50 share of stock with which to build and equip the hospital. Then, the community would pick a board of directors and each family would pay $25 per year (pre-payment plan) for their medical and surgical care.

Dr. Shadid set himself incredibly high targets in the beginning (6,000 members). So, he actually had to start the hospital on a discount system. By 1932, Shadid was able to apply the pre-payment plan. Getting to critical mass wasn’t easy, however. Dr. Shadid quickly became famous for using guerilla marketing tactics, word of mouth & CRM in order to gain enough members. He tirelessly promoted his cause, traveling across the country & lecturing on the benefits of preventative medicine and the cooperative model (a hospital owned by the patients).

Lessons from Dr. Shadid
1. Study Sociology, not just Technology: Dr. Shadid was a lifelong learner who kept up with new treatments and new technologies…but, he also kept up on the sociology and ethics of his profession. He was continuously interested in how his profession impacted people and society. This led him to better understand plight of people vs focusing on his own bottom line.
2. Purpose provides fuel in the face of extreme adversity: Dr. Shadid was very clear about his purpose; he wanted to provide quality health care at affordable rates for hard working, low-income farmers. Dr Shadid was slandered repeatedly as organized medical societies and their powerful allies tried to put him and the patient owned, cooperative hospital out of business year after year. He never wavered in the face of adversity, however, and he always put people and purpose out front.
3. Don’t Forget: Dr. Shadid continually remembered what it was like to live with hunger, poverty & lack of heatlh care, while growing up in an impoverished part of Syria. He remembered what it was like to lose patients in good, hard-working farm families. He didn’t forget these experiences & they fueled his desire to drive change.

What has happened to Dr. Shadid’s model?

As the NYT details in this article: It has survived. Shadid built a team of doctors who collaborated closely and were not paid based on how many procedures they performed. Today, this description fits the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic as well as less-known groups around the country.

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When the image builders ruin your image?

Back in the late 80s/early 90s, I was a Andre Agassi fan.  I remember thinking how cool Andre’s life must be…jetting around the world, winning the big tournaments, making the big bucks.  Like many others, I liked Andre because he was a tennis rebel in an often lame world of white shirt tennis guys.  Agassi seemed to be a sort of Gen X rebel with an attitude.

Canon picked up on the Agassi craze and launched an ad campaign early in the tennis star’s career around the rebel concept.  In one ad, Agassi famously quips “Image is Everything.” The line was interesting because you could interpret it in a few different ways: i) a play on words because the product was actually a camera capturing images ii)  a tongue-in-cheek slogan about Agassi’s image iii) a pseudo serious claim that creating some type of outlandish image is required if you wanted to be a winner or cool in the “mullet-infested” early 90s.

An image that ruins your image

In his new tell all book Open, Agassi laments this campaign and rants against the ad agency, the Canon execs and everyone involved in making him parrot the image is everything slogan.  While kids & fans idolized Agassi, the sports media bashed him because he became a cultural star before really proving himself to be a true champion.  The sports media saw the Canon campaign rightly portraying Agassi as a guy with style, but no substance.

Part of the reason (I believe) Agassi decided to write Open was to debunk the idea that he was only an image conscious narcissist who used style and flamboyance to get sports marketing deals.  In the book, Agassi definitely reveals his own flaws as well as the flaws of many others he loves (hates?)  Interestingly, in doing so, the press has come out strongly on his side, with glowing reviews of Open.  Indeed, with Open, Agassi may have benefited from the Pratfall effect…

Pratfall Effect?

Psychologists studying the “pratfall effect” find that when a person is generally competent, making a blunder can actually increase others’ liking of that individual (See this article.)  Agassi’s life appears to be 1 giant blunder in Open.  Hearing that the Gen X star was really a pyromaniac, self-loather, people pleaser, part-time drug user, tennis hater, etc. hurts.  But in some ways, it also reminds us that we’re not perfect either.

Reformed Perfectionista & People Pleaser

There’s one brutally honest part when Brad Gilbert calls out Agassi for trying too hard to be perfect on the court:

When you chase perfection, when you make perfection the ultimate goal, do you know what you’re doing?  You’re chasing something that doesn’t exist.  You’re making everyone around you miserable.  You’re making yourself miserable.  Perfection?  There’s about 5 times a year you wake up perfect, when you can’t lose to anybody, but it’s not those 5 times a year that make a tennis player.  Or a human being for that matter.

I’m not a big fan of Gilbert, but I like the idea that we take ourselves too seriously and forget that we’re flawed humans.

