Keeping people fired up starts with having a really clear vision for what the company is aiming to do. Our mission is to make it easy for people to self-document and share meaningful life experiences. You’ll notice I didn’t say we make cameras and camera mounts. As soon as it becomes about the camera, it’s rather limited; it’s about a device. It’s like, Google didn’t start by saying, We’re going to make a better search engine. They said, We are going to organize the world’s information.
The second piece is showing people the tangible results of their efforts. We have a bit of an advantage here, because it’s very easy to illustrate the results, thanks to Facebook and YouTube and all the other social sharing of the content people make with the cameras. When a really killer video gets shared around our office, we’re not high-fiving about, Dude, look how great our camera worked! We’re stoked because you can tell from the video how excited the customer was. That goes miles in stoking our work force.
The final thing is to be as inclusive as possible and make sure the employees are having fun. Here again, I think we maybe have an unfair advantage, because so much of what the company is involved in is inherently fun. But that wouldn’t mean much if we didn’t take the opportunity to involve and include our employees in the brand activities-;going to some of the events that we sponsor, getting to go on film shoots, interacting with pro athletes. Even if it’s not an everyday thing, you want to make sure people always have something to look forward to.
Last year, when we launched the Hero3 camera, we rented out the Great America theme park for our team and their families. It’s going to become an annual tradition. And it allows employees to experience some of the classic GoPro thrills-;high speed, g-forces, being strapped into a ride. They get to film the expressions on their faces and do it with family members. If you create those opportunities for employees, they simply have more fun working at your company. They’re happier, they’re in a better mood, they are more productive. It becomes a culture of positivity.
NICK WOODMAN is the founder and CEO of the camera company GoPro.
The final thing is to be as inclusive as possible and make sure the employees are having fun. Here again, I think we maybe have an unfair advantage, because so much of what the company is involved in is inherently fun. But that wouldn’t mean much if we didn’t take the opportunity to involve and include our employees in the brand activities-;going to some of the events that we sponsor, getting to go on film shoots, interacting with pro athletes. Even if it’s not an everyday thing, you want to make sure people always have something to look forward to.
Last year, when we launched the Hero3 camera, we rented out the Great America theme park for our team and their families. It’s going to become an annual tradition. And it allows employees to experience some of the classic GoPro thrills-;high speed, g-forces, being strapped into a ride. They get to film the expressions on their faces and do it with family members. If you create those opportunities for employees, they simply have more fun working at your company. They’re happier, they’re in a better mood, they are more productive. It becomes a culture of positivity.
NICK WOODMAN is the founder and CEO of the camera company GoPro.
