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Arhiv za oznako »Corporate Recognition«
A small case study of New York based corporations on reporting systems
This case study includes corporations with its headquarters in New York. In the small sample there are corporations like: PEPSICO, Thomson Reuters, WPP, LVMH and others.
It was interesting that in many cases, the LinkedIn proved to be valuable source of the information where are the headquarters of some of the corporations. Like, if I search for our company Vizuarna headquarters, the first result on Google is the Vizuarna’s profile on LinkedIn. Interesting, isn’t it? The same way it is possible to find some other corporations headquarters. And yes. Many of the worlds most known corporations actually have their headquarters in New York. Not necessary in New York City but still.
And after studying the reporting systems of some of the corporations in New York, what have I found out? The most important lesson: all of them have actually a reporting system established. No mistakes. Some have appointed even executives director for investment affairs. What were some of the best features in this reports in my opinion? Three things really to remember:
- first, one of the corporation studied has its interactive annual report made already in 2003. And the reports are published on the web site as way back as in 1999. And everything about the annual report is totally integrated into the site. Really remarkable. Interactive version made rather simple like a flash publication but with good possibilities of printing, mailing and others, be that the whole report or its part by pages.
- second, promise of the annual report, let say some kind of tactical tag-line, a sort or even really a brand promise explained in short and in details. That’s the way to do it. and
- third, the whole annual report presented in a summary. All the chapters are there but everything is in short. Really in short but with all relevant information. What do I really need to know about the income statement? There are really only 2×3 things to know. Revenues (in sales, financial, other) and expenses in the other way (again operations, financial and other) and that’s it. And some make even a summary from the summary. Shorter version of the short version. And that is true for other chapters of the annual report as well. That way it becomes more interesting for larger target groups not only for people who have to read the reports by duty. Enhanced transparency, I would called it.
There are some other things to be mentioned, like sharing possibilities on SlideShare or some reports really followed the line throughout the years. Just like their corporate strategy is to be followed (if successful), so have the annual reports its design consistency.
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About the book from Marty Neumeier: The Designful Company
The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation by Marty Neumeier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Very interesting author. I’m glad I run into this book. Mr. Neumeier writes from the position of somebody who know how to write and who has experience with what he is writing about.
One of the thing that has surprised me a lot was a clear confidence that design management is never to be outsourced. But at the same time many of the design skills should always be outsourced. For me, very useful point.
The second thing. This was not a surprise. Because I could agree more. When companies are growing or if they want to grow, the need a Chief Design Officer or Chief Brand Officer, Chief Innovation Officer, VP of Creativity – you name it. I really couldn’t agree more. I even have a presentation on the subject, its in Slovene, if you understand some, here you’ll find it: http://bit.ly/90yhNC.
Then there are some other things I’m glad I found out. In 1990′s Samsung paid employees in Innovation Design Lab to study in their new building six days a week for a year long. !!! Know they have a 380 company-trained designers that are helping to launch 100 products per year. In Slovenia some academics have proposed that a former textile giant Mura should have around 500 designer but I doubt that the managers are listening.
In the book there is an interesting approach presented to the innovation process, called stage-gate innovation. In four stages it goes from:
- seed money to develop concept,
- small bet to develop strategy,
- medium bet to model and test, and
- large bet to launch in market.
One question with a pretty good answer. How do you get a bunch of independent minded professionals to play nice together? By establishing sensible rules of engagement. Easy to say, harder to put in real life in my opinion.
And then there is a fascinating scheme what should actually CEO-s do. If the want to be visionary leaders they need to managers of stories. The scheme goes into six categories. Really fascinating. And then there is another fascinating scheme. About deep design. It goes from Ideology, Resonance, Emotion, Reason, Perception to Vision, Identity, Culture, Products, Brands. Wow!
Is there anything funny in this book. Yes. If we want to describe the creative process this is something deeper as weeding describes sex. Was that understood? I guess not.
What is third brain thinking. Thinking with logic and inspiration. Design thinking. Simple. Design thinkers tend to be:
- empathetic,
- intuitive,
- imaginative,
- idealistic.
Also future should be designed, not decided. Because difference and design bring together the delight.
And two things to the end. Design is moving from “toasters and posters” to include processes, systems and organizations. And design will force Wall Street to change the rules of investing. Yes, I toast to that.
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A short introduction to the steps of the corporate identity audit
Corporate design is an instrument for transformation and, at the same time, a guarantee of continuing corporate recognition (Van Cauwenberge, 2008). And that could be developed only if the proper corporate identity audit has been made.
A corporate identity audit has been developed in 9 steps. These 9 steps are:
- step 1: select the audit team;
- step 2: asses key elements in the corporate identity;
- step 3: determine who should be interviewed;
- step 4: conduct audit interviews;
- step 5: audit corporate identity factors;
- step 6: summarize salient points;
- step 7: determine the options for change;
- step 8: present the audit results;
- step 9: use the audit data to improve the corporate identity (Ollins and Selame, 2002).
Sources:
- Ollins, Wally and Selame Elinor. 2002. The Corporate Identity Audit. Pearson Education. 130 p.