No Purpose Man Finds Purpose

Agassi also admits that he saw no purpose or meaning in Tennis.  As his career progresses, it is great to see how he transforms his thinking and realizes that he’s been given all these resources & the gift of celebrity to help people (e.g. Agassi prep academy, Agassi Foundation for Education).  As his website notes…Since retiring in 2006, Andre Agassi has increased his focus on his Foundation and on promoting education reform. He is also building a lifestyle business through endorsement relationships, joint venture investments and real estate development.

But wait, reread the last part of the paragraph above…don’t think for a second that Agassi hasn’t lost his touch with the commercial world; he’s knows he’s still in the lifestyle business.

The Brands are Still There

Agassi has re-fashioned his image over the past decade into family man + philanthropist and the Brands have stayed with him (Adidas, Longines, etc, etc.)  Kreiss even has a Steffi/Andre collection.  Agassi communicates about his activities on this blog.  He definitely still understands the value of image building as he even keeps a PR CEO on his advisory board.

My Own Blunder…

To sum up my rambling comments on the Agassi autobiography, I think Open provides an honest look into the world of a conflicted Sports idol and his relationships/entourage…additionally, Agassi provides some interesting insights into the celebrity world & sports sponsorship/marketing world.  Hopefully he also scares overzealous sports parents into backing off their kids a bit.  Admittedly, I did wonder why Agassi happily promotes this book, which clearly is meant for an adult audience (rough language, etc.) on his education foundation website with an article next to it entitled Agassi’s past doesn’t diminish what he does now.

Maybe on a later blog post I’ll reveal more about my own blunder in trying to get Andre to sit next to me & my German wife in a Stuttgart hotel pub during a Tyson fight.  During the evening, my wife & I were chatting with Brad Gilbert & the rest of Agassi’s entourage.  Agassi walked in and I abruptly asked him to sit with us.  He wouldn’t do it as he probably thought I was a crazed fan.  However, he did shake my hand and we had a small chat about the 1994 US Open.

I embarrassed my own entourage a bit that night with my uncool behavior though.

We all make mistakes…

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The Purpose Driven Corporatist

This was originally written for the Ecopreneurist

Corporations are huge and they dominate our business landscape.  Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations and only 49 are countries.

Corporate critics like Douglas Rushkoff would add that not only is our world dominated by corporations, but as individuals, we have all internalized the worst corporate values, becoming disconnected, profit-driven and absolutely “me” focused in everything we do.

That’s a pretty bleak picture.  After reading Rushkoff’s book (and even writing a long review about it) I thought about the legions of people (like me) working in companies.  Sure, there are a lot of narcissistic corporate drone types that fit the description above…but there are also a lot of other folks willing to shake things up.  Lets call them purpose driven corporatists.

Hybrid Individuals:  So what is a purpose driven corporatist?  John Elkington talks about a new breed of employee emerging from within Multinational corporations.  These “hybrid people” are increasingly motivated by creating products that add value both to society and to the bottom line. They persistently champion a vision of change in the face of frequent cynicism and resistance.  They have emerged as a result of a series of shifts in the landscape (e.g. global market failures & increased societal expectations on business).  Many of these people have experienced a shift in their personal motivation as a result of a life changing experience. Others have had an “aha!” moment after visiting a poverty stricken country or war-torn region.  Still others have less dramatic mindset shifts and just want to make a difference after suddenly realizing there is more to life than just making the next dollar/euro/yen.

A couple of examples: Vodaphone’s Nick Hughes & Susie Lonie along with P&G’s Win Sakdinan are examples of purpose driven corporatists profiled in SustainAbility’s Social Entrepreneurship guide.  Nick and Susie have developed mobile payment options for Kenyan and Afghani customers.  Win was one of the pioneer’s behind P&G’s future friendly initiative, educating consumers to save energy, water & packaging via brand choices.  You’ll find more inspiring examples of internal corporate change agents in the SustainAbility guide…click the link above & check it out.

Entirely Reasonable People?: As The Economist put it…the greatest agents for sustainable change are likely to be entirely reasonable people, often working for large companies, who see ways to create better products or reach new markets, and have the resources to do so.  That’s true, but entirely reasonable people will need unusually open minded leadership at the top if they are to succeed and build any scale with their initiatives.  And, start-up heroes like Grameen Bank founder Mohammad Yunus along with other social entrepreneurs may take issue with The Economist’s assessment.  In the end of course, intrapreneurs, entrepreneurs, and all types in between will be needed to create world class products and services that add value to both society & the bottom line.

What are your thoughts here?  How far do you think mid-level social/enviro intrapreneurs can really drive corporate change?

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