As I consult to Executives, CEO’s and Senior Managers, without fail we will ultimately start talking about a problem that at some point the question of “Why…?”, “Why are you doing that thing that costs so much time?”, “Why, are you accepting that commercial arrangement..?” “Why are you losing money over there and making a fortune over there?”
\nWhat I have found time and time again, is that companies that don’t understand their “Why” do all sorts of things that takes their focus away from that is there intrinsic “Why” and costs them a fortune, their jobs or their companies.
\nI hope to show you here, how understanding and knowing your WHY is just sooooo important for you to lead and succeed in your business.
\nYour Why is a huge part of your Identity, Don’t believe me…..?<\/p>\n
Corporate identity goes deeper than simply having a logo design updated, or hiring an agency to create a snappy tagline and ad campaign. Organizations can achieve their full potential by living according to their true identity. The core values create a corporate identity that every individual in the organization should believe in and stand up for. A logo design may be updated with every passing trend, but core values and practices are timeless and transcend the organization.<\/p>\n
Organizations that are rudderless, or going in every direction the wind blows, need to seriously rethink their core identity. This means you are in business because of something deeper than profit. If you don\u2019t stand for something, you will fall for anything. Leaders need to recognize corporate identity has a lot to do with your company values and everyday practice, more than the hip new brand image.<\/p>\n
Drawing on years of experience consulting for a wide range of clients such as Fidelity Investments, Maytag and Alcoa, Laurence Ackerman shares how these organizations developed their potential to the fullest, with fresh ideas and concrete strategies for maximizing value-creating potential.<\/p>\n
I am alive. I am unique. I am immutable, even as I grow and evolve. To truly live, I must express myself fully, and in this regard have much to give. To do so I need others, and am most productive with those who need me in return. To establish these relationships, I must first be recognized for who I am, and it follows then that I will receive in accordance with what I give.<\/em><\/p>\n Any organization composed of one or more human beings is alive in its own right, exhibiting distinct physical, mental, and emotional capacities that derive from, but transcend, the individuals who make up that organization over time.<\/p>\n An organization\u2019s human capacities invariably fuse into a discernible identity that makes that organization unique.<\/p>\n Identity is fixed, transcending time and place, while its manifestations are constantly changing.<\/p>\n Every organization is compelled by the need to create value in accordance with its identity.<\/p>\n Identity foreshadows potential The individual capacities of an organization are only as valuable as the perceived value of the whole of that organization.<\/p>\n Identity governs value, which produces wealth, which fuels identity.<\/p>\n Mission: To be the best aluminum company in the world. Alcoa was truly alive in the sense that it\u2019s R & D, engineering and marketing arms were humming with energy and life. Alcoa had its heart in a patented process. The company built customer support by effectively \u201cpackaging\u201d information as a means of establishing authority in the field of aluminum. Enter an Alcoa client\u2019s office and you see shelves filled with a library of customer education materials. Alcoa\u2019s identity action plan was basically diversification and decentralization.<\/p>\n In essence, companies are alive, and the Law of Being implies that this life can be seen as having several levels.<\/p>\n The Law of Individuality<\/strong> Here the author faced an executive search firm that was searching for it\u2019s own identity. He discovered that the dominant identity was that of its leadership in the form of Richard Ferry, and for the company to make the transition to Korn\/Ferry would require:<\/p>\n The Seven Enduring Qualities of Korn\/Ferry were the ff:<\/p>\n The last quality was important in that it was an executive search company that served not only top CEO\u2019s, and top-level management, but mid-level managers as well. (Now known as Pharmacia & Upjohn) The Upjohn mission was to help mankind through health care. The company was founded on the art and science of healing with the three pillars of diagnosis, prescription, and medicine administration. The strong physician-patient bond, education-oriented environment, and people- oriented company had a unique marketing program called MSL or medical science liaisons, or field doctors. Value creation at Upjohn replicated the healing process on a grand scale. The shared aspects of all the different units within the Westinghouse AIS were:<\/p>\n Westinghouse AIS was also characteristically known for its SWAT team-like action, or ability to take on jobs at short notice. AIS was into customization and integrated technical services \u201dBefore you can be comfortable with others, you must first be comfortable with yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n From value creation to value circle: \u201cDon\u2019t just change names, logotypes, and mission statements; change the way employees live and work.