{"id":150,"date":"2006-09-15T14:29:25","date_gmt":"2006-09-15T22:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simonburrow.com\/\/archives\/simon-says\/why-i-am-an-approbator"},"modified":"2006-09-15T14:34:44","modified_gmt":"2006-09-15T22:34:44","slug":"why-i-am-an-approbator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/?p=150","title":{"rendered":"Why I am an Approbator"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1981, when we started our first successful company, Coventry Manufacturing, the title on my business card read \u201cPresident.\u201d During the first few years we were in business I read an article in INC Magazine<\/a> about W L Gore Company<\/a> and their decentralized organizational structure that we adapted and adopted. In the article it mentioned that one of the companies sales people went by the title \u201cSupreme Commander.\u201d I loved it and within a short while I was the \u201cSupreme Commander\u201d of Coventry Manufacturing Company. The benefit of having an unusual title on my business card was immediately apparent. People kept my card, they talked about me, and they remembered me and wanted to ask me why I had that title. It worked to differentiate me and my little company from our competitors.
\nAs the years went by the title \u201cSupreme Commander\u201d started to get stale. I ran into someone who was the \u201cIntergalactic Supreme Commander\u201d and I knew I couldn\u2019t compete. In fairly short order I became the \u201cHead Coach\u201d of Brandon International, the successor company to Coventry Manufacturing. I was more \u201ctouchy feely\u201d in tune with the 90\u2019s. I still lead the company strategically but I now managed managers and helped them with tactics. The title fit for that time.
\nMore years went by. We opened a factory in Singapore and the good humored bonhomie of a factious title didn\u2019t work well with Asian bankers and even less well with government officials in places like Thailand and Malaysia. I had to have a new card with a new title again. This time I bifurcated. I had a card made that listed my title as \u201cPresident\u201d and I called it my officials and bankers card. I also had a card for business that read \u201cElder Statesman\u201d that continued my tradition of having a non-traditional title to differentiate myself.
\nA few years later we sold the company to Brady International<\/a> and I retired, but I still needed a business card. In fact I felt naked without one. So I had a new card made on nice thick stock that listed my title as \u201cApprobator.\u201d Now when I hand out my business card people look at it and ask; \u201cWhat is an approbator?\u201d I can reply: \u201cThank you for asking. An approbator is one who give praise, as in approbation.\u201d And a conversation is started.<\/p>\n

All of this derives from an old marketing saw: \u201cIf you are not different, you don\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since some of you will want to check the source of my title here is the citation:
\nApprobator. Dictionary.com<\/a>. Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, MICRA, Inc. http:\/\/dictionary.reference.com\/search?q=approbator&x=34&y=18 (accessed: September 15, 2006).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1981, when we started our first successful company, Coventry Manufacturing, the title on my business card read \u201cPresident.\u201d During the first few years we were in business I read an article in INC Magazine about W L Gore Company and their decentralized organizational structure that we adapted and adopted. In the article it mentioned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-simon-says"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99jGb-2q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}