- Van Cauwenberge, Rennat. 2008. Corporate design instrument for change. In a transition, the corporate design should fit the new mental attitude in de Bruijne A.; P Brandt, Hans; de Boer, Sieds. (ed) 2008. Identity 2.0. Bis Publishers. 229 p.
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What are the laws of corporate design in developing corporate identity? How to approach to corporate design?
There are some proposals from different authors. It seems that the proposals depend from the point of view of the authors. If authors write from the perspective of corporate consultants, then they develop a rough process that uses the business language and it should appeal to the boards of the corporations.
Such a business proposal of a process approach in developing corporate identity or other design fields to gain a competitive advantage usually include different steps:
- articulating the firms competitive strategy;
- design requirements and resources;
- insuring communication among design and other functions;
- the design brief;
- measuring performance (Olson et al., 2000).
It is somehow obvious that designers themselves need some different and more specific information.
The specific and different information could be presented in complex models or could be put in simple laws of corporate design that are the constitution of the corporate identity. In the process of developing the corporate identity, corporate design needs to assure:
- change, but sensible change;
- understanding that design is order, and
- repetition is power.
First law means that corporate design provides the footing, a bridge between the past, present and the future. The second law is about considering the ties that have been forged in cultures and individual minds between images and experiences. And the third law means that corporate is to be integrally and systematically applied to all manifestation of a corporation, be that a sign or annual report. Be that a letterhead or a flag (Van Cauwenberge, 2008).
It is obvious that what is needed is not cosmetic design but the essence of the corporation.
Sources:
- Olson, Eric M. et al. 2000. Managing Design for Competitive Advantage: A Process Approach. Design Management Journal: 11/4, p. 10-17.
- Van Cauwenberge, Rennat. 2008. Corporate design instrument for change. In a transition, the corporate design should fit the new mental attitude in de Bruijne A.; P Brandt, Hans; de Boer, Sieds. (ed) 2008. Identity 2.0. Bis Publishers. 229 p.
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Why is design-aware executive extremely important for any organization?
Because this is the easiest way to infuse an organization with design.
In Slovenia there are 14 corporations among top 500 in Central Europe, according to consulting house Deloitte, data from 2008. These corporations are:
+ Petrol group on the 41st place;
+ Mercator group: 46th place;
+ Gorenje group: 134th place;
+ Merkur group: 143th place;
+ Revoz: 151st place;
+ HSE group: 199th place;
+ Lek: 204th place;
+ Krka group: 208th place;
+ Telekom Slovenije Group: 238th place
+ SIJ: 312nd place;
+ Engrotuš: 330th place;
+ Salbatring: 384th place;
+ Impol at 448th place and
+ Eles at 495th place.
There is no serious research needed to know that in these corporations there is no design or design management profile close to boards or CEO-s. In we take for granted the statement from professor Robert Hayes, Harvard Business School, who few years ago said: “Fifteen years ago, companies competed on price. Today is quality. Tomorrow it’s design.” then we know that tomorrow is today. Design needs to be a continuous process and as such part of any corporate strategy.
How to infuse corporation with design was in a stylized figure below presented already in 1989 by renown authors Dumas and Minztberg. These authors claim that is much more likely to infuse an organization with design via a design champion than via a function per se, because of its informal nature. And although the reality is much more complex this is the main reason why design-aware-executive is so important. In Slovenia we had such a case already in 1960′s when Davorin Savnik was not only the art director but also an influential consultant of general manager of Iskra corporation. And Iskra had in 1970′s 35.000 employees. My guess is that it was much bigger than all the above mentioned corporations. Maybe this is the route to be followed?
Figure: Ways to Manage Design
Source of tge figure: Dumas, Mintzberg, 1989, p. 43
Sources:
Angela Dumas and Henry Mintzberg. 1989. Managing Design Designing Management. Design Management Journal: 1/1.
Saša Bojc. 2009. Neuvrščeno oblikovanje. Delo: 13.11.2009.
www.deloitte.com
more authors in T. Lockwood&T. Walton (ed). 2008. Buiding Design Strategy: Using Design to Achieve key Business Objectives.
Marko Savić, managing director at Vizuarna, strategic design consultancy. Design manager and corporate identity consultant.
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Why should corporate design be viewed as an investment?
It would be an honour if I would be the author of that answer but I’m not. Rennat Van Cauwenberge, General Manager/Managing Partner from Gramma in the article Corporate design instrument for change, wrote:
“Above all, corporate design is an instrument for transformations and, at the same time, a guarantee of continuing corporate recognition. A design that is new, surprising and historically consistent, and that corresponds to the basic motives of the employees? Few advertising agencies can handle this paradox. Most of them see a given cultural context as oppressive. By fits and starts, they like to present changes and breaks in trends in a corporate design as ‘progress’. The client does not benefit from this in the least.
The internal and external images of the organisation are even more confused than they were. But the biggest mistake is the break with the perception that has been carefully built up in the minds of hundreds of thousands, even millions of observers. This collective perception belongs to the intangible assets of a company. For this reason alone, corporate design should be given the attention that is give to every other area of investment.„
+ Rennat Van Cauwenberge
Source:
Hans P Brandt (ed): Identity 2.0