Page 84 - Corporate Communication

Cornelissen-03.qxd 10/9/2004 9:04 AM Page 73

Stakeholders, Identity and Reputation 73

and monolithic identity structures, and thus towards a strategy that puts the corporate
identity and badge on all of their products. Companies that were branded giants
before, such as Procter & Gamble, SmithKlineBeecham and Kingfisher, are moving
in the direction of Disney, Microsoft and Sony in having a single umbrella identity
that casts one glow over a panoply of products. In recent years, corporate identities
have become enormously valuable assets – companies with strong corporate identities,
and the reputations associated with this, can have market values that are more than
31
twice their book values – and can save money as marketing and communications
campaigns can be leveraged across the company.
Perhaps because of these reasons, the above-mentioned companies as well as
others around the world have realized the value of having a strong and distinctive
corporate identity, and have recognized that they need to look inside the company
for values and ideologies of the organizational identity that provide the basis for it
and truly set the company apart. Unfortunately, this recognition and interest has not
always been matched with action. Many companies, both large and small, often have
not given enough care to articulating their unique and distinctive values, and have
easily fashioned value statements for convenience or because of short-term thinking.
British Airways, for instance, tried to make cosmopolitanism part of its identity,
expressing the diversity of routes and communities it serves in the decoration of its
planes’tail fins.British Airways obviously did not live the touchy-feely,eclectic,multi-
cultural ethos communicated in the designs, as it was not carried and appreciated by
staff, let alone its customers.

Drawing out the organizational identity and corporate identity

As a result of this sluggishness, as in the case of British Airways, many values state-
ments that are meant to capture the organizational identity of the company in
question end up being bland, toothless or just plain dishonest. This happens when
companies view a values initiative in the same way they view a marketing launch: a
one-time event measured by the initial attention it receives, not the authenticity of its
content.The empty or too generic values statements that this produces may create
cynical and dispirited employees, alienate customers, undermine managerial credibility
and, most importantly, do not set the company apart from its nearest rivals in the eyes
32
of important stakeholder groups. In fact, 55 per cent of all Fortune 500 companies
claim integrity is a core value,49 per cent espouse customer satisfaction and 40 per cent
tout teamwork.While these are inarguably good qualities, such terms hardly provide
a distinct blueprint for employee behaviour; nor is it likely to set a company apart.
Box 3.3 takes a closer look at corporate identities of banks, and discusses what values
banks express in their quest for customers and the general appreciation of stakeholders.
Managers need to open the dialogue about values and attributes of the organiza-
33
tion with staff and discuss them systematically and concretely. Generic professional
values do matter, and form the bedrock of every professional organization. Generic
values like technological innovation, customer care and ethical conduct are in fact
essential for conveying an image of the organization to all stakeholders, including
employees, that the organization is financially solid, socially engaging, ecologically
sound in its business practices, and so on. But over and above such generic values,