Qantas is one of the world’s oldest
airlines formed in 1920 in outback Queensland. Qantas is a leading long
distance airline and one of Australia’s strongest brands.
Purpose
“We are Australia’s leading premium airline
and we are dedicated to being the best.
We aim to meet your expectations
every time you fly, and so we continue to invest in our business and will
always strive to provide you with an exceptional level of service.
With this charter, we want you to
know what you can expect whenever you choose to fly on a Qantas (QF) coded
service from anywhere in Australia. Below we set out our commitment to you and
provide links to our website where more detailed information is available.”
Manifesto
We will never compromise on
safety
We are committed to getting you
and your bags to your destination on time
We will look after you if
things don’t go as planned
This is a strong clear airline specific
customer charter that is consistent with what I see the Qantas brand to be.
(There is a paragraph that goes with each
of the points above that I felt was too long to share all of it here.)
In comparison to the Easy Jet Customer Charter the difference in brand personality and therefore the words used in this charter are clear – Qantas is more formal, Easy Jet is more casual.
Given they are both in the same industry
you would expect some similarities. The obvious one is number one for both
companies: safety first – even down to the wording ‘we never compromise’.
I particularly like that where Qantas say ‘We
are always on hand to help’ they share a phone that you can call and a link to further
ways to contact them.
Also, under the section ‘We value your
opinion’ they offer several ways to this with them – phone, website form and
even Twitter. Plus, if things go badly they even share the details of the
Airline Customer Advocate service.
This is all part of the ‘backend’ or
supporting actions that you will want to consider when you create your
manifesto and in particular your Customer Charter. You don’t want to be seen to
be offering hollow words. You do want to be seen as acting consistent with what
you say will you do and who you will be for your customers – especially when
things don’t go as you plan.
I always find it interesting when I’m
looking for manifestos, where I actually find them as compared to their source.
In many cases, it’s as simple as ‘google’
the author or creator and find their website.
In this case Luanne Tierney doesn’t have a
website. That might be part of a deliberate strategy or it might suggest she
was looking for employment at the time she wrote and published her manifesto.
That’s a clever strategy that’s supported
by the fact that I found her manifesto and her profile in a number of places,
including: Slideshare, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
This fits with the current phase of
Internet use that focuses on social media and apps rather than standalone
websites.
It’s also a great way to share your
manifesto as a visual image that is easily shared.
International Press Telecommunications
Council (IPTC) Photo Metadata sets the industry standard for administrative,
descriptive, and copyright information about images.
Purpose
Critical to Photo and Related Businesses
Photo metadata is key to protecting images’ copyright and licensing information online. It is also essential for managing digital assets. Detailed and accurate descriptions about images ensure they can be easily and efficiently retrieved via search, by users or machine-readable code. This results in smoother workflow within organizations, more precise tracking of images, and increased licensing opportunities.
Manifesto
Photographers, film makers, videographers, illustrators, publishers, advertisers, designers, art directors, picture editors, librarians and curators all share the same problem: struggling to track rapidly expanding collections of digital media assets such as photos and video/film clips. With that in mind we propose five guiding principles as our “Embedded Metadata Manifesto”:
1) Metadata
is essential to describe, identify and track digital media and should be
applied to all media items which are exchanged as files or by other means
such as data streams.
2) Media
file formats should provide the means to embed metadata in ways that can
be read and handled by different software systems.
3) Metadata
fields, their semantics (including labels on the user interface) and
values, should not be changed across metadata formats.
4) Copyright
management information metadata must never be removed from the files.
5) Other
metadata should only be removed from files by agreement with their
copyright holders.
More details about
these principles:
1: All people
handling digital media need to recognise the crucial role of metadata for
business. This involves more than just sticking labels on a media item. The
knowledge which is required to describe the content comprehensively and
concisely and the clear assertion of the intellectual ownership increase the
value of the asset. Adding metadata to media items is an imperative for each
and every professional workflow.
2: Exchanging media items is still done to a large extent by transmitting files
containing the media content and in many cases this is the only (technical) way
of communicating between the supplier and the consumer. To support the exchange
of metadata with content it is a business requirement that file formats embed
metadata within the digital file. Other methods like sidecar files are
potentially exposed to metadata loss.
