Legends Report – Earth, Wind & Fire Founder Dies | iPhone Error Uproar | How to Forge a Company Culture

By Tom Hasker, Associate Partner, Lighthouse International

Sadly, this week the founder of the legendary band ‘Earth, Wind and Fire’ who created hits like ‘Boogie Wonderland’ and ‘Shining Star’ passed away at his Los Angeles home on Wednesday. Maurice White had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease and his sister Verdine White, also a member of her brothers band, said in a statement;

“While the world has lost another great musician and legend, our family asks that our privacy is respected as we start what will be a very difficult and life changing transition in our lives. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes.”

Feel free to share your tributes in the comments below if their music inspired you…The Guardian has more on the work and life of this influential artist here.

In their latest iOS upgrade, Apple have designed the software to display an “error 53” message and ‘brick’ the phone (i.e. make it as useful for communication as a brick) if the ‘home’ key or screen is serviced by a non-Apple authorised technician.

This means that if it breaks and there is no Apple approved service technician to hand, the use of a third party repair service will mean the phone is rendered useless, especially if consumers repair them in countries that don’t have any Apple stores. This move by Apple is concerning since by preventing third parties from fixing their products, they are trying to control the market and risk losing the trust and respect of their customers. While it is understandable to want to protect the security of their products, Apple are breaking the principle of Empathic Communication here as they didn’t warn their customers about the issue and seem to have slightly lost touch with them.

Check out this Guardian article for more…

In a recent Gallop survey of more than 109,000 customers of business-to-business companies, they identified 3 things a company can do to improve their culture and reflect it to their customers.

The poll established that:

“Customers were more interested in how a company’s customer service represented the tenets of its culture–such as how the company tried to solve the problem–rather than if the company solved the problem.”

This result shows that it’s not what a company does that is most important, it’s how they go about doing it. Did they do their best? Did they care about the customer etc? Customers understand that not every problem can be solved, but by basing company culture on fundamental values and principles like care and empathy, a company can go a long way to building trust and relationships to create brand loyalty. Find out the 3 ways to forge a company culture here on Inc.com.

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