Thursday, January 31, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Review in THE HINDU NEWS
http://www.hinduonnet.com/holnus/006200801270343.htm
Business
Don’t wipe out divergence
By D. Murali
This is ‘the Age of Identity’ proclaim Hamid Bouchikhi and John R. Kimberly in The Soul of the Corporation (www.crosswordbookstores.com). They find that identity is increasingly problematic across all levels of human organisation, owing to globalisation, M&As (mergers and acquisitions), disruptive innovation, accountability and more.
To respond effectively to these challenges, leaders have to see if they can leverage their identity as an asset. The I*Dimension, as the authors explain, is the set of shared beliefs, both implicit and explicit, that gives the visible elements of the firm coherence and ‘puts boundaries around how much change is possible without altering its essence.’
Just as an individual’s identity can be anchored in gender, nationality, social group, educational credentials, or particular skills, the I*Dimension of an organisation ‘resides in multiple anchors,’ such as core business, knowledge base, operating philosophy, a legendary founder, and a governance structure.
“Leaders who are sensitive to the I*Dimension focus on where and how to drive a company to high convergence among key stakeholders about its essence,” the book states. “As long as identity is in harmony with the firm’s industry and with the wider environment, it is a very effective compass for management.”
But don’t wipe out divergence, Bouchikhi and Kimberly caution. “Extreme convergence in an organisation’s identity brings about narcissism and insulation from the outside world.”
Leaders should therefore strive “to maintain some tension between the two forces to achieve the minimum of consensus without which collective action is impossible, and the minimum of dissent without which change is impossible.”
I*Dimension has both pluses and minuses, the authors find. The positives include loyalty and commitment, cooperation, guidance for problem-solving, recognition, predictability and so on.
And the ‘dark side’ of the dimension has identity conflict (caused by mutually exclusive views of the employees), drift (with a clear and consistent identity progressively losing focus), and fragmentation (arising from individuals and groups identifying more with subunits than with the organisation as a whole).
The authors compare corporate identity change or rebranding to an individual changing his appearance by changing the clothing, makeup, cosmetic surgery or name. In contrast, changing the I*Dimension reaches much deeper, say Bouchikhi and Kimberly.
They note that the substantive levers of identity change are decisions about the firm’s more tangible dimensions. “Among all substantive levers, however, the choice of the chief executive has the highest potential impact on a firm’s identity.”
There are five ingredients of successful identity change, the authors list, as follows: vision, effective communication, consistency, leadership continuity, and luck and positive signals.
You may count yourself lucky if you can lay your hands on the Soul.
http://BookPeek.blogspot.com
Business
Don’t wipe out divergence
By D. Murali
This is ‘the Age of Identity’ proclaim Hamid Bouchikhi and John R. Kimberly in The Soul of the Corporation (www.crosswordbookstores.com). They find that identity is increasingly problematic across all levels of human organisation, owing to globalisation, M&As (mergers and acquisitions), disruptive innovation, accountability and more.
To respond effectively to these challenges, leaders have to see if they can leverage their identity as an asset. The I*Dimension, as the authors explain, is the set of shared beliefs, both implicit and explicit, that gives the visible elements of the firm coherence and ‘puts boundaries around how much change is possible without altering its essence.’
Just as an individual’s identity can be anchored in gender, nationality, social group, educational credentials, or particular skills, the I*Dimension of an organisation ‘resides in multiple anchors,’ such as core business, knowledge base, operating philosophy, a legendary founder, and a governance structure.
“Leaders who are sensitive to the I*Dimension focus on where and how to drive a company to high convergence among key stakeholders about its essence,” the book states. “As long as identity is in harmony with the firm’s industry and with the wider environment, it is a very effective compass for management.”
But don’t wipe out divergence, Bouchikhi and Kimberly caution. “Extreme convergence in an organisation’s identity brings about narcissism and insulation from the outside world.”
