What does Comradity mean?

Comradity is what I experienced when I started my business career at Leo Burnett in the late seventies. Business relationships were not transactional. People freely collaborated, motivated by proving competence, trust and integrity. Because these were the metrics for personal and company success. I write about three topics:

  • Why “comradity” works and

  • Why finance, technology, and politics may threaten “comradity” in business,

  • How to create “comradity” in business, today.

Why Comradity works

“Comradity” may have thrived at Leo Burnett because it was an employee-owned company. But it wasn’t just the incentives of profit-sharing, pride of ownership was also a factor. And the man, Leo Burnett, gave the company a soul, represented by a whimsical slogan “When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either.” He built a Midwestern, hard-working culture, idolizing working into the night, with his morning memos, like “The Lonely Man.” His final speech at the Christmas breakfast (before everyone returned to the office to get their bonus check) “When to take my name off the door” made of fun of the “wisenheimers” and celebrated the “comradity” it took to get a great ad out of the door - media, creatives, research, production, client-facing account people, and all of their outside business relationships.

Burnett’s clients shared this culture. We were an outside partner with insider influence. Our role was to remind decision-makers why the company’s customers, partners, and employees trust them. Because their behavior was the integrity behind the “brand” we leveraged in advertising. For example, Ray Kroc didn’t make the big bucks until long after his franchisees were thriving, suppliers were profitable enough to be dependable, employees weren’t looking to work for a competitor, and customer expectations were raised and met consistently. He built a virtuous relationship of humans who all benefited by collaborating to succeed. They made the brand what it is today.

We didn’t charge them for our time, as McKinsey or other consultants would do. We were paid based on how much they spent on media. In other words, the more successful they were, the more they spent on media.

We weren’t buying “media” we were buying a means to start a ripple effect - the conversation at the water cooler, the elevator, the dinner table that kept the integrity of the brand alive. Three networks reached 80% + of households every night. So people knew they could say, “did you see that ad for . . ?”, and it would start a conversation. Customer loyalty, partner dedication, employee pride was re-doubled every day. Competitors’ jobs got harder. Our clients were number one or two in their markets.

This is how I learned that when business relationships have a sense of “community” and “camaraderie”, running a competitive race in business can be like running a perfect relay race - effortless and fun. Smush those two words together to make “comradity.”

The Threats to Comradity

There are many threats to “comradity” in business. You know it, when it feels like walking on eggshells everyday at work.

When financing concerns weigh-in more heavily on day to day decision-making because it becomes too expensive to make customers happy, pay partners to be dependable, and employees to be loyal. Every stakeholder feels threatened. Often for good reason, when consultants like McKinsey are paid to recommend where to cut.

When hired by Burnett, McKinsey recommended cutting the production department - the one’s with the relationships to contain costs and reviewed every ad before it saw the light of day for quality control. That didn’t just lead to mistakes. It gutted the culture of the company - we didn’t make mistakes because someone had your back.

When that happens the “finger-pointing meetings” start and the free collaboration, which consultants can’t calculate into their models, stops. Then it becomes more expensive to win back customers, find new suppliers and employees. Relationships are strictly transactional - if I do this for you, what will you do for me. Then it’s what you did for me lately. Finally, they forget you did anything for them, at all.

When the distrust becomes visceral, then politics step in. To get elected, politicians offer to regulate businesses who’ve wronged customers, partners, or employees.

The biggest threat to “comradity businesses” is when outside consultants, politicians, and bad publicity are spinning this vicious cycle.

I believe it’s possible to disrupt this vicious cycle if you understand how it works, what is a threat (makes it worse), and what the opportunities are to invest in.

Subscribe to learn about factors affecting collaboration

While I write about the history of “comradity” and today’s threats, my purpose is to identify opportunities to renew, build and maintain “comradity” in an organization.

When you subscribe, I think you’ll be notified when I publish Notes, referencing insights from other substack posts I read, or, posts, I’ve developed from analyzing the present with the past.

And you’ll learn more about Kathy Kern, co-founder of Comradity.

I started my career in advertising with Leo Burnett working with Fortune 50 companies, which were built by the art of strategic thinking and relationship- building, the win-win approach that built most of today's Fortune 50 companies.

I also offer coaching to improve confidence in communicating – critical to collaboration’s success. https://mediamashing.substack.com

I donate my time to judging debates for Incubate Debate because freedom of speech's value is raised by learning as a child to articulate, persuade, and defend their point of view.

But I spend most of my time making meals memorable with my favorite recipes and designing and making ceramics for the kitchen and table.

A lot of my inspiration in art comes from the philosophy shared by my grandfather (1889-1990). He used to attach these pages to letters, as he thought you might need them. I've added links to the authors he quotes because they are often forgotten, today. The one thing I notice is that, in his day, philosophy - or making sense of human existence - often uses nature as a metaphor. It worked then because nearly everyone grew up on a farm or was immersed in nature in some part of their childhood. Today, many of these metaphors aren't relevant because we are disconnected from nature.

If you have a success story I should share, please let me know by email

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I'm Kathy Kern, co-founder of Comradity. We advise leaders who seek to improve business relationships, then grow through collaboration. Not an easy way forward but a resilient one.

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Hi, I'm Kathy Kern, co-founder of Comradity. We advise leaders who seek to improve business relationships, then grow through collaboration. Not an easy way forward but a resilient one.