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Stakeholders, Identity and Reputation 75

The values that the Citigroup organization projects under the Citigroup heading are that
it aspires and claims to be ‘the leader in global financial services’ and ‘one of the great
companies in the world’ that is known for ‘the highest standards of moral and ethical
conduct’, its great staff, and its customer orientation and excellent service.
While Citigroup in fact enjoys a solid reputation for its strategy and business
(coming in at number six in the 2003 Fortune 500 ranking of the world’s largest
firms), it is questionable whether it enjoys this high distinction for the values that it
extols (and this might in fact rather be the result of smooth marketing and the
market capitalization of its business). Other banks such as BNP-Paribas profess exactly
the same values, and equally claim that these are unique, distinct in comparison to
other banks and inspiring. BNP-Paribas, based in Paris, defines itself as a ‘bank for a
changing world’ (with ‘change’ and ‘global’ being incorporated in its logo of stars
circling around the name BNP-Paribas) and communicates the values of ‘customer orien-
tation’, ‘service and value creation’, and ‘technological and financial innovation’.
The picture is repeated across the banking sector all over the world. ABN-Amro,
a global market player headquartered in Amsterdam, frames its identity with the
central corporate values of ‘integrity’, ‘teamwork’, ‘professionalism’ and ‘respect’, and
aims to instil an image with its employees and external stakeholders of a bank that
is professional, caring, accountable and strives for excellence in value creation and
service. The Bank’s logo designed by Landor Associates (London) consists of a symbol
(shield) plus the logotype ABN-Amro and is meant to represent this professionalism,
reliability and service excellence.
An interesting twist is that ABN-Amro decided to frame its corporate identity by
using these generic professional values a couple of years ago when the new bank
emerged from a merger between Algemene Bank Nederland (ABN) and the
Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank (Amro Bank). The Dutch government was very suppor-
tive of the merger at the time, as it was keen to have a world-class bank to compete
on the world stage with the likes of Deutsche Bank. The government owned the rights
to the name ‘Holland Bank’ and had offered the directors of the newly merged Bank
the opportunity to call their new company by this name. With this name, the new
Bank would be unequivocally Dutch, and would have an identity (relating to Dutch
history and Dutch values) that would give it a distinctive edge in the financial market-
place. Yet, the directors of ABN and Amro considered the offer but declined in favour
of the ABN-Amro acronym and decided to infuse the newly merged Bank with a set
of generic professional values for framing and communicating their identity instead.

Questions for reflection

1. What can you say about the projected corporate identity of each of these banks?
Is each corporate identity authentic, distinct and truly differentiating? And are
corporate values sufficiently carried through in business principles, as well as
logos, communications, employee behaviour and products and services?
2. What would be the added value if banks would really distinguish themselves
from one another by positioning themselves with their own distinctive identity?
And is it at all possible within the banking sector for organizations to have their
own distinctive values stand out when the market appreciates general profes-
sional values and service excellence?
3. To what extent does the situation of the banking sector transfer to other business
sectors (e.g. consumer goods, oils, manufacturing, retail, etc.)?