Establishing Company Gears

Good Evening Gears!

You nailed it! I called you a 'Gear'. Not a gearhead or, for those of you too lazy to look it up: 'a person who pursues mechanical or technological interests (as in automobiles or computers)', but a Gear. What is a Gear you might be asking?

Don't worry. It's totally a compliment. You see, to me, gears are an absolutely beautiful creation. By working as a team, even if the gears come in different shapes, sizes, colours, and designs (sounds a little bit like people, no?), they still work together. While you could make the argument that a single gear out of place (a rebel) ruins the whole machine, you'd be absolutely right. I'm going to let you get away with saying that because I haven't devised a clever explanation for this aspect yet.  Feel free to share your thoughts below. 

Today...? Today is a company update for BioGear Studios.

Lately, I've been working on our employee handbook and defining our workplace culture. Really, really hard stuff. Trust me.

Many entrepreneurs will tell you that creating a startup company is (edit: can be) expensive, takes a ridiculous amount of time + dedication and guess what?!?!? They totally, absolutely, absurdly even, know what they're talking about. As I mentioned, for the last few days, I've been trying to decide how I want employees to feel while they work for us, how projects will be decided upon and most importantly, what our workplace culture will be like. This task is both incredibly daunting, and incredibly fulfilling.

My reasons for doing this so early are simple. 

To me, a company's brand starts with the employees & culture. Not the logo, not the website, hell, not even the product. While all of those aspects of a company perpetuate the brand, they don't create it. Before the first product or service ever came out from any company, they had employees and the birth of a culture. Perhaps it was one person, or a few. It doesn't really matter because before the public even sees you and your company, your brand has started. Even now, before we have a prototype in the works, the brand for BioGear Studios has begun. It starts with every misplaced period in my post that makes you think I'm an idiot. It starts with every snarky remark I just made that brings a smile to your face. This. Is. Branding. 

For BioGears, the brand I want is worldly, creative, open, and caring. I want to focus on erasing bureaucracy from the creative process, much like Valve does with their 'flat' corporate style. I want to focus on representing the world: bringing in talent from all other countries including Egypt, Britain, China, Brazil, Russia, South Africa. I want every developer to have a face for the public if they want: to eliminate the need for 'gaming' hero's (single developers who become the face of a company ie. Cliffy B, Peter Molyneux) and to help the public know who makes their games. I want our process to be transparent, involving, but still maintained and viable within the scope of our means and dreams. Most importantly, I want BioGears to remain strong, to stay on course always, no matter what storms may be hurled at our ship. Even more importantly than most importantly, I want our customers to be first, their enjoyment + fulfillment from playing our games and utilizing our services to be paramount.

This. Is BioGear Studios.

Welcome to our brand.

~ Storyteller

Question: Where do you believe a company's brand comes from? Which company represents your favourite brand? Also, if you read through the whole post, say yes. Because I find this extremely amusing! Last time though, for serious.

P.S. A funny thing: The question I just wrote before I wrote this sentence was "will this happen?" and the answer, without a doubt in my mind, is yes. It will. You may doubt me. I may doubt me. The world may doubt me. The world may even beat me down, wanting to force feed the seemingly horrid nature of people and business to me but it doesn't matter. I believe in people: I believe in Gears working together to make something work. And in this case, that something is a beautiful work of art that will be ready to be enjoyed the world over.