3: The type of content information carried in a metadata field, and the values
assigned, should not depend on the technology used to embed metadata into a
file. If multiple technologies are available for embedding the same field the
software vendors must guarantee that the values are synchronized across the
technologies without causing a loss of data or ambiguity.
4: Ownership metadata is the only way to save digital content from being
considered orphaned work. Removal of such metadata impacts on the ability to
assert ownership rights and is therefore forbidden by law in many countries.
5: Properly selected and applied metadata fields add value to media assets. For
most collections of digital media content descriptive metadata is essential for
retrieval and for understanding. Removing this valuable information devalues
the asset.
Firstly, for many of us, this will occur as
an obscure manifesto compared to something as far-reaching and universal as
Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech.
While many of us are not that interested in
‘embedded metadata’ it’s a crucial idea for the people it impacts and you can
have a manifesto about anything – big or small, personal or universal.
Secondly, the manifesto is offered as ‘guiding
principles’. While The Bible offers ‘commandments’ and Four Pillars Gin offers ‘pillars’.
This sets the tone for the manifesto.
Of particular note is these ‘guiding
principles’ are offered as an industry standard. Clearly this is voluntary, but
it is also a call to arms to say ‘this is what we think is the way to do this.’
And indirectly, they’re saying, ‘join us if you agree’.
If you want agreement around a standard in
your industry, publishing a manifesto is one way to launch the process, invite
discussion and ultimately form agreement.
Thirdly, I like the three layers offered. There
is an introduction stating who may be interested in this manifesto followed by five
short sentences for the five principles. Then there is a paragraph on each that
goes into more detail. (Each paragraph could easily become a page and a page
could become an article or chapter.)
Depending upon the purpose of your
manifesto, consider the various layers it might have from a brief summary to a
longer form, or perhaps words to a visual.
Four Pillars Gin is an award-winning
distiller of gin based in Healesville, in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, about 65
kilometres from Melbourne.
Purpose
“We established Four Pillars with a focus
on gin. But great gin doesn’t just make itself. We recognised that our
real focus would need to be on the craft of distilling.
If we could elevate this area of
expertise in Australia, and bring a modern Australian sensibility to the
process, then maybe we could make a gin worth shouting about.”
Manifesto
Pillar 1: The Stills Meet Wilma, our original magnificent copper-pot still
Pillar 2: The Water The best in the world, from our home in the Yarra Valley
Pillar 3: The Botanicals Asian spice, Mediterranean citrus and native Australian botanicals
Pillar 4: A Little of Love A commitment to craft and attention to detail every step of the way
This is a deceptively simple and clever
manifesto.
With only four components, it’s easy to
digest. Great start!
The first (the stills) states the quality
of equipment they use. The second and third pillars (water and botanicals)
point to the quality of the ingredients they use. And the fourth pillar
addresses the quality that the makers will bring to their craft.
Given these are all qualities it’s a highly
aspirational set of company values. What I like about it is that they are
practical values rather than the usual personal values (eg integrity), which
can be vague when applied across an entire organisation.
The purpose statement (above) is simply
included in a story about their business. For me, it’s shows that this
manifesto likely started out from the maker’s perspective – these are the
things we need to do to make world-class gin.
That’s a great place to start with your
manifesto – what do you need to do to be successful in your chosen field?
Aspire to these qualities.
However, like all great brands, these
internal qualities also become the external ones that your customers measure your
success against.
For me, I don’t know anything about gin. I
rarely even drink it. But, I do know from reading this manifesto that there is
a pursuit of quality here that is validated by the international awards they
have received. As a potential customer, it gives me a reference point for
trusting them and trusting their product, which makes it more likely that I
would buy it compared to others that lack this.
Also, if you read their website, there are
some gentle stories which add flavour to the message.
In particular, I loved the story: “…We took
delivery of our own custom-built still from Carl of Germany, and we called her
Wilma (after Cameron’s beautiful but explosively tempered late mother). And
Wilma turned out to be amazing, drawing extraordinary botanical flavour from a
combination of rare, native and traditional botanicals.”
Now, that’s bringing your values to life
for your customers!
Finally, pillars. A pillar is literally a
column or upright structure used to support a building. Pillars are strong. The
language you use to define your manifesto is important. Do you have values,
pillars, a pledge, commandments or even a manifesto?
