First, I felt that I wanted a name that was descriptive of what I stand for, rather than just pushing my personal brand (Martin Pergler Associates Inc.) or merely inscrutably memorable (like the Club of Rome thinktank, or Insert-Favourite-Greek-Letter Group). There’s no right or wrong, but each has connotations. With that decided, I wanted something that fulfilled a few criteria:

1) Reflected on a high level what I actually do – risk and strategy.
2) Gave at least some sort of nod to what’s distinctive about how I do it. This was the tough part, since much of what I could think of were long phrases, or more nouns, or just inscrutable.
3) Reasonably easy to remember, so no inscrutable acronyms for instance.

Process wise, I brainstormed words and phrases several times, and iterated that alongside writing my “one pager” (what I do, how, and why) that later became my marketing collateral. They influenced each other. When I had 3 concepts I liked, I shopped them around to a few other people. None of them got a great reaction (there were all sorts of connotations that I didn’t think of, but my friends sure did!), so I tried again. Of the 2nd set of 3, one was a clear winner.

Finally, two few mundane considerations came into play:

A) The company name had to reasonably well translate to a unique, memorable, and available domain name. And I was not willing to pay for premium domains. It turned out I could do this by abbreviating just a little bit in the domain name.
B) I was founding a Canadian, federally-incorporated company, so I also needed to translate the name into French, even though I rarely use the French version: Stratégies de risques équilibrés, ltée.

By this time I was exhausted of the process, and so I just quickly finalized the name and made sure NOT to ask my friends again, since I didn’t want to go back to the drawing board again… If they’ve thought of any other unfortunate interpretations, they’ve been polite enough to not mention them

Focus of the firm:

I help companies across different business sectors manage their risks better, especially with regards to making major strategic decisions that involve a lot of uncertainty. This includes both quantitative modeling, as well as more qualitative process design, governance, and corporate culture elements. It helps both minimize downside surprises as well as enable more confident risk taking in the pursuit of opportunity.

With regards to naming, it’s also important what I don’t do. I don’t optimize companies’ insurance coverage, implement compliance-focused ERM (Enterprise Risk Management) processes, do health and safety audits, or manage investment portfolios, so I had to kill off a few otherwise promising names that carried that as connotations.

Looking back on the decision:

I’m happy with the name. In fact I’m proud of it. I do jump back and forth between risk and strategy as lenses to use on companies’ business problems, so some days I do wish I had chosen a name that focused less on the word “Risk” and put “Strategy” or “Uncertainty” more to the fore. But I also fully realize that had I done that, on other days I’d regret de-emphasizing “Risk”!

Advice for others:

Especially when you’re starting, your name is your calling card. It demonstrates what you do, shows your focus (and that you ARE focused) and sets the tone. Therefore, don’t treat naming as an isolated question, a separate item on your “getting started” to-do list. Treat it as an integral part of defining who you serve, how, and why.