\u201d<\/p>\n A merger of a century-old French beer with another brand that would leave workers in the dark about their own identity. Ergo: Interbrew would celebrate people\u2019s thirst for life. The Law of Comprehension speaks to one\u2019s need to see something in its entirety, to \u201cget it\u201d and experience it. If employees were going to live what it meant to be Interbrew, to celebrate people\u2019s thirst for life, they needed to work and live accordingly. Identity crisis: What would happen to generations-old families of workers when the Magic Chef name changes to Maytag? As much as identity-based management is about giving, it is also about receiving. This is a central message of the Law of the Cycle. Living according to identity is not an altruistic act. It demands wealth in return for value. One must be paid. As I consult to Executives, CEO’s and Senior Managers, without fail we will ultimately start talking about a problem that at some point the question of “Why…?”, “Why are you doing that thing that costs so much time?”, “Why, are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10,5,6,2,17,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-improvement","category-business-leadership","category-change-management","category-leadership","category-leading-people","category-master-class","category-people-and-culture","clearfix"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Eight Laws of the Identity Credo<\/h1>\n
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\nThe Law of Relationship To do so I need others, and am most productive with those who need me in <\/em>
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\nOrganizations are inherently relational, and those relationships are only as strong as the natural alignment between the identities of the participants.<\/p>\n\n
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The Law of Being<\/h1>\n
Case in point: ALCOA<\/h2>\n
\nBackground: In the midst of diversification, the company simultaneously sought a return to its core identity – that of an outstanding aluminum company – a leader in its industry.
\nLesson: No company that aspires to lead its market or industry can hope to do so without a mission that ties it\u2019s own welfare to that of the society\u2019s.
\nCommunicating this mission fires up employees, giving them the passion for their work, the meaning that transcends mere profit.
\nHow to strip away the layers to reveal Alcoa\u2019s true identity:
\nFrom reading between the lines of executive speeches, existing company literature, to probing corporate history, this author conducted in-depth interviews and analysis to find out what makes Alcoa what it is.
\nHow to see 55,000 employees as one individual with unique skills and capabilities was another question.<\/p>\nThe unbearable lightness of \u2018being\u2019<\/h2>\n
\nThis author realized that the transformations needed for Alcoa people to be more receptive to change were technological, product-oriented, market-oriented, and societal.<\/p>\nValue flows upstream.<\/h2>\n
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A view to leadership<\/h2>\n
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\u201cAll of us also have the capacity to know our own potential \u2013 to live <\/em>rather than merely exist.\u201d<\/h2>\n
\nLive according to who you are. Think of this as a test of self-knowledge. Case in point: Fidelity Investments
\nTwo rooms. One is Ned Johnson\u2019s elegant executive suite full of antique furniture and oriental
\ncarpets, the other is the functional chart room where walls are papered with printouts of Dow Jones averages, s & p\u2019s and statistics that are the business world\u2019s equivalent to Morse code.
\nThese two rooms were a representation of Fidelity\u2019s identity: clinical accuracy alongside symbols of prosperity, rational thinking alongside timeless beauty, and the tension between the two rooms was where the Fidelity identity could be found.
\nIt could be outlined in private ownership as a passport to freedom, the focus on innovation and invention, empowerment through personal judgment, and an organic cellular structure unlike other rigid organizational structures.
\nFidelity\u2019s business is celebrating individuality.<\/p>\nIdentity action plan:<\/h2>\n
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The Law of Constancy<\/h1>\n
Case in point: Korn\/Ferry International<\/h2>\n
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\nKorn\/Ferry is about building leadership capital.
\nPartners adopted a new mission for the firm: To help clients acquire leadership capital \u2013 the management asset that set all others into motion. It was a decision that wedded the company\u2019s past and present to its future. In embracing this mission, Korn\/Ferry had observed the Law of Constancy.
\nThe Law of Constancy tells us much about the corporate brand:<\/p>\n\n
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The Law of Will\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Case in point: The Upjohn Company<\/h2>\n
\nThis was a drug company that had its whole identity based on heritage and history, on the invention of the founding physician\u2019s friable pill. The whole essence of the story is that the pill made life easier for patients because it dissolved inside the body. This was a new invention during a time when pills passed undissolved through patient\u2019s bodies.
