The art of not being an arse - Red Maple Technologies' "ways of working"

I've had a relatively varied career since I graduated from university way back in 2001; I've worked for the Canadian and UK governments, I've worked in a large American multinational organisation, and now I run my own cyber security business with two of my very best and most talented friends. And in that 18 year journey, I have come across a really cool diaspora of amazing people from all walks of life. But in both government and industry, I've discovered that many people hold a relatively dire belief to be true: that to "be successful", one has to be cutthroat. I hear it often; even from people who hold values of kindness and fairness in high regard. "It's just business", I hear people say, as they haul a supplier over the coals simply because they can. "It's not personal", as they sack an under-performing member of staff rather than try and figure out what is really going on in his/her life. It's as if some people believe that "success" and "being nice" are somehow a zero sum game. Or worse; that being nice actually makes a leader weak.

But I don't believe that.

I simply cannot accept that doing the right thing, that being kind by default, that being open-minded to what others are going through before passing judgement, and that being fair and balanced in every engagement is in any way "weak", or detrimental to the success of Red Maple Technologies. Businesses and organisations aren't real things -- they are constructs created by humans to bring a group of people together towards a common goal, which is why I can never accept the argument that "it's not personal". A business is just a collection of people moving towards a common goal, so it's ABSOLUTELY personal.

Red Maple Technologies was founded on a set of core beliefs, and one of those core beliefs is that it absolutely is possible to be "nice guys" and still deliver awesomeness and be successful. With this in mind, every engagement we have, whether that is internal or external, will be guided by a very simple but very powerful premise: to be nice. There is nothing wrong with being open-minded to somebody else's plight, even if the terms of your commercial contract say that you have every right to rake that person and the organisation they represent over the coals. It's okay to give an employee a second, or a third, or a fifth chance when they are going through a hard time. Benevolence in business isn't an anchor, it's a springboard.

So with this in mind, a few promises to all of Red Maple's current and future clients, staff, and partners:

• We will approach every engagement, conversation, negotiation, etc with fairness and balance in mind.
• We will always be willing to have a conversation about how we can help, even if it means enduring a bit more hardship ourselves.
• We will never, ever gouge a customer on price simply because they are in a bad place. If your enterprise system has just been hacked, you will pay the same price for our consultants as you would if it hadn't.
• We will never indulge in "fear-driven" cyber stories to generate pipeline. We simply don't believe in scaring customers into doing business with us.
• We will always do the right thing; if we get to the end of a project, and think that we've over-cooked the price estimate, we'll tell you, and give you the option of paying less or having us do a bit more for you, even if it's out of the original scope.
• We will never, ever judge a person based on external factors alone. We will treat a window-cleaner with the same respect as a CEO. People are all equal in our eyes.
• We will never nefariously use a privileged position with a client for our own personal gain.
• And we will always try and see things from your perspective, not matter what the situation.

Being nice doesn't have to come at the cost of success, and if it does, then we will be the poorest nice guys in the market.

After all: we're all in this together.

Visit us at www.redmaple.tech or email us on [email protected] if you'd like to know more...