we are animals

Small firms can find it hard to match the energy, world class talent and diversity that make larger companies so competitive. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Start a business with less than 10 employees and you’ll soon discover how quickly your co-workers can seem dull. No matter how much you like them, walking into a small office with just the 6 of you feels as eerily quiet as church on a Tuesday morning.

Smallness can eventually work against you, as talent migrates out to rival firms with a mailroom bigger than your entire office and opportunities pass you by because you lack the scale and diversity needed to solve complex problems.

Realizing that we were not the only consultancy facing this challenge, we launched Kongo: our opportunity to surround ourselves with some of the brightest independent professionals and start-ups in the media and creative industries.

We opened over 5,000 square feet of beautifully designed loft-space to a small group of world-class designers, researchers, writers, producers, motion graphics experts, innovators and foreign correspondents. Some of our colleagues include FireFish USA (research), Positron (experiential design engineers), A Different Engine (UX design), Messaging Lab (biotech), QuesttoNo (product design), SmartAssDesign and Machine (innovation and design)

Based in Dumbo, the heart of New York’s most vibrant start-up community, we now collectively enjoy the resources of larger Madison Avenue agencies, with none of the politics.

To thrive, social animals need clear understanding of their allegiances and hierarchies. Fashion provides the former, luxury the latter.

As social beings, we have always looked to define our place in society.

Whether by a system of casts, nobility, landownership or other, rigid systems gave us a sense of identity and order, for the greater good of the species. These structures were so useful that across the centuries and continents our place in society was passed down from parents to children.

With the invention of agriculture 12,000 years ago, ancient hierarchies disappeared but were quickly replaced by new ones, based by our contribution to the group: laborers, merchants, warriors, priests, artists and rulers. Then mass democracy and capitalism did away with those distinctions and true social mobility was born. Our own fate would no longer be limited by our parents’.

What hasn’t changed in these 12,000 years though, is our need to define our place in society, and this is where fashion kicks in: while luxury had always existed (kings and priests from Papua New Guinea to Machu Pichu have always relied on jewels to advertise their place in society), the idea of ever-changing tastes is relatively new, and has accelerated tremendously as our daily lives grow increasingly removed from the farming cycles.

In fact, some claim that fashion helps us regain a sense of “seasons”, in a world of farm factories.

In short, both fashion and luxury help us regain a sense of social order. But one does it horizontally (where do i stand vs my peers), while the other does it vertically (how high do I stand in the food chain).

Chaco Papers are executive summaries of extensive research conducted to inform our work for various projects. If you would like to learn more about this or any other Paper contact papers@chaco.cc.