Leaders should therefore strive “to maintain some tension between the two forces to achieve the minimum of consensus without which collective action is impossible, and the minimum of dissent without which change is impossible.”
I*Dimension has both pluses and minuses, the authors find. The positives include loyalty and commitment, cooperation, guidance for problem-solving, recognition, predictability and so on.
And the ‘dark side’ of the dimension has identity conflict (caused by mutually exclusive views of the employees), drift (with a clear and consistent identity progressively losing focus), and fragmentation (arising from individuals and groups identifying more with subunits than with the organisation as a whole).
The authors compare corporate identity change or rebranding to an individual changing his appearance by changing the clothing, makeup, cosmetic surgery or name. In contrast, changing the I*Dimension reaches much deeper, say Bouchikhi and Kimberly.
They note that the substantive levers of identity change are decisions about the firm’s more tangible dimensions. “Among all substantive levers, however, the choice of the chief executive has the highest potential impact on a firm’s identity.”
There are five ingredients of successful identity change, the authors list, as follows: vision, effective communication, consistency, leadership continuity, and luck and positive signals.
You may count yourself lucky if you can lay your hands on the Soul.
http://BookPeek.blogspot.com
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The Soul of The Corporation on the Handelsblatt.com
http://www.handelsblatt.com/news/_pv/_p/205261/_t/ft/_b/1379088/default.aspx/
„The soul of the corporation: How to manage the identity of your company?“ von Hamid Bouchikhi und John R. Kimberley, Professoren an der Essec Business School, beschreibt systematische Ansätze zur Schaffung eines Firmenimages. An Hand zahlreicher Beispiele zeigt das Buch, dass Identität zum Trumpf, aber auch zum Nachteil für ein Unternehmen werden kann, falls diese nicht richtig gemanagt wird.
„Moral Foundations of Management Knowledge“ enthält 12 Beiträge zu den moralischen Grundlagen der Betriebswirtschaftslehre. Das Buch geht zahlreichen Fragestellungen nach: Wie lautet die Definition von „gutem Benehmen“ im Gegensatz zu „schlechtem Benehmen“ in den Managementtheorien? Welche Vorstellungen von der menschlichen Natur und der sozialen Realität prägen die modernen Managementtheorien?
Das Werk wurde im Anschluss an ein internationales Seminar realisiert. „Das Buch verdeutlicht den humanistischen Ansatz an der Essec Business School zur ethischen und verantwortungsbewussten Verankerung von Management“, kommentiert Marie-Laure Djelic, Professorin an der Essec Business School und Koautorin des Buchs.
In „La médiation, modes d’emploi“ erklären Alain Pékar-Lempereur, Professor an der Essec Business School und Direktor des Institut de recherche et d’enseignement sur la négociation en Europe (Iréné) und seine Koautoren, wie Schlichtung, das heißt, die gütliche Einigung in Konfliktfällen, in Beruf und Alltag funktioniert. Anhand von konkreten Beispielen weisen sie ihren Erfolg und dessen Grenzen nach. Die verschiedenen Schlichtungsarten werden vorgestellt und interpretiert.
Die Bücher sind auf Anfrage erhältlich.
„The soul of the corporation: How to manage the identity of your company?“ von Hamid Bouchikhi und John R. Kimberley, Professoren an der Essec Business School, beschreibt systematische Ansätze zur Schaffung eines Firmenimages. An Hand zahlreicher Beispiele zeigt das Buch, dass Identität zum Trumpf, aber auch zum Nachteil für ein Unternehmen werden kann, falls diese nicht richtig gemanagt wird.
„Moral Foundations of Management Knowledge“ enthält 12 Beiträge zu den moralischen Grundlagen der Betriebswirtschaftslehre. Das Buch geht zahlreichen Fragestellungen nach: Wie lautet die Definition von „gutem Benehmen“ im Gegensatz zu „schlechtem Benehmen“ in den Managementtheorien? Welche Vorstellungen von der menschlichen Natur und der sozialen Realität prägen die modernen Managementtheorien?
