I watched MTVs VMA awards last night. Some of my daughters’ friends are in the band Paramore, and they were nominated for an award. And—to be honest—I wanted to see how Britney Spears would do, since we are publishing her mom’s book next week.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen MTV, but I was flabbergasted. I could not believe the sensuality and decadence I witnessed. Gail and I finally had to turn it off. We just couldn’t take it any more.

In many of his books, Andy Andrews talks about the butterfly effect, a theory put forward in a doctoral thesis by Edward Lorenz, a mathematician and meteorologist.

In short the butterfly effect states that a butterfly can flap its wings on one side of the world and set in motion molecules of air that in turn set in motion other molecules of air and eventually create a hurricane on the other side of the world.

The only problem was that we didn’t have much money. Our competitors had seemingly every advantage, including piles of working capital (or so we thought). All we had was a dream and our ability to respond quickly.

This morning I had breakfast with Fitz, an old college roommate. We hadn’t seen each other in twenty-two years. To my surprise—and delight—he looked almost exactly as he did the last time I saw him. The only difference was that his blond hair was mostly gray.

We spent an hour or so eating and reminiscing. We talked. We laughed. And we listened. I shared with him pictures of my family, both of us laughing at the fact that I was a grandpa. I was amazed at how much we still had in common, even though both our lives and taken so many unexpected turns.

The Little Blue Book Series

Our company has a long and fascinating history. The story begins in Scotland with the birth of Thomas Neilson (sic) in 1780. Though his parents were farmers, he developed an interest in printing, the most high-tech industry of the 18th century. As a result, his parents sent him to London to become an apprentice in a print shop on Paternoster Row, which was kind of the Silicon Valley of the Day.

In 1798, at the tender age of 18, Neilson started a second-hand bookstore in Edinburgh, Scotland. The store was located at 7 West Bow Street. The store did quite well, but in the early 1800s, he decided to branch out. He began to realize there was a market for inexpensive editions of public domain books. So, in 1818, he began reprinting the classics. He also legally changed the spelling of his name to “Nelson.â€

Every stream has a current. Throw a twig or a piece of paper into the water, and it will drift with the flow. This is natural. It is simply the way things work.

Organizations are similar to streams. They too have a flow. That flow is the organization’s culture. When people enter into that culture, they usually move along with the current. It is what my friends at Gap International call “the drift.â€

One key to leadership is the willingness to stand up and take responsibility for your mistakes. Good leaders do this even if they are guilty of only 10% of the accusation or problem. They do this even if the source is a carping, high-maintenance client. They do this even if there were circumstances beyond their control that led to the mistake.

Good leaders do this because it’s the right thing to do. They don’t do it for the sake of public relations alone. They do it because they failed to meet their own high standards of ethical conduct or operational performance.

The Little Blue Book Series

We often say, “We are a Christian content company.†However, we understand our identity as a Christian content provider in a very different way than most of our peers in the industry. Like them, we want all of our messages to be delivered from the perspective of a Christian worldview. This is the foundation of our content program. However, unlike most of them, we want our communicators to explore any subject they wish.

Yes, we publish content and host conferences on spiritual and devotional themes. This is part of life and, admittedly, the most important part. But it is not the only part. We also deliver content that deals with the other aspects of life: business, culture, politics, entertainment, etiquette, cooking, family, etc. And, of course, we publish fiction. Lots of it! No topic is off limits, provided it comes from a Christian worldview, is executed well, and has commercial value. (We are, after all, a commercial content provider.)

The Little Blue Book Series

Having a clear vision of where you are going is crucial to any human endeavor. This is especially true when it comes to business. Unless we know where we are going, it is difficult to select the best route to get there or to assign the necessary resources.

Like our Purpose Statement, our vision is oriented around “We inspire the world.†It also includes our vision for market share and financial performance. These are also critically important but are the result of doing other things well.

About two weeks ago, I asked you to vote on whether or not we should retain the use of “Since 1798†with the corporate logo. Over 400 people voted. Fifty-five percent of those voting said, “yes, keep using it.â€

A couple of people commented that they didn’t think this should be an either/or proposition. They suggested that we may want to retain the use of “Since 1798†in some versions of the logo and not in others. The design committee met, and we agreed.

Right now, we plan to use “1798†in product applications but delete it in marketing applications. Linda Bourdeaux, our Director of Design, is updating the style book now. I am very pleased with this direction.

The Little Blue Book Series

Values are the ideals that we esteem as a company. They are the philosophical foundation of our corporate ideology. They are the things that we hold dear and make us unique as a company.

At Thomas Nelson, we have five core values. They are:

The Little Blue Book Series

Corporate culture is not something we usually think about. It’s kind of like water to a fish or air to a bird. It’s simply the environment we live in.

Nevertheless, I believe culture is one of the most important factors driving operating results and influencing employee satisfaction. Unhealthy cultures produce bad results and unhappy employees. Healthy cultures produce good results and happy employees.

Webster’s defines culture as

The Little Blue Book Series

Every organization has a purpose. It may be clear or vague. It may conscious or unconscious. It may be written or unwritten. Regardless, no organization is ever formed—or continues to exist—without some sort of purpose.

Eventually, many organizations create a purpose statement. Some are specific and inspiring. For example, Google’s is “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.â€

The Little Blue Book Series

For some time, the Executive Leadership Team of Thomas Nelson has wanted to compile our corporate philosophy into a small book. This post marks the beginning of that process.

As a working title for this project, we have chosen The Thomas Nelson Way. The book will attempt to capture the unique way we do business at Thomas Nelson. Because blue is our corporate color, I have envisioned it as a small blue book. As a result, we have also been referring to it as The Little Blue Book. I will refer to this series of posts as The Little Blue Book Series.

This book is intended for all Thomas Nelson employees, of course, but I think it will be especially helpful to new employees. We want a way to get them up-to-speed quickly as it relates to our corporate philosophy and culture. We plan to build a curriculum around this content, so that all new employees go through it in their first month of employment. I plan to teach some of these sessions myself. I believe the content is that important.

Last week, Publishers Weekly ran an article about our new editorial standards. The article asserted that “future contracts will require authors—even those writing in non-religion categories like business—to signal their agreement with both the Nicene Creed ... and Philippians 4:8.â€

This is, of course, simply not true. We have not written our editorial standards into our contracts nor do we intend to. As far as I know, it has never even been discussed as a possibility. Unfortunately, this error has been picked up by others, amplified, and made to sound silly and extreme.

For example, MediaBistro.com said that we were making theological demands on our authors. The New York Times ran a short piece on Saturday, repeating the PW error and claiming that authors who signed with us must “swear to two religious articles of faith.†Writing for The Nashville Scene, Bruce Barry, said we were being “heavy handed.â€

Several Christian bloggers also weighed in. Most seemed confused. Some asked for clarification. Thankfully, a few even defended us.

Regardless, I thought rather than answer all these posts directly, I would try to clarify our position here.

Last fall, our extended leadership team (some 60 of us) got together for a planning retreat. During this time, we worked on our Core Ideology as a company. We wanted to answer the question, “Why do we exist?†and “What values do we share in common?†The answers to these two questions became our “Core Purpose†and “Core Values.†In this post, I would like to share the former.

We have now been living with our Core Purpose for the past six months. I think most of us are in agreement that this does a good job of articulating why we exist as a company. I have decided to post it here to a wider audience and invite your comments. What do you think?