Cummins has published another syrupy people story, this time featuring Derrick O. Nearly two decades in the trenches, keeping critical kit alive. Derrick is the real deal. Cummins is the parasite on the story.
Derrick Is Not The Target
Let’s get this straight before the corporate pearl clutching starts. Derrick is not the problem. Derrick is a skilled technician doing hard work that actually matters.
The problem is Cummins taking a decent bloke and using him like a clean tea towel to wipe grease off a dirty badge.
Purpose As PR Mouthwash
The headline is pure boardroom incense: “Driven by Curiosity, Powered by Purpose”.
It reads like a TED Talk wrote a Valentine’s card. The purpose is not to celebrate a technician. The purpose is to make the reader feel warm, safe, and obedient. Like Cummins is your mate, your neighbour, your favourite uncle with a toolbox.
It’s brand mouthwash. Minty. Fresh. Designed to hide the stench.
Hospitals, Data Centres, And Emotional Hostages
They roll out the holy list: hospitals, emergency response, communities going dark, data centres.
Classic manoeuvre. Tie the brand to life support infrastructure and dare anyone to criticise you without sounding like a cartoon villain.
It’s emotional hostage taking. It’s also fucking cowardly.
You can respect technicians and still hold the company to account. In fact you should.
“Do The Right Thing” Says A Company That Hates Being Watched
The most shameless bit is the moral sermon. Derrick talks about being dependable and doing the right thing even when no one’s watching.
That line is beautiful from a worker. It’s poisonous in a Cummins newsroom post. Because Cummins loves the idea of nobody watching. That’s when corporations get brave.
When the cameras turn on, they don’t preach. They lawyer up. They rephrase. They gaslight. They call it heritage and hope you look away.
Training, Values, Friendship, And Other Soft Padding
You can see the scaffolding: training, certifications, good people, doors opening, flexibility, pride, mentorship.
All true for Derrick, maybe. But for Cummins this is soft padding around a hard object. It’s bubble wrap for the brand.
You don’t fix a reputation with a human interest profile. You just hide the bruises under a clean shirt and hope the room is dim enough.
Template Laundering, Not Storytelling
This is the same Cummins people story engine, again and again.
Humble start. Curiosity. Graft. Meaning. Community. “Just getting started”.
It’s not storytelling. It’s template laundering. A corporate rinse cycle where the grime stays in place but the water looks clean.
The Shop Floor Deserves Respect, The Badge Deserves Daylight
Derrick keeps engines running. He keeps customers moving. He keeps the real world upright.
Cummins wants you to look at that and forget everything else. That is the con. Borrow the decency of the shop floor so the boardroom can keep its hands clean.
Respect to Derrick. No mercy for the comms machine using him as a sponge.
Cummins can keep publishing these glossy little morality plays. I’ll keep doing what Cummins hates most.
Looking past the smile.
Keeping the record in view.
If Cummins really believed its own sermon about “doing the right thing when nobody’s watching”, it wouldn’t need to borrow Derrick’s halo in the first place.
Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project