Das Werk wurde im Anschluss an ein internationales Seminar realisiert. „Das Buch verdeutlicht den humanistischen Ansatz an der Essec Business School zur ethischen und verantwortungsbewussten Verankerung von Management“, kommentiert Marie-Laure Djelic, Professorin an der Essec Business School und Koautorin des Buchs.
In „La médiation, modes d’emploi“ erklären Alain Pékar-Lempereur, Professor an der Essec Business School und Direktor des Institut de recherche et d’enseignement sur la négociation en Europe (Iréné) und seine Koautoren, wie Schlichtung, das heißt, die gütliche Einigung in Konfliktfällen, in Beruf und Alltag funktioniert. Anhand von konkreten Beispielen weisen sie ihren Erfolg und dessen Grenzen nach. Die verschiedenen Schlichtungsarten werden vorgestellt und interpretiert.
Die Bücher sind auf Anfrage erhältlich.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Review by Donald Mitchell
What Does a Company Stand for in Peoples' Minds?, January 21, 2008
By
Donald Mitchell "Adventures of an Optimist Au... (founder of the 400 Year Project to demonstrate how to make improvements 20 times faster -- www.fastforward400.com -- in Boston)
See all my reviews
For centuries, corporations have been treated as "fictitious persons" for legal purposes. Since the mid-20th century, academics have been interested in "corporate culture" and how that influenced performance by employees. In the late 20th century, people began to write books about the customer, employee, and stakeholder benefits of companies standing for accomplishing something more than making a profit . . . citing firms like Timberland, Ben and Jerry's, Starbucks, and other consumer products and services firms. With The Soul of the Corporation, identity is separated from reality to explore as a central manifestation of these and other effects on living, breathing people who are somehow affected or influenced by corporations. The concept is encapsulated into something called The I*Dimension which is the cumulative effect of shared values and beliefs; structures, systems, and policies; ownership mode and governance structure; goals and strategies; products and technologies; and people characteristics and skills feeding back into shared values and beliefs again. Is it real or is it an academic concept? My experience suggests it is real. When I start working with a new client company, I interview the leaders I will be working with to see what the shared values and beliefs are. I always find a very strong core of those values and beliefs . . . as well as assumptions about the world and the future. Usually, the leadership team is unaware of this consensus because these areas aren't much talked about. When you do surveys of customer and potential customer perceptions, there is usually a strong identity among the customers that's different from the non-customers. And on it goes. This is the first book I've read about identifying, managing, and improving identity as opposed to the company's purpose. I thought it was a useful addition to the literature with its examples and paradigm. I suspect that an in-depth study of how one company changed all of the elements will be needed before the field will seem very meaty. I hope the authors will have a chance to explore such a situation and report on it to us.
By
Donald Mitchell "Adventures of an Optimist Au... (founder of the 400 Year Project to demonstrate how to make improvements 20 times faster -- www.fastforward400.com -- in Boston)
See all my reviews
For centuries, corporations have been treated as "fictitious persons" for legal purposes. Since the mid-20th century, academics have been interested in "corporate culture" and how that influenced performance by employees. In the late 20th century, people began to write books about the customer, employee, and stakeholder benefits of companies standing for accomplishing something more than making a profit . . . citing firms like Timberland, Ben and Jerry's, Starbucks, and other consumer products and services firms. With The Soul of the Corporation, identity is separated from reality to explore as a central manifestation of these and other effects on living, breathing people who are somehow affected or influenced by corporations. The concept is encapsulated into something called The I*Dimension which is the cumulative effect of shared values and beliefs; structures, systems, and policies; ownership mode and governance structure; goals and strategies; products and technologies; and people characteristics and skills feeding back into shared values and beliefs again. Is it real or is it an academic concept? My experience suggests it is real. When I start working with a new client company, I interview the leaders I will be working with to see what the shared values and beliefs are. I always find a very strong core of those values and beliefs . . . as well as assumptions about the world and the future. Usually, the leadership team is unaware of this consensus because these areas aren't much talked about. When you do surveys of customer and potential customer perceptions, there is usually a strong identity among the customers that's different from the non-customers. And on it goes. This is the first book I've read about identifying, managing, and improving identity as opposed to the company's purpose. I thought it was a useful addition to the literature with its examples and paradigm. I suspect that an in-depth study of how one company changed all of the elements will be needed before the field will seem very meaty. I hope the authors will have a chance to explore such a situation and report on it to us.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Comment from SignatureStrategies.com
http://signaturestrategies.com/branding_strategies/is-there-a-difference-between-corporate-identity-and-corporate-brand/#more-24
Is there a difference between corporate identity and corporate brand?
