Mediaphyter – A Communications Cocktail

A few weeks ago I was sitting in my VP of products’ office when he pulled up a news clip from a Canadian TV station. The video showed a baffled news reporter trying to determine the story behind a many-mirrored Vespa parked out on the street. Meanwhile I sat baffled trying to figure out why Anthony was showing me this video. “There is a point to this, I promise,” he said.

Soon I saw it. The news camera zoomed on the license plate of the Vespa:

The reporter speculated that the personalization was short for “for tailgate” (a worthy guess, I might add) but we, of course, knew immediately that the “4TGATE” was short for FortiGate, the flagship product and new generation network security gateway developed by our company, Fortinet. Drew Shearman, soon revealed to be the Vespa’s owner, came out and explained to the news crew the inspiration behind the many mirrors and the story behind the personalized plate.

The first thing I did was drop an email to Shearman — who works out of our Vancouver office — and introduced myself and told him I was dying to know his story. Certainly he had to have been with the company since its inception, hence his incredible loyalty. Nope. He’ll be with the company just one year next month. More than that, Shearman works on Fortinet’s front line as a customer support engineer. He spends his days supporting customers, partners and even our sales engineers who call in with technical questions. In other words, he works hard.

I finally asked him: “Why?”

“The FortiGate is a great product and it is inspiring working for Ken Xie and watching how far he’s taken this company in a very short amount of time. My management is great and we have a great team dynamic in support,” Shearman said. “I get a lot of questions about what my license plate means. I just tell them it represents a great line of network security appliances and the amazing company that I work for.”

(Quick disclosure: Yes, I work for Fortinet marketing. No, this is not a fabricated quote.)

I continued to be baffled yet now I was also impressed. I swear I am not as cynical as I appear and I’m as loyal to my company as the next person. I’ll put in insane hours if need be and I take my tasks to heart. But it’s never even crossed my mind to do such a thing. In my exploration for answers I threw out a question to my Twitter followers. I wanted to know how far their loyalty to their companies goes.

The answers were varied and I initially found not one person who shared Shearman’s enthusiasm. The majority of the respondents reported back that they would only do something so permanent if they launched and had at least part ownership in a company. I compiled a sample of my favorite answers below:

Finally, I found a couple folks who share Shearman’s enthusiasm for their companies or their professions. My friend Mike Dahn, PCI guru and co-founder of The Aegenis Group, sent me this picture of his license plate:

And then Dave Aitel, founder and CTO of security company Immunity, sent me a picture of Kostya Kortchinsky’s tattoo — ink that several of his team’s members share in common as homage to the company:

I never did find anyone to admit to naming a pet after his or her employer. I’m sure that person exists somewhere; he or she is simply not in my Twitter network. Until I find ‘em, I will continue to be impressed with Dahn, the Immunity team and Shearman. It takes a special type of person to commit oneself so publicly to a company or a brand. Clearly these companies are doing something right to instill such loyalty in their employees.

It is complete coincidence that the folks who step forward with tales of loyalty work in the security industry. Have a tale to tell? A picture to show? A cat to admit to naming after your company? Leave a comment and I will include them in a potential follow-up case study on how these types of companies are bringing about such employee loyalty.

(Photo Credits: Vespa courtesy of Drew Shearman; PCI DSS license plate courtesy of Mike Dahn; Kostya Kortchinsky courtesy of Dave Aitel. All photos used with permission.)