Be the Brand: A Virtuous Cycle (1/4)

You Honour the Name:

2014. I’m cycling in the Pyrenees, 1 year into my career with Rapha and 7 days into an event hosted by the brand. Titled the Cent Cols Challenge, it was known for being the most gruelling in their lineup. It was expensive too. Just to be there, I’d spent all the savings I’d earned working the stockroom at Rapha’s Soho store, but I believed it to be worthwhile.

I was cresting one of the hardest climbs of the day, contemplating a decision.

The night before, I had made a mistake.

Phil Deeker, our iconic guide, had explained our route took in the biggest climbs in the region, but mercifully, up? their longer, shallower sides.

I looked up to Phil, in his late 50s, his grace and stamina on the bike were mythical.

But, playing the room, I made a foolhardy, sarcastic quip about it being a day off.

To which Phil suggested if I found it too easy, I should do the hardest of the day's climbs twice.

The decision I was contemplating was whether I took him up on his ‘suggestion’.

I was new to the mountains and at day seven we were all deeply fatigued. Everyone on the trip knew I was a Rapha employee and I felt an expectation to possess supernatural levels of determination, daring and class.?

I didn’t claim to possess these qualities, but I wanted to.?

I longed to be the brand.

Accepting Phil’s dare to make the biggest day even bigger is the sort of thing I aspired to do.

So I did.

Reaching the top, I cleared my mind, swung around, and let the brakes go.

Descending past Phil, I caught the smile of a man whose challenge had been accepted.

Starting over again at the bottom, I took a deep breath and set about chasing the group for the rest of the day.

Many climbs later, I caught them again, as the sun was setting atop the Hautacam.

That evening at dinner, windswept and drunk from exhaustion, Phil presents me with the coveted stage award (what looked like a school report card, made of thick yellow paper). On it he’d handwritten:

“For top ’n dropping the Col de Marie-Blanque.

Riding rough ‘n tough, as any Rapha rider should.

You honour the name.”

Causal Loops:

This isn’t a story about cycling,

This is a story about how brands inspire actions, and the best brands inspire us to do more than we believed possible.

One of my biggest takeaways from a decade at Rapha is that feeling is multiplied when you’re on the inside as an employee, and that organisations are dependent on this virtuous cycle of inspiration and action to propel them towards greatness.

A Virtuous cycle of inspiration and action:

The mission inspires the mindset

The mindset leads to action

The action progresses the mission

The mission inspires the mindset

And so on…

Across the business, at every level and repeatedly throughout my time at Rapha, there were people who honoured the name, both on and off the bike.?

They translated those qualities, developed through cycling, into their work to develop the business.

They demonstrated determination, daring and class to conceptualise new product ideas, new approaches to marketing, partnerships, sourcing policies and more.

And each time they did, they elevated what it meant to ‘be the brand’.

And so the cycle would go on...

The virtuous cycle is a powerful tool in system dynamics. It is one of the greatest levers to create change. It can work both ways, positively reinforcing, or a negative spiral.

Slipping from a virtuous cycle to a vicious cycle is a matter of leadership. Crafting and maintaining the organisation’s narrative, building momentum around actions that are in keeping with that collective identity and creating an environment for your people where they can ‘be more’. These are all essential traits of leading that can’t be taken for granted.

Be the Brand:

So what does it mean to ‘be the brand’ (a phrase Simon Mottram used frequently)? Where do you start?

Start by looking at your own people.

Putting hierarchy to one side, look for cultural pillars - a core of highly engaged individuals, who intuitively understand your mission and mindset, who capture the spirit of the collective.?

What are their common characteristics? What is it that makes others look to them??

At Rapha, there was an inner circle. The price of admission was to get outside your comfort zone and demonstrate your determination. It could be athletic, creative, strategic or otherwise but the common trait was all the same.?

They were free thinkers, who stepped into the unknown for something they believed in, applying their resourcefulness and resilience to get to the other side.

They were the founding story repeating itself, over and over again, throughout the organisation.

When I joined, I didn’t claim to possess these qualities, but I wanted to.?

I longed to be the brand.

To step into the unknown for what I believed in.

So I did.

In 2018 I created Rapha’s sustainability function, before becoming the brand’s first Chief of Staff in 2022. Each time, driving change in pursuit of what I believed to be possible.

I am proud to have played my part in interpreting the brand’s history to prepare it for the future.

And now, having left the organisation, I am stepping into the unknown once more, only this time safe in the knowledge that I have the resourcefulness and resilience to get to the other side.

More on this another time…

Prompts:

• Are you building a brand that your people want to honour the name of?
• What does it mean to ‘honour the name’ of your organisation?
• What is a story in your brand origins that captures the collective spirit?
• And what does that teach you about the qualities of your brand?
• How consistent are you in applying those qualities to your work?
• How are you leveraging the virtuous cycle to propel your organisation towards greatness?

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Driven by a desire to leverage business for good, I partner with leaders, founders and visionaries to bring clarity to bold ideas, then make them a reality.?