December 14th, 2007 · 1 Comment
This question is addressed in a new book, Soul of the Corporation: How to Manage the Identity of Your Company. It was written by two academics, John Kimberly of University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Hamid Bouchikhi, a professor at International Business School in Eurpoe (ESSEC).
An interview with author John Kimberly is available at Knowledge@Wharton. But if you don’t have time to go there, here’s my interpretation of his answer to the question: is there a difference between company identity and corporate brand.
The answer: it depends.
Sorry to be wishy-washy, but it really does depend. It has to do with corporate culture, heritage, management, vision, mission, philosophy, structure and drivers. (That’s my opinion, not necessarily John Kimberly’s.)
Examples:
In France, since all McDonald employees, execs on down, are French, and since they only buy French ingredients, is the image/identity French, American or global?
A Chinese company called TCL is the largest TV maker in the world, yet it only sells through marketers worldwide by the brands of the marketers – RCA is one of them. So does TCL have an identity? It surely does foe TV marketers, it sure doesn’t for TV consumers.
Last example: Johnson & Johnson has a strong corporate identity which it has acquired through its products while their products have acquired an identity from the company. Yet Johnson & Johnson also have product lines distinct from the corporate identity, mostly acquisitions they have let alone as far as brand association, management and operations.
Two things the interview left me thinking were: 1) identity can be elusive but is terribly important to structure in any company, and 2) identity is a strategic issue that should be on the agendas of executive board meetings.
Is there a difference between corporate identity and corporate brand?
December 14th, 2007 · 1 Comment
This question is addressed in a new book, Soul of the Corporation: How to Manage the Identity of Your Company. It was written by two academics, John Kimberly of University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Hamid Bouchikhi, a professor at International Business School in Eurpoe (ESSEC).
An interview with author John Kimberly is available at Knowledge@Wharton. But if you don’t have time to go there, here’s my interpretation of his answer to the question: is there a difference between company identity and corporate brand.
The answer: it depends.
Sorry to be wishy-washy, but it really does depend. It has to do with corporate culture, heritage, management, vision, mission, philosophy, structure and drivers. (That’s my opinion, not necessarily John Kimberly’s.)
Examples:
In France, since all McDonald employees, execs on down, are French, and since they only buy French ingredients, is the image/identity French, American or global?
A Chinese company called TCL is the largest TV maker in the world, yet it only sells through marketers worldwide by the brands of the marketers – RCA is one of them. So does TCL have an identity? It surely does foe TV marketers, it sure doesn’t for TV consumers.
Last example: Johnson & Johnson has a strong corporate identity which it has acquired through its products while their products have acquired an identity from the company. Yet Johnson & Johnson also have product lines distinct from the corporate identity, mostly acquisitions they have let alone as far as brand association, management and operations.
