One significant trend charging through the business tides of late has been that of transparency and accessibility. Through mediums such as social media, employees and management alike have a platform to comment, like, dislike, and critique companies to the outside world.  
 
Today, a single social media post can go viral and trigger a PR avalanche for an organization. While this is often associated with end consumer facing companies, this can happen to businesses anywhere on the supply chain. More specifically, in today’s political climate, this vulnerability is especially true for companies involved in the production of medical supplies.
 
In the face of these new developments and challenges, however, comes new strategies. One such strategy is the inside-out leveraging of organizational culture to enhance a company’s brand. By building a brand on the inside, constructed on a foundation of organizational culture, companies proactively control the external narrative permeating the public. Rather than hiring PR firms to counter the negative press, they stimulate positive press by promoting a culture worth promoting.
 
It is worth noting that not all elements of workplace culture are equally impactful. Instead, there are certain factors medical manufacturers should focus on for optimal results. Here are 5 tactics medical manufacturers should integrate into their branding strategy:
 
1. Establish Purpose
Most organizations have a mission statement to begin with, but once they’re established, they often go untouched and ignored. This is why businesses should rehabilitate, or rework, their purpose to fit their vision for the future.
 
Creating an organization’s purpose, also called its “why,” entails understanding what the organization seeks to achieve beyond mere profit making. For medical manufacturing companies, such a purpose is readily available as they are in the business of producing products that can save and dramatically improve the quality of people’s lives.  
 
Whatever the direction a company may take, it should establish and remain true to a central purpose that guides it.

2. Align Values
Purpose statements are intentionally brief and to the point. As a result, they usually warrant multiple interpretations. This is why when establishing a brand’s purpose, core values should be established that align with the purpose and mission of the organization.
 
Doing this correctly doesn't involve merely offering vague sentiments, but rather identifying key behaviors that can easily be lived within the organization. Any organization can state that they hold “integrity” as a value, but it’s more impactful for that organization to identify what that means with concrete examples and show that they actually live these values.
 
Remember, one of Enron’s core values was “integrity.” Merely including “integrity” as a company value falls short of imbuing the value throughout the company’s employees. Poorly defined values are, in turn, poorly practiced. First define, then live.
 
3. Employee Engagement
In today’s tightening labor market, employee engagement has become a hot topic in management circles. However, while employee engagement certainly increases retention and productivity, it also holds potential for organizations’ brands.
 
In the same way that a single negative social media post can cause PR trouble for a company, a single inspirational story can bring light to your brand in a positive way. By engaging and inspiring their teams, manufacturers can create a climate in which these stories are far more likely.
 
This could be by fostering a situation in which a team comes together to help a fellow employee through a challenge, or where they make an impact in the community. One way in which businesses are actively encouraging these scenarios is with programs that allow a certain number of paid days off specifically dedicated to volunteer work.
 
4. Servant Leadership
Servant leadership is a leadership practice in which one leads with service to others rather than in service to their own ego. It’s a form of leadership that aims to create more leaders—rather than to simply reassert the authority of the existing leader. It has a cascading effect wherever implemented.
 
At every level of an organization, from the most junior front line worker to the most senior executive, there should be a focus on demonstrating servant leadership on multiple fronts. This includes servant leadership internal to the company and leadership within the greater community.
 
Take Starbucks for instance, they don’t limit their leadership to internal operations but extend it throughout their supply chain. They do this by supporting conservation efforts and consciously engaging in ethical business practices.
 
While there are many different kinds of leadership philosophies from which one can draw, the particular strength of servant leadership is its capacity for inclusion and accessibility—no one is out of its reach. By leveraging servant leadership both internally and within their greater communities, manufacturers can cultivate a sense of leadership around their brand.
 
5. Thought Leadership
It’s becoming increasingly prevalent today that business leaders go public with their leadership philosophies and thereby build thought leadership. This is because today’s organizations and consumers of all kinds are seeking to do business with those that align with their own values, commitments, and aspirations.  
 
Thought leadership is becoming so widespread because of its ease of initiation, production, and engagement. It requires little more than frequently producing content on a few social media channels that are suitable for one’s business. Because of this, organizational leaders can begin acting on thought leadership immediately. It also provides a vessel through which leaders can give their brand an extra boost by showcasing their reinvigorated cultures and their forward-thinking approaches. Once the content is viral, it is only a click away from audiences far and wide. Thought leadership is, much like the four aforementioned tactics, a fantastic way for companies to proactively dictate their narrative and access their target audiences with premium content while cultivating positive brand sentiment.
 

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Hank Ostholthoff is a best-selling author and the CEO of Mabbly, a Chicago-based digital marketing consultancy featured on the INC 500 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. Ostholthoff is dedicated to helping his clients achieve solid growth, and has helped many of them become venture-backed and/or Fortune 500 companies.