In this case, they have literally taken
these pillars to heart and named their business: Four Pillars Gin. Now, that’s
putting your manifesto in the centre of everything you do. While not essential,
it is a strong statement.
Choose your words wisely because they provide
an edge to your meaning and your branding.
The United Nations
Environment Program Finance Initiatve (UNEP FI) is a partnership between UNEP
and the global financial sector.
The Positive Impact
Manifesto was initially released in October 2015 and updated in October 2016.
Purpose
In the wake of the
1992 Earth Summit, the Positive Impact Manifesto was created to promote
sustainable finance.
Over 200 financial
institutions, including banks, insurers and fund managers, work with UNEP to
understand today’s environmental challenges, why they matter to finance, and
how to actively participate in addressing them.
Manifesto
As the global population approaches nine
billion people, today’s world is one of increasing needs, decreasing natural
resources, and rapid technological change.
In September 2015, the UN General Assembly
formally established 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be addressed by
2030, which effectively provide a common framework for public and private
stakeholders to set their agendas and define their policies and strategies over
the next 15 years.
$5-7 trillion a year until 2030 are needed
to realise the SDGs worldwide, including investments into infrastructure, clean
energy, water and sanitation and agriculture.
The greater part of the necessary financing
and investment will need to stem from private finance.
Hindered by often unattractive risk and
return profiles, to-date the amount of private finance mobilised for these
purposes remains in marked contrast to the scale of the needs.
Yet for the SDGs to be met and to address
the challenges they embody in due time, they must attract the trillions of USD
of mainstream finance.
In short, the unmet needs must become the source of a profitable market.
Positive impact: a new approach to business and finance to
achieve the SDGs
By seeking a holistic understanding of the environmental,
social and economic needs around us, new business models can be developed that
will deliver the impacts sought by the SDGs.
To address multiple and interrelated needs,
these new business models will need to be cross-sectoral and sufficiently
disruptive to dramatically reduce the cost of achieving the SDGs.
Such a holistic, impact-based approach is
however not currently at the heart of the market, and is precisely the paradigm
shift that is required.
To achieve the shift to an impact-based
business and financing paradigm and ultimately the emergence of a vibrant
SDG-serving market, a major challenge needs to be addressed, namely: the absence
of a common language for the finance and private sector to understand and
organize itself in relation to the 17 SDGs and their respective targets.
Positive Impact business and finance should
be understood as that which serves to deliver a positive impact on one or more
of the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, environmental and
social), once any potential negative impacts to any of the pillars have been
duly identified and mitigated.
Positive Impact Finance
Positive Impact Finance is that which
serves to finance positive impact business.
It is that which serves to deliver a
positive contribution to one or more of the three pillars of sustainable development
(economic, environmental and social), once any potential negative impacts to
any of the pillars have been duly identified and mitigated.
By virtue of this holistic appraisal of
sustainability issues, Positive Impact Finance constitutes a direct response to
the challenge of financing the SDGs.
Beyond a common definition, a common
framework for the financing of the SDGs – the Principles for Positive Impact
Finance – should be established to help the finance community to identify and
assess positive impact activities, entities and projects – i.e. those able to
make a positive contribution to the SDGs.
They also help a broader set of public and private stakeholders define and assess those financial instruments that serve such positive impact business.
Thus equipped, businesses, financial
institutions and their counterparts in the public sector and broader civil
society should start to form a positive impact community — the Positive Impact
Initiative.
The Initiative should act as a hub for
stakeholders to proactively and collaboratively work towards the development
and implementation of new business models and financing approaches that will
help address the SDG funding gap and realize the SDGs themselves.
The power of a great manifesto is to
present and highlight a need. It doesn’t always have to have the answer. It can
simply be a call to action.
The Positive Impact Manifesto is a good
example of this with these specific elements:
The Goal: Fulfil the UN
Sustainable Development Goals
The General Problem: We need
money
The Specific Problem: The usual
way we finance projects does not and will not work.
The General Solution: We need a
new way to think about and define finance for these projects.
The Specific Solution: We need
to think holistically.
The Strategy: We need to create
new business models.
