Question: When is a business NOT a business?
Answer: When it doesn't know what it is..
The world's most successful and enduring companies have been just that largely due to a belief and understanding of the 'identity' and 'culture' of their organizations. Someone in the broadcast TV industry instinctively 'knows' when they meet a Sony employee, likewise those in the software industry never fail to recognize a Microsoft employee. But why and what for?
That sense of identity and culture runs right through their relative organizations - and it is central to what enables them to ensure that all employees are walking together - and in the same direction.
The role of Executive Mentoring is in defining the corporate identity and in developing corporate culture.
The success of a business enterprise derives from its products/services, backed by its:
- Economic power
- Moral behavior
- Aesthetic projection of its image
- The power of its image
- The power of its culture
• Before a corporate 'culture' is developed within an organization, there needs to be a thorough comprehension of its 'identity'.
• Controlling the corporate identity can be the single most powerful influence on the corporate culture.
Most companies evolve an identity naturally, or 'organically'; the identity develops intuitively as the company itself grows.
Often it is the manifestation of the personality of the founder, and it bears his/her 'name' or 'imprint'.
A word of caution is that often, when a business expands, the organization's 'identity' gets out of step with reality. In this case, a review and re-assessment is required in order to catch-up with today's reality (rather than yesterday's memory).
Other advantages of a strong corporate identity:
• Strong corporate identity helps the company to differentiate itself
• When the founder has started to delegate and is no longer 'alone', that identity evolves into a team culture or a corporate culture
• The increasing practice of issuing stock and stock options to all ranks within an organization has resulted in employees being more responsible, and acting and thinking more like their owners. This is an 'organic' form of creating corporate culture.
• And finally - your employees. They are the MOST valuable assets in your organization, so let them buy-into the corporate culture. It results in smoother and more effective working environments, and by keeping them on your side, this results in the clear business advantage of saving time, saving costs and improving productivity.
Identity & Culture Assessment
An essential part of what we do at Matmon regarding corporate culture and identity is that of assisting you in evaluating where you currently are with your existing culture and identity.
- It is critical to find out who you really are as well as who you are striving to be
- It provides measurable data about the real and current values and norms
- It measure how near (or far off) the mark things actually are
- It assesses whether management is practising what it preaches
- It helps the executive to fine-tune the emerged identity
- And it assists in developing a new and up-to-date culture within the organization