A HEARING-impaired New Hampshire boy is now a superhero.
Marvel Comics has created a superhero called Blue Ear in honour of Anthony Smith, a four-year-old boy from Salem, who was born with a chromosomal disorder that left him with severe hearing loss.
Anthony, who has no right ear and only partial hearing in his left, wears a blue hearing aid that has enabled him to speak and attend school.
A devoted comic book fan, he told his mother three weeks ago he was no longer wearing the device because "superheroes don't wear blue ears," WFXT-TV reported.
Alarmed by the boy's refusal, his mother, Christina D'Allesandro, emailed Marvel Comics in New York City, asking for assistance.
The comic book publisher sent D'Allesandro a picture the next day of "Hawkeye," a superhero who lost 80 percent of his hearing and wears aids. The company then sent an image of its newest creation, a character called "Blue Ear," who it said was named after the boy, according to the station.
"It's amazing," D'Allesandro said of the company's response. She said her son brought the comic book pictures to his pre-school, which prompted teachers to hold a superhero week.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/marvel-creates-new-superhero-for-hearing-impaired-new-hampshire-boy/story-e6frfmq9-1226365269279#ixzz22lFN6nvq
Now read this...(please)
I'm hearing impaired and so is my daughter, we each wear two hearing aids, so naturally I was drawn to this story. On the surface its just a great story about some people at a large company doing something nice for a little boy, but it is much more than that. It's story about company culture and values.
When you engender a culture in an organisation that values people, that values doing the right thing, regardless of reward, you invariably find that good things come back to the organisation (I'm hoping Marvel didn't leak this story).
It's no accident that Marvel are on a seismic roll with hit movie after hit movie and a massive purchase by the idea-bereft Disney, like Pixar before them Marvel are a culture that values people, has ideas and approaches those ideas with courage, values long since lost at Disney.
And clearly Marvel values people, their iconic creative muse Stan Lee (90 odd) continues to receive producer credits on all movies and TV shows featuring his creations even though he is no longer an active member of Marvel, he gets his cameo appearances in every movie and one would hope that he is consulted on various bits and pieces for those movies within his producer credit.
And then to this story, first look at the timeliness, within a day the company had responded with some information about Hawkeye wearing hearing aids (which I didn't know, he's even cooler now than before!) and then shortly later with the ultimate above and beyond effort of creating a dedicated character based on the boy's particular ear issues.
Too often in business we forget those little above and beyond moments in favour of "focusing on core business" without realising that it's those little above and beyond things, those things you do for patrons, co-workers and suppliers, with no expectation of a reward that make up the culture of an organisation.
At the risk cracking my cynical marketer's mask even more, could all our workplaces do with a little more "Just for the hell of it" niceness?