The six steps provide a useful framework
for mapping many complex issues that you might like to use in your
organisational or social manifesto.
While you might not express your manifesto
with all these steps, they can be used as a process to work from the goal and
the problems through to solutions and strategy.
Apple CEO Tim Cook shared the following
when he was Chief Operating Officer (COO) under Steve Jobs.
Purpose
During the period when Steve Jobs was
unwell and on medical leave, financial analysts asked Tim Cook how Apple would operate
without Jobs. This was his reply.
Manifesto
There is an
extraordinary breadth and depth in our more than 35,000 employees, who are all
wicked smart. And that’s in all areas of the company from engineering to
marketing, operations and sales and all the rest. The values of our company are
all extremely well entrenched.
We believe that we’re
on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We’re
constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex.
We believe we need to
own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make and
participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.
We believe in saying
no to thousands of projects so that we can focus on the few that are meaningful
to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross pollination in order to
innovate in a way others cannot.
We don’t settle for
anything other than excellence in any group in the company, and we have the
self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.
Regardless of who is
in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do
extremely well. And I would just iterate a point Peter made in his opening
comments. I strongly believe that Apple is doing the best work in its history.
Easy Jet is a low-cost British based
airline with headquarters in London. It operates domestic and international
services on over 1000 routes in more than 30 countries.
Purpose
Orange Spirit
Our mission has always
been to make travel easy and affordable for all. When we started out over 20
years ago we challenged the status quo with the introduction of low fares. We
didn’t accept the industry norms and we set about doing things differently.
This ambition continues to drive us today.
But it’s not just
about what we do, it’s how we do it and why we do it that shapes us as a business.
At its simplest we’re
here to connect people across Europe. These days we’re not alone in doing that
but we believe that by doing things in the right way and staying true to our
values is good for our customers, our staff and our communities. In a nutshell
we call it our Orange Spirit.
The Orange Spirit then
shares charters under the following headings:
Change for
good
Environment
Diversity
Innovation
Accessibility
Our
Promise (their customer charter is shared below)
Manifesto
Customer Charter
Our promise to you
Our five priorities keep us focused but the
key is to make sure we deliver all this from the heart, with passion, ensuring
our orange spirit shines through in everything we do.
Safety first – we never compromise – Your safety and security is our number one priority
On your side – we see it from your point of view – We don’t assume that we know best and we make decisions with you in mind
A big smile – friendly service is our passion – You can expect a friendly, helpful and knowledgeable service from all our staff
Make it easy – at every step – We’ll make sure you know what to expect at every step of your journey
Open and upfront – we will always be straight with you – We’ll always be truthful and will keep you informed at all times
There are two manifestos on this page. The
first is the purpose or mission statement and the second is the customer
charter. There is also a link to the company values.
Together they show what is required to
deliver purpose throughout a large organisation (with over 10,000 employees) is
to provide layers of manifesto in different forms. One single manifesto may not
be enough.
The challenge therefore is to keep them
simple and consistent. Ideally, you want your people to be able to recite them
in some way – at least in intent, if not in precise detail.
The Customer Charter is an important
manifesto type for customer service across any organisation.
This one is neat and short – five principles – and in simple everyday language. Each principle is then layered. For example:
Safety first = this is a clear priority
We never compromise = this is a boundary
rule – in a difficult situation, this one statement tells you what is required.
Your safety and security is our number one
priority – this expands on the first statement – it’s ‘your’ safety, plus ‘your’
security’ that is important.
Could you remember this to act in a crisis?
I think so.
There is also an overarching guiding principle
here: the orange spirit. It is important to name your charters and principles
so that people can refer specifically to them.
In this case, ‘orange spirit’ is a rallying
cry for how we want our people to act – in alignment with our company values
AND with ‘spirit’.
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia and
one of the most popular websites on the Internet. Started in 2001, the site now
has almost six million articles.
Purpose
Wikipedia is an example of a decentralized
organization. Volunteers edit the pages collaboratively. There are currently
70,000 editors who regularly update articles.
To manage this process, the team is guided
by Editorial Principles embodied by the five pillars.
Manifesto
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia.
Wikipedia has a neutral point of view.
Wikipedia is free content that anyone can
edit and distribute.
