I started ranting in the comments section – of my previous post – when I decided to make it public 🙂
Let me take a specific industry to illustrate what I mean – advertising
Leo Burnett, JWT, O &M, DDB Needham, Young & Rubicam, Grey… all of these agencies live on long after their founders have passed away…. and their names live on too through the agencies they created…
And market research – my own industry. Even in qualitative research which is purely individual-driven, there is a tendency to shy away from naming one’s business after oneself. For instance, Quantum, one of the top qualitative research agencies in India is not named after the person who is behind it – although she is the sole reason for the ‘popularity’ of the agency.
Thinking about these industries is what set off this thought process in the first place. And I just happen to be reading the book now and mentioned it as a context of sorts! The book, by the way, is an interesting read, completely non condescending and non we(st) versus them in any way…
Dina, any thoughts on this?
Should i have any ? lol !
Maybe it has more to do with the old and the new rather than the Geography of thought. Older companies tend to have more founder/founding partner names – younger companies don’t ? Perhaps a change in guard from who we are to what we do ? A shift from owner as brand to company as brand ?
What do i know :):):) – when i set up my company – i wanted the name to reflect some of the philsophy behind the services offered – i had a bigger name than Explore then – now am happy to hear clients say Explore and not Dina.
another thought – even in the qual field – although we give our companies names, Quantum for many years was synonymous with Meena – likewise Explore with Dina. and there are so many new companies i dont even know names of – but i know the people behind them. while it is easier to leverage a person’s reputation rather than a new company brand in the case of people led industries like ours and law firms etc, when your vision is broader than you, you may want to drive it from the start with an appropriate name.
Having said that, i would still prefer to go to a law firm with a name like Gagrat and CO – rather than one that has a fancy name that tells me nothing about who the lawyers are ! So maybe another dimension is the nature of service/industry you operate in
Ok … those are my two-bits 🙂