The Counter-Culture of Dr. Martens
January 6th, 2010After somehow ending up on the Dr. Martens website yesterday, I clicked on their “history” page out of curiousity. (Note: I did a buy a pair recently so it wasn’t totally random…)
This is clearly a company with a vision. And they have created a corporate culture that they are proud of. Interestingly, the vision and culture has changed over time as their customer base shifted from working class people to rebellious youth. They have come to embrace the rebelliousness and individualism of their customers.
I recommend reading the Dr. Martens history. A small part of it describes where they came from, the rest lays out their vision in a very creative, very passionate manner. (Warning: there is an f-bomb buried in there.) There is no doubt that they know what kind of company they want to be and how they want to impact the world.
This is something that other companies, as well as individuals, can learn from.
Understand who you are, understand who you want to be, and understand how you want to impact others.
