Why AMF Communications?
I often get asked “what is the AMF in AMF Communications LLC?”
There are some interesting stories behind many brands – here is ours.
The name AMF Communications came about as the conclusion of several brainstorming sessions, some practical realities, and finally settling on an idea and running with it.
The original idea was to go with AMF Consulting but after some research we discovered that not only our preferred domain name was taken, but there were also several companies around the world with the same name. We really wanted to use the “consulting” element – we are a consulting business – but it just wasn’t going to work.
We adjusted!
More brainstorming and research. We asked ourselves “what else describes our core?” This led us to define our core as we saw it. The word ‘communications’ kept coming up and as we dug a little deeper, we realized that first and foremost we are communicators in everything we do. And bonus, the domain amfcommunications.com was available. The communications element of the name was adopted! We grabbed the domain, registered the new business name, and started to build the business.
OK, so what about the first part of the name. AMF gives a nod to the horse ranch that my wife, Janet, and I own and run. It is Auld Macdonald Farm Arabians. We breed, develop, and show Arabian sport horses.
The steps of bringing along – developing – a horse from an idea to being a show horse is a highly iterative process with many feedback loops and adjustments along the way. Breeding starts with an idea and then pulling together the component parts to start a potential product. Then we move on to developing the product, or in this case the horse. This is a process of multiple iterations, observation, feedback, adjustments and frankly a good dose of hard work and frustration. At various points in the ‘develop‘ process the horse would go to a horse show where we get feedback that we take home and further develop the horse.
Raising show horses is a culture, as well as a true iterative process — without an agile mindset it would be tough on both human and horse. Also, there is a lot of communication going on every day which is mostly nonverbal – since horses don’t speak our chosen language!
Now the Macdonald element. As you may know, my family name is Macdonald. The Auld Macdonald is a tribute to the children’s song Old Macdonald had a Farm. “Auld” is Old English for “old, “as in “Auld Lang Syne.”
The “Old Macdonald” lyrics explain how the farmer iteratively built the farm; its E-I-E-I-O refrain gives the story a predictable cadence.
Today, AMF Communications LLC and Auld Macdonald Farm Arabians live and practice agility in everything we do – it is in our DNA.
How can we help you bring agility into your cultural DNA?
