Walk the talk: How a toxic internal culture can ruin brilliant branding, with Emily Monsell-Holden

What you say outside has to be true inside — alignment isn't just an ethics thing, it's commercial. Trust is built on consistency, and a gap between the brand and the reality breaks that trust and costs you repeat business.

Your reputation is built where marketing can't reach — product, customer service, how you treat staff, how you run interviews. Dozens of small touchpoints outside the marketing team's remit shape the brand more than any campaign.

Perception is the customer's reality — Emily keeps flying BA on convenience, not loyalty, after a run of staff who couldn't be bothered. Whether or not BA "has" a culture problem, she's decided they do, and that's what counts.

Alignment done well is a moat — Riverford is "like a stick of rock", its founder lobbying government and going employee-owned; Finisterre shares an HQ with Surfers Against Sewage. Purpose tied to commercial success is the most durable kind.

Real values should cost you something — Patrick Lencioni's says that values should "inflict pain": stop you doing certain things and make the wrong people uncomfortable. Attach concrete behaviours to each, then embed them in onboarding and reviews, not a poster.

Do what works for your size — a solo founder may need a rallying call, not a values framework. Elliot swapped weak values for the Bonifesto; Emily runs an "anti-consultancy" statement instead. Call it what you like, but articulate it.