As corporations change and grow – buy companies, divest, centralize, decentralize, move from simpler to more complex products – they continually search for a glue that will hold them together, that will express to everybody with whom they deal what they do, what they are, what they stand for.
Increasingly, in their search to encapsulate and express what they are, they embark on what has become known as a Corporate Identity Program. A new corporate identity is normally introduced at a time of merger, diversification, reorganization, or a time of profound structural and management changes.
Its purpose very often is to underline the new sense of direction internally, manifest it externally, and act as a catalyst so that changes can continue with the minimum internal dislocation and the maximum acceptance.
What is Corporate Identity
Corporate Identity is something more than putting a logo on the letterhead or paint the trucks with their corporate colors. A well thought out corporate identity makes easier the products selling, enhances access to finance, supports the value of corporate stocks, maintains good morale to employees and generally facilitates corporate activities making business life easier and more efficient.
Corporate identity is an ENTIRE Self-Presentation of the company, expressed through Communication, Human Resources, Business Environment, Products and Services. The picture of a company today is clearly depicted through its corporate identity.
Need for Corporate Identity
Everybody has an identity, resulting from any act perceived that distinguishes him from someone else. Like humans, so that enterprises have an identity – whether we like it or not – the image of which will display sooner or later to the public.
Whether this image is put forward on behalf of the enterprise and it is revealing the right message, depends on how well each and every-one employee understands what the company expects from him to do and to what extent his performance is satisfactory.
Unlike humans however, companies are not isolated entities but a conceptual entity that is assembled from the sum of individual identities and behavior as a group.
Corporate identity is not shaped only by employees and operations but by many other factors that together contribute to the final layout. It is ultimately what the community can clearly observe and the clientele can undoubtedly distinguish.
The enterprise that defines clear business objectives, knows the strengths and weaknesses and applies that knowledge to contribute in building the desired corporate identity, is the one that can establish a stable and consistent picture in the market environment. In this way, this enterprise will attract the desired activities and achieve better performances in all efforts.
The conception of a new Corporate Identity is a crucial step in the life and evolution of each organization. When this moment comes, it is time for soul searching, set of the new objectives, reassessment and DECISION MAKING.
If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living. — Anatole France
DASO BUSINESS PERFORMANCE assists businesses to develop practical skills and implementation methods, required to drive change in a highly competitive environment.