\nAnother characteristic of the unique Upjohn culture was the status symbol of its employees: a dark brown alligator skin briefcase. It was reminiscent of the style of its founder, W. E. Upjohn. This corporate cultural icon passed down a tradition of \u201cpolite society\u201d where things were left unsaid, but care for people and patients were of the utmost priority.
\nThree things factored into The Upjohn Company\u2019s identity:<\/p>\n\n
\nA pill may have jump-started The Upjohn Company, but the company had always stood for more than just the pill.
\nThe elements of The Upjohn Company:<\/p>\n\n
\nUpjohn was driven by the need to restore and maintain the integrity of human life. This is what made Upjohn special.
\nCourage in the name of integrity is what the Law of Will demands. Unfortunately, the company strategy was too narrowed down to focus on designing, developing, and marketing new drugs, leaving out other areas of health care services, consumer products, and fine chemicals which were performing well. The inevitable merger with Pharmacia in 1995 was a product of the management failing to heed the voice of the organization.
\nIdentity precedes strategy. If strategy, vision, mission, or purpose is to have staying power, then it must flow from identity.
\nThe Law of Possibility <\/strong>Case in point: Westinghouse Advanced Industrial Systems
\nIdentity review:<\/p>\n\n
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\nWestinghouse AIS was distinguished by its passion for the science of industry. Realizing potential
\nUnder the Law of Possibility, the whole of any organization is greater than the sum of its parts. Based on Maslow\u2019s Hierarchy of Human Needs, AIS itself needed to reach the level of self- actualization or its full potential as a living being.
\nThe Law of Possibility has one central aim: to liberate the productive potential inherent in identity, whether an individual\u2019s or a company\u2019s.
\nIdentity provides Direction.
\nBoth human and corporate beings must weigh the risks and rewards of each of the choices that identity offers.
\nIn the end, the AIS unit of Westinghouse was dissolved and pieces spun off or sold, the tragic undoing of an organization\u2019s productive potential.<\/p>\nThe Law of Relationship\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Case in point: New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG)<\/h2>\n
\nValue begins with employees, then to customers, and finally investors who move it back to employees and so forth\u2026
\n\u201cWe most need those who need us in return.\u201d
\nIdentity: NYSEG was distinguished by a need to help people shape their energy environments.
\nIn NYSEG\u2019s case, the natural relationship or connection among all the different business units was brought to the fore through the lens of identity.
\nOrganizations are inherently relational. (Recall how Nike had to reattach itself to the society it employed to meet the demands of that society)
\nFor NYSEG deregulation was the name of the game.<\/p>\nThe Law of Comprehension\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Case in point: Interbrew<\/h2>\n
Identity crisis:<\/h3>\n
\nThe Interbrewed identity would become:<\/p>\n\n
\nValues most appropriate for Interbrew and aligned naturally with the organization\u2019s identity:<\/p>\n\n
\nInterbrew was driven by a need to celebrate a thirst for life.
\nThe Law of Comprehension demands that we take responsibility for letting others know who we are and what we stand for. The first challenge is to be comfortable and at peace with your own identity. Many individuals and companies are unsure of themselves, lacking the confidence to be true to themselves. An organization is only as valuable as it is perceived to be.<\/p>\nThe Law of the Cycle<\/h1>\n
Case in point: Maytag Corporation<\/h2>\n
\nWhat did it mean to be called Maytag? Quality.
\nAll the different operations of Maytag had its respective capacities:
\nFrom Admiral\u2019s specialized engineering skills in refrigerators, to Dixie-Narco\u2019s environmentally friendly refrigeration systems, Hoover\u2019s product design and automation technologies, Jenn-Air\u2019s innovation in cook tops and ovens, Magic Chef\u2019s lower-end stoves and ovens, Maycor\u2019s service know-how, and Maytag\u2019s passion for training.
\nMaytag was good at five things that helped consumers live their lives: cooking, dishwashing, floor care, laundry, and refrigeration.
\nMaytag was a home management enterprise driven by a need to improve the quality of home life.<\/p>\nGetting paid<\/h3>\n
\nUnit sales, revenues, profits are one thing. Reinvestment into Maytag is another. To truly live, Maytag must express itself fully.
\nThe cycle is from Identity to wealth to value back to identity and so forth\u2026
\nObservance of The Law of the Cycle can bring great achievement and wealth if employed as a framework for organizing one\u2019s life or the life of a business. Ignoring it can spell corporate failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"