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by Chris Day @ Fully Managed™ Effective today (January 27th, 2010) the company I founded in 2002 as CDot Networks Inc. has officially been reborn as Fully Managed™ Inc. While we didn't keep the name change a big secret, we did keep most of the details sparse until today. Throughout the course of changing the name (the gory details of which I'll spare you) I've encountered both fanatical support and disappointment in response to the name change. All things considered, I'm confident that this was the right move.
CDot, which will remain as my Twitter name (@CDot), was basically a nickname for me - Chris + Dot. It emerged because my name started with the letter "C" and my daily workload consisted of a lot of dots (contained in IP addresses, domain names, etc.). As you can imagine, this doesn't make for a particularly interesting story - try explaining it to a CEO with a finance background. As a result, I was constantly looking for other possible meanings, although I was never really able to come up with anything interesting. While it was cute when we were a small company with only a few clients, I feel we've outgrown it and have been increasingly feeling that having a name tied to my person is limiting and does not do our organization justice. Besides, CDot was notoriously spelled, capitalized or pronounced wrong - C-Dot, CDOT, cDot, See Dot, etc. Sure, it creates a bit of conversation, but honestly it wore on me (and others) to have to phonetically spell out the company name ad nauseum on a daily basis.
The name "Fully Managed™" had appeared in much of the copy we had been writing describing our services (IT Management, IT Support, Project Services, Hosting Services) many times. As I thought more about it, I was confident that this name was a perfect fit for my vision of the company so I decided to acquire the domain name(s) and re-launch our IT support services as a new brand called Fully Managed™. A few weeks later, I was walking with my brother in Montreal, and over a sandwich, he threw out a crazy idea - "Why not just change the name?" Within an hour or so, I was convinced.. and the rest is history.
The feedback we have received on the name change thus far has been overwhelmingly supportive. Almost everyone agrees that this new name is tightly aligned with our Core Purpose of Creating Peace of Mind, providing a simple, powerful, and memorable statement about how we treat our clients.
One of my mentors, who will remain nameless, was not impressed with my decision to change the name - he still disagrees with it. He believes that I had built up a lot of goodwill with the original name, and that more people know of CDot than I might believe. While I agree, I believe that two important points counterbalance this: 1) Our clients were extremely receptive and happy with the new name, and 2) we will be growing a lot larger in the coming years and this is a good time to make a change before we expand outside of Vancouver, BC.
Only time will tell if the name change had any impact on our success as a company. I highly doubt that a name in itself will have any impact on our vision or ability to execute, and most experts will agree. In Jim Collins excellent book, Good to Great, he does mention that a major change or presentation (such as a name change) was never a catalyst for any of the success stories of companies making the leap in his book. I couldn't agree more - but as long as I don't have to spell out Fully Managed™ on a regular basis, I'll be a happy camper!
