PEP. Tone of Voice Rationale

Phoenix has been building its reputation for two decades, which in PE in London constitutes a significant presence. The company is recognised and well-respected and its track record is not in question

Phoenix’s business is led by experienced partners – including founding Partners – with a smart, professional and ambitious team alongside them.

By any criterion, Phoenix is doing well, yet there is concern about the brand feeling lacklustre; about a perception that perhaps Phoenix is not quite as sharp, edgy, or ‘of the moment’ as some of the newer firms whose approach, people and image may appear more ‘cutting edge’.

Phoenix knows its strengths, however, and is rightly proud of these.

Given this, the choice is between acting like a ‘fifty year old stealing their child’s clothing and going off clubbing’, or a fifty year old who wears their age with pride. This involves being fully aware of (and open to) trends and innovations, while electing to operate in a way that our ‘younger’ competitors might struggle to accomplish.

Phoenix has the judgement, experience, assuredness, confidence and standing to conduct itself with a grace its younger peers might not yet appreciate the value of. It can allow noisier, less measured voices to air their views first… but then make its voice heard – clear, confident, informed and insightful – surprising anyone who has prejudged the company with its appetite for the job in hand, its edge, its wisdom, its resourcefulness and its respect for all those it engages with.

Phoenix can be viewed as top tier in both what it does and the way it conducts itself. The way it speaks should inspire, and engender both confidence and respect.

How PEP’s tone of voice manifests

It can be helpful to assign an easily remembered ‘formula’ to Tone of Voice. For Phoenix, it seems reasonable to express this as ‘Intelligence deployed with Experience’. (This is not a strapline – merely a way of thinking about Tone of Voice.)

Intelligence

Intelligence here is not about how clever we are, but about Phoenix’s weapon of choice. This is ‘business, financial and market intel’ (rather than human intelligence). We come to every situation with our homework done. We have done the reading, mined the research, run the numbers and evolved our views and approaches. We can rationalise our thinking and we can defend it under scrutiny. We are a company that starts off with intel.

Experience

It is experience, however, that encompasses all the things that give us our edge. We have the experience as a company to be measured and to exert wisdom. We have the human experience to get the best out of all around us and manage outcomes by judging the right thing to say and the right time to say it. We have the experience to know advances from fads, embracing the former and leaving the latter to others.

Intelligence deployed with Experience

When these are combined, we get a vigorous, modern day, intelligence-based organisation, with the experience to use its judgement, humanity and years in the market to make good calls, provide wise counsel and help build not only strong growth, but successful careers and happy lives.

/contd;