I have being a practitioner in the area of Corporate and Business Unit strategy for about two decades. If I have to isolate two or three concepts which I believe to be fundamental in the design of a winning strategy, the idea of Corporate Identity would be one of them.
I am glad to share some of what I learned with the readers of this blog.
As he was strolling through the streets of Vienna, on a mild afternoon in late summer, philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer began contemplating the concept of Identity on mankind.
Such was by the complexity of the issue, he lost consciousness of his surroundings; without notice, the famed philosopher rested his walk by the gate of a beautiful villa at the outskirts of the city.
Schopenhauer kept thinking, trying to find an answer to the Identity of man, knowing implicitly that the answer to that matter would open the door to the solution of Man’s purpose and mission in life. So taken he was by his thoughts, that time went by, and went by, without him noticing. The owners of the villa had noticed the austere man by their gate, and were bewildered by his behaviour: deep in introspection, not moving. After several hours, they were still hesitating in approaching the curious figure. Worried by his weird behaviour, they decided to ask the help of the local police. Schopenhauer was oblivious to the commotion he was creating. In fact, he was still immersed in his philosophy as the Police officer approached him with caution, and a firm question: “Who are you?” the guard asked. And Schopenhauer, still contemplating the riddle of identity, answered with a deep sigh: “If I only knew!”
This anecdote illustrates the power of the concept of one’s identity, which has often been central to the understanding of what people are and what they are about. It has been debated for century, leading to a better understanding of human nature and its potential.
It is the fundamental thesis of this paper that the concept of Identity is also important in defining the nature of a company. Identity is central to a company strategy, its brand, its core competencies and its future. This essay is not however philosophical in nature; rather, I will try to illustrate through concrete example and the support of business research how a well defined Identity can help an enterprise design a stronger strategy, support a resilient corporate culture and link the reality of a market to the role a company wishes to play in it.
Managing corporate identity can be a powerful strategic tool for executives.
The definition, understanding and sharing of a firm’s identity can support a higher degree of cohesion between its external perception (brand) and its internal beliefs and motivation (culture). More importantly, thinking and redefining the concept of identity can help a company formulate a strategy in times when change is needed. Identity can be the pivotal concept upon which a new strategy is designed, and fill the transition between the assessment of the reality of the market (fact base) and the reality it wishes to define for its future (strategy).
Most companies already adopt visions and mission statements to define or test the appropriateness of their course of action. The concept of corporate identity, however, differs from both vision and mission. Vision is a statement about future intentions, mission statement describe what a company sets out to achieve. None of these notions describes what a company fundamentally is: that is the realm of Corporate Identity.
Several of these concepts might be already well known and understood by our clients. The approach we designed at Crescendo Partners is designed to clarify why Identity can be such a powerful, practical concept to adopt and supplement other methods used to design a corporate strategy. In our projects we also offer suggestions on how to define an appropriate identity for an entity, using case examples where this methodology has been applied successfully.
Indeed, thanks to the privilege of having been involved in several fundamental corporate strategy projects, our teams have been able to observe many cases of transition between strategies, leading us to redefine the concept of identity first hand; over time, especially with the support of our clients, we have been able to codify part of our learnings, and not only observe the power of Corporate Identity, but to help our clients identify and shape it themselves.