Wikipedians should interact in a respectful
and civil manner.
Perhaps the biggest surprise here is that a
simple five line statement can be the key guidelines for managing a team of
70,000 volunteers.
Despite the apparent simplicity, there is a
lot of information that is presented in these five pillars.
The first pillar states precisely what
Wikipedia is – an online encyclopedia. This provides an important boundary –
online only.
The second pillar states crucial assessment
criteria – a neutral point of view. This means any one of the editors can judge
if an article meets this criteria. While not perfect, it provide a basis for
discussion.
The third pillar described the organisation
of the information – free, anyone can edit, anyone can distribute. As the name
suggests an open-editing system, a wiki, is therefore needed.
The fourth pillar states two crucial
things. Firstly, it gives a name to the people who edit: Wikipedians. While not
an easy word, it is useful. Secondly, it provides a simple rule for how these
people will interact with each other – respectful and civil.
The fifth pillar is perhaps the most
crucial and allows such a simple set of guidelines to work: there are no firm
rules. Most people and most organisations would struggle with such a concept.
In this case, as a decentralized organisation it throws the power over to the
editors (the Wikipedians) to manage, control and sort out any problems amongst
themselves.
In summary, Wikipedia works because these
Five Pillars call a community together and gives them permission to lead and
create the online encyclopedia, which is the mission of the organisation.
The proof that this works is the way the
community safeguards the information. Given anyone can edit, it means anyone
can also vandalise what has been created. And this does happen often.
However, it’s the power of the community
that bands together to monitor what has been updated and to self-enforce pillar
two, to keep a neutral point of view.
Ironically, the strength of these simple organisational
principles is that the community of editors is in charge and takes ownership of
the site and its content.
This is an elegant rule-based manifesto
with a simple structure.
First, there are three parts reflecting
three levels of leadership – leading the self, leading teams and leading in the
wider world. This provides a neat way to provide an overview of your entire
framework.
Second, there are three items for each part
which provide actions steps and goals to be achieved for each item and each
part.
Third, there is a consistent palette of
words for each item all used a single keyword combined with ‘up’ as a
consistent phrase. When this works well it is simple and elegant. Be cautious
of forcing words to fit as it may come across as being contrived.
Elena Mutonono and Veronika Palovsak are co-authors
of Opted Out of the ‘Real Job’.
Purpose
Elena and Veronika opted out of their ‘real
jobs’ and built small online businesses to have more freedom and flexibility to
pursue their dreams.
Their book and manifesto is intended to encourage
and assist “restless cubicle professionals” to do the same.
Manifesto
We are the mavericks and the heretics in
the online teaching world. We have opted out of the stifling ‘real job’ environment, the ‘safety’ nets, the
endless money chase, the hopelessness and apathy, to create value and meaning
through our small and smart online businesses.
We
believe that ideas change minds, lives and destinies. We want to bring our
fresh creativity to the world.
We want
to teach because it empowers people to improve lives, think differently, create
original art and do the work that matters.
We do the
impossible. We step into the unknown. We challenge limitations. We conquer our
fears. We work from our core. We opt out of whining. We don’t complain.
We take
the first step and we don’t turn back. We opt into courage. We strive to make a
change. We fail and we stand strong. Then we do it again.
Among
huge corporations that stamp cheap commodities, we make art that impacts people
for good. Every day, we opt out of this world’s imposed scarcity and choose to
grow abundance through the talents we’ve been given. We don’t wait until we’re
smarter or more experienced or wealthier. We don’t save our art of a rainy day.
We share it now because tomorrow is not guaranteed.
This is a classic word based set of rules
for life.
While the context of helping teachers (or
instructional designers) step out of their workplace cubicle and into a
freelance or self-employed role is a deep niche, their manifesto reads as a
general situation that could fit for many other groups.
This could be good and bad. It could be
good because it speaks to a wide audience. It could be bad because it is too
general and doesn’t speak closely enough to the needs, wants and desires of
your intended audience and therefore may fail to engage them.
The simple key to getting this right is to
test your manifesto. Once you’ve written it, share it with the your chosen
market. Listen to their comments and feedback and adjust accordingly.
There is no right answer here, simply
whether the manifesto you have written plays its part in helping you fulfil
your desired result.
