Community involvement creates sustainable business culture – If it fits

Culture is critical to brand development, and it can only be sustained if skill sets, interests and causes are a good fit. Robin Tooms interviews Karen Love, Director of Practice Growth at PKF Texas.

Robin: Hello and welcome to this addition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies. I’m Robin Tooms, Vice President of Strategy at Savage and I’m here again with Karen Love, Director of Practice Growth at PKF Texas. Karen, welcome back.

Karen: Thank you. Glad to be back.

Robin: Well it’s a joy to have you here. Last time you talked to us about the importance of culture in developing your corporate brand.

Karen: Right.

Robin: But now I want to know how do you develop that and sustain that for the long-term?

Karen: Right. Well, I think it’s because we look internally as to where skills are within our team members and we use their skills where they lie. So I have a team member that is very involved. She has a PR degree from Penn State. She loves sorority type stuff. So she’s very involved in the marketplace and is an officer and has been since the Houston Young Professionals endeavor started. So she’s on that leadership committee and will be the chair in 2014. Another team member, Raissa Evans, has been with me ten years with PKF and she’s involved with the Hyma Group. She’s now on the board of the Association for County Marketers on the national board and that was the board I was on back in 2004. So it’s paying it forward. It’s getting people involved and we could go on throughout the team of even all of the CPAs and talk about what they’re involved in. It’s something that we believe in.

Robin: Sure. Well you bring up a very good point about the importance of board involvement in that kind of cultural development. So what tips do you have for people that are trying to consider getting involved in boards the right way for their own company.

Karen: Well, and I appreciate that, but it’s gotta be a fit. It’s gotta be a board that a team member has a passion for. Is it a cause that’s dear to their heart. Early on as a personal experience I was involved with the American Heart Association because I have heart disease in my family. We have another team member who has a child that has juvenile diabetes. We’re involved with the Women’s Resource Center, the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber and the things they’re involved in. It’s just very important to align people with where their passions are and support them in the effort.

Robin: Certainly. So finding that connection is a very important tip.

Karen: Correct. Absolutely.

Robin: Well thank you. I’m so glad that you were here to share that tip with us.

Karen: Thank you.

Robin: Join us next week for another edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies.

 

Pannell Kerr Foster of Texas (PKF Texas) is a Houston-based CPA firm offering a full range of business consulting, technology, assurance, entrepreneurial advisory and tax solutions. Dedicated to middle market companies, the company is part of PKF International, which connects them to offices located in more than 480 major cities in 119 countries. https://www.pkftexas.com/