Business Lessons from Innocent Drinks

Online there’s loads of blog posts and articles about web development, marketing, copywriting, and graphic design. As a web-designer things like technical knowledge and design skills are very important – but there’s not so much about building a successful team environment and making the most of your team.

The Innocent founders - Richard, Adam and Jon

The Innocent founders - Richard, Adam and Jon

Business, management and marketing are things I am really interested in. In my day job I lead the web team at Miniclip.com so, besides designing web pages and developing new functionality, I have to think about things like team management, project management, morale, business focus and company strategy. All things I hadn’t considered 7 years ago when I first accepted the job as a designer.

Since I travel a lot, I also read a lot, and I find reading about businesses, how they’re founded, and how the companies are run, fascinating. In February this year I read a book about Innocent Drinks and their story.

I knew the company was unusual since I drank their smoothies and had seen the quirky packaging with the funny messages so it was with great interest that I received an invitation to go to their public AGM (A Grown-up Meeting) – a day out that includes a tour of their office, as many smoothies as you can drink, designing your own drinks, taste testing new products, and generally finding out about my favourite smoothie company.

Whilst I was there I could see how cool a place it is to work (almost as cool as Miniclip :)). Probably the thing I took away the most was the pervasiveness of their brand and how the entire office was tailored to match the culture and environment they have built around the company and its outlook.

Innocent live through their brand and it shone through in everything they did.

Below are a few of the key things I learnt on my trip to the Innocent office.

Brand

The brand is everything. Everything in the office screamed Innocent. From the AstroTurf carpets, through the brand messages, to the decorations and wall artwork and even the name of the corporate HQ (called ‘Fruit Towers’). You always know where you are and why you’re there.

As an employee I can see it being a positive kind of brain washing. A way to live and breathe the brand. Show you’re that immersed in the brand you can’t help but sing it’s praises.

Mission Statement

5 years ago, had you asked me what I thought of mission statements, then I would have said they were a load of pretentious rubbish. However over the last couple of years I have come to understand the importance of them – and Innocents is one of the best I have seen.

Innocent Mission Statement

Innocent Mission Statement

A few tips for writing your own statement.

  • Make sure it’s not just corporate nonsense
  • It has to have clear benefits and objectives
  • Avoid buzz words
  • Keep it short and simple

5 Values

When hiring employees Innocent have 5 values they want people to work by – and personally I think they’re great things to strive for.

  1. Be natural
  2. Be entrepreneurial
  3. Be responsible
  4. Be commercial
  5. Be generous

For a full description of the brand values and mission statement/ vision check out the Purpose page on the Innocent website

As a manager I have had to do a lot of hiring, and over the years I have learnt that the people and personality are as important, possibly more important, than technical skills.

Obviously technical skills are required but they are nothing if you can’t work with other members of the team and fit into the company culture.

Openness

Openness, both inside the company, and out – creates a huge sense of trust and loyalty with your users. If you screw up admit to it, apologise, and explain what you will do to fix it. Don’t hide behind excuses and corporate nonsense. With services like Twitter and Facebook it’s incredibly hard to brush things under the carpet.

Ethics

Being a company that is about improving things, everything they do is designed to be ethical, and sustainable. There is always room to improve the world we live in. We need to look after it, as much as we look after ourselves. To this end they try to make everything they create recyclable, Innocent help the people who grow their fruit to make sure they earn a decent wage for the work they do, and they give a percentage of their earnings to charity every year (even when they make a loss)!

Conclusion

I really enjoyed the trip to Innocent – before picking up their book in February I would not have considered looking to a smoothie company for inspiration for a blog post, or thought that I would learn so many business lessons. I now have a whole stacks of ideas for improving the businesses I am involved in.

Is there anything else you would add to this list that people may not have considered when setting up their first company?

Was it good/ useful/ a load of old rubbish? Let me know on Mastodon, or BlueSky (or Twitter X if you must).

Link to this page

Thanks for reading. I'd really appreciate it if you'd link to this page if you mention it in your newsletter or on your blog.

Related Posts

15 Oct 2013

My First WordCamp EU

Last weekend I went to WordCamp EU – Europe’s first WordCamp – and my first WordCamp.I’ve always fancied going to a WordCamp conference but never known what to expect – or even what I would get out of it. I’ve...
19 Dec 2012

5 Things to do to Prepare your Blog for the Holiday Season

The festive season is upon us and your loyal readership is distracted by Christmas and all the associated fun and stress. Usually your blog posts are a welcome relief from the everyday slog that is the working week, but now...
01 Jun 2011

A Day in the Life of a Web Designer

I recently had someone email me and ask what a day in my life, or that of a web designer, was like. A slightly unusual request but I thought I would take up the challenge and document an average day.I...
14 Feb 2011

Give Your Blog Some Loving This Valentines Day

February 14th is Valentines Day; a day when many of us lavish extra time and attention on our loved ones. We treat them extra special, buy them some flowers, maybe do some cooking – basically we show them just how...
19 Oct 2018

Smashing Book 6 Review: New Frontiers In Web Design

I really like the Smashing Magazine website. Unlike a lot of tutorial sites they don’t keep repeating the same basic content and focus on more challenging and newer things. So when I was contacted by Vitaly and asked if I...
13 Oct 2016

Lessons Learned from 20 Theme Releases on WordPress.com

In 2007 I partnered with Darren Hoyt to release Mimbo Pro, one of the earliest premium WordPress themes. In 2012 Mimbo Pro was published on wordpress.com. Last week – on October 5th 2016 to be precise – my 20th theme...