Two things the interview left me thinking were: 1) identity can be elusive but is terribly important to structure in any company, and 2) identity is a strategic issue that should be on the agendas of executive board meetings.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Review at Amazon.com by Charles Ashbacher
Read it because corporations do indeed "have personality", November 5, 2007
By http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1S3C5OFU508P3/ref=cm_cr_dp_pdp (Marion, Iowa United States(cashbacher@yahoo.com)) -
The claim that a corporation has a soul is one that many commentators and capitalist watchers will consider absurd to the point of stupidity. In their minds, a corporation is a callous non-entity, given legal rights but existing only to further its' own economic advancement by whatever means. While true to a large extent, the cynical exploitative actions of the leaders of Enron are the prime example; many corporations do have a collective identity with a moral compass. It is the expression of that moral compass that is the purpose of this book. Many founders of corporate organizations did so because they truly had a vision for what they wanted to do, and that vision was positive. Corporations have been formed where the goal was to heal the sick, produce food that was cheap enough so that formerly hungry people could eat and to make other positive changes in the world that would benefit all. The early workers joined those companies believing that what they were doing mattered more than simply bringing home a paycheck where the numbers were bigger than they could get elsewhere. This book is about those companies and others where there is a common and somewhat noble purpose to what the company does. It is also about the collective personality that a company can take on early and over time and how new blood can come in and believe that they can change it into something that it has not been before. While the new management sometimes is able to make the changes, in many cases they find that the end result is early success and then a greater disaster than if they had never set foot in the door. The authors refer to the collective soul of a company as I*Dimension, and they list several case histories where they describe the I*Dimension of a particular company and how that feature has successfully been altered by persons or altered those who tried to alter it. In their hands, it is not some mystical entity, hard to define but easy to "see." As the authors relate it, I*Dimension is the expression of a personality, which like living personalities can be a formidable force for positive or negative change. Managing that personality correctly can lead to a dynamic and growing company; but if it is mismanaged, a company can grow just as dysfunctional as the most disturbed human psyche. Crowd psychology is a well-known and heavily studied phenomenon. However, when the crowd is composed of the people who work for a corporation, much less is known. In this book, the authors trek into that unknown arena and conclude that distinct personalities can emerge. Those personalities must be understood and managed if that company is to succeed and reading this book is the first step on that route.
By http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1S3C5OFU508P3/ref=cm_cr_dp_pdp (Marion, Iowa United States(cashbacher@yahoo.com)) -
The claim that a corporation has a soul is one that many commentators and capitalist watchers will consider absurd to the point of stupidity. In their minds, a corporation is a callous non-entity, given legal rights but existing only to further its' own economic advancement by whatever means. While true to a large extent, the cynical exploitative actions of the leaders of Enron are the prime example; many corporations do have a collective identity with a moral compass. It is the expression of that moral compass that is the purpose of this book. Many founders of corporate organizations did so because they truly had a vision for what they wanted to do, and that vision was positive. Corporations have been formed where the goal was to heal the sick, produce food that was cheap enough so that formerly hungry people could eat and to make other positive changes in the world that would benefit all. The early workers joined those companies believing that what they were doing mattered more than simply bringing home a paycheck where the numbers were bigger than they could get elsewhere. This book is about those companies and others where there is a common and somewhat noble purpose to what the company does. It is also about the collective personality that a company can take on early and over time and how new blood can come in and believe that they can change it into something that it has not been before. While the new management sometimes is able to make the changes, in many cases they find that the end result is early success and then a greater disaster than if they had never set foot in the door. The authors refer to the collective soul of a company as I*Dimension, and they list several case histories where they describe the I*Dimension of a particular company and how that feature has successfully been altered by persons or altered those who tried to alter it. In their hands, it is not some mystical entity, hard to define but easy to "see." As the authors relate it, I*Dimension is the expression of a personality, which like living personalities can be a formidable force for positive or negative change. Managing that personality correctly can lead to a dynamic and growing company; but if it is mismanaged, a company can grow just as dysfunctional as the most disturbed human psyche. Crowd psychology is a well-known and heavily studied phenomenon. However, when the crowd is composed of the people who work for a corporation, much less is known. In this book, the authors trek into that unknown arena and conclude that distinct personalities can emerge. Those personalities must be understood and managed if that company is to succeed and reading this book is the first step on that route.
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