The Soul of the Corporation: How to manage the identity of your company (Hardcover)

by Hamid Bouchikhi (Author), John R. Kimberly (Author)
Key Phrases: identity audit, symbiotic integration, identity anchors, The Body Shop, Global One, Financial Times (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
"As Emerson said that an institution is the 'extended shadow' of a person, Bouchikhi and Kimberly fluidly blend the personal and enterprise-wide perspectives of professional identity to yield both powerful insights and priceless practical tools. Most management books look at the decision maker or at the decision making context. This important book embraces both while eschewing the cliches of corporate culture guidebooks. Anchored in decades of research, compelling current business sagas, and familiar everyday challenges, The Soul of the Corporation uniquely conveys the inextricably intertwined nature of the symbolic and substantive roles of leadership." Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Senior Associate Dean, Lester Crown Professor of Management, Yale School of Management, and coauthor of Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound from Career Disasters "In a world of continuous flux and accelerating change, one's sense of identity becomes more crucial than ever for companies, no less than individuals.In The Soul of the Corporation, Bouchikhi and Kimberly take us on a journey into the psychological world of corporate identity and explore the importance of companies knowing who they are, both in relation to their inner-workings and the outside world. This trailblazing book will prove invaluable to management in their quest to define the essence of their corporate identity." Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, author of The End of Work, The Age of Access, and The Hydrogen Economy "Identity is one of the most fundamental yet least understood determinants of organizational outcomes. Bouchikhi and Kimberly's book provides a fresh and provocative point of view of the determinants of organizational identity as well as research-based insights on how to shift identity over time. This book will be important to both scholars of organizational evolution as well as managers involved in leading change." Michael Tushman, Paul R. Lawrence Class of 1942 Professor of Business at the Harvard Business School "A strong Identity is a major asset for a firm, as this book so convincingly illustrates.To manage the Identity (the I*Dimension) is perhaps the most critical top leadership function today. The authors show us how to do this--a must read!" Dr. Peter Lorange, IMD President, The Nestle Professor Understand, Control, and Leverage Your Company's #1 Asset: Its Unique Identity We live in a new Age of Identity, in which your employees, customers, investors, and other stakeholders care about who you really are. More than ever, your company's identity will shape the results it can achieve. The Soul of the Corporation will help you clearly understand your company's identity, and then take control of it and leverage it for long-term adaptation and success. Drawing on real-life stories from the world's most prominent companies, the authors show how identity can be an extraordinarily valuable asset--and how, if not properly managed, it can become a huge liability. Discover how your firm's identity is related to--and different from--its organizational culture, brand positioning, and reputation. Learn how to diagnose and manage the often unconscious shared beliefs that constitute your company's soul!how to face the enormous identity challenges that arise in mergers, alliances, spin-offs, and the creation of new brands!and above all, how to lead and inspire in this new Age of Identity. / Master your company's "I*Dimension" New tools for leveraging identity for competitive advantage / Manage the tensions that shape your company's identity Convergent vs. divergent, internal vs. external, designed vs. emergent, sameness vs. uniqueness / Overcome the dark, dysfunctional side of identity Minimize narcissism, conflict, drift, and fragmentation / Protect what's precious, change what needs to change Managing identity through M&As, spin-offs, alliances, and unrelenting change

From the Back Cover

“As Emerson said that an institution is the ‘extended shadow’ of a person, Bouchikhi and Kimberly fluidly blend the personal and enterprise-wide perspectives of professional identity to yield both powerful insights and priceless practical tools. Most management books look at the decision maker or at the decision making context. This important book embraces both while eschewing the clichés of corporate culture guidebooks. Anchored in decades of research, compelling current business sagas, and familiar everyday challenges, The Soul of the Corporation uniquely conveys the inextricably intertwined nature of the symbolic and substantive roles of leadership.”

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Senior Associate Dean, Lester Crown Professor of Management, Yale School of Management, and coauthor of Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound from Career Disasters

 

“In a world of continuous flux and accelerating change, one’s sense of identity becomes more crucial than ever for companies, no less than individuals. In The Soul of the Corporation, Bouchikhi and Kimberly take us on a journey into the psychological world of corporate identity and explore the importance of companies knowing who they are, both in relation to their inner-workings and the outside world. This trailblazing book will prove invaluable to management in their quest to define the essence of their corporate identity.”

Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, author of The End of Work, The Age of Access, and The Hydrogen Economy

 

“Identity is one of the most fundamental yet least understood determinants of organizational outcomes. Bouchikhi and Kimberly’s book provides a fresh and provocative point of view of the determinants of organizational identity as well as research-based insights on how to shift identity over time. This book will be important to both scholars of organizational evolution as well as managers involved in leading change.”

Michael Tushman, Paul R. Lawrence Class of 1942 Professor of Business at the Harvard Business School

 

“A strong Identity is a major asset for a firm, as this book so convincingly illustrates. To manage the Identity (the I*Dimension) is perhaps the most critical top leadership function today. The authors show us how to do this–a must read!”

Dr. Peter Lorange, IMD President, The Nestlé Professor

 

Understand, Control, and Leverage Your Company’s #1 Asset: Its Unique Identity

 

We live in a new Age of Identity, in which your employees, customers, investors, and
other stakeholders care about who you really are. More than ever, your company’s identity will shape the results it can achieve. The Soul of the Corporation will help you clearly understand your company’s identity, and then take control of it and leverage
it for long-term adaptation and success.

 

Drawing on real-life stories from the world’s most prominent companies, the authors show how identity can be an extraordinarily valuable asset–and how, if not properly managed, it can become a huge liability. Discover how your firm’s identity is related to–and different from–its organizational culture, brand positioning, and reputation. Learn how to diagnose and manage the often unconscious shared beliefs that constitute your company’s soul…how to face the enormous identity challenges that arise in mergers, alliances, spin-offs, and the creation of new brands…and above all, how to lead and inspire in this new Age of Identity.

 

• Master your company’s “I*Dimension”

New tools for leveraging identity for competitive advantage

 

• Manage the tensions that shape your company’s identity

Convergent vs. divergent, internal vs. external, designed vs. emergent, sameness vs. uniqueness

 

• Overcome the dark, dysfunctional side of identity

Minimize narcissism, conflict, drift, and fragmentation

 

• Protect what’s precious, change what needs to change

Managing identity through M&As, spin-offs, alliances, and unrelenting change

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wharton School Publishing; 1 edition (September 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131857266
• ISBN-13: 978-0131857261
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #639,383 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Does a Company Stand for in Peoples' Minds?, January 21, 2008

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Has an APB been issued searching for your company's ID???, February 9, 2009

By	Rebecca Clement "Publisher, Soundview Executi... (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

There's a famous proverb that states, "The value of identity is that it often accompanies purpose and achievement." Not only is this statement true for individuals it's also true for organizations. The underlying premise of the book The Soul of the Corporation, is that a company's identity plays a significant role in what it can accomplish. According to the writers, this reality is unconsciously driven by the fact that your vested stakeholders (e.g. customers, employees, investors...etc.) care what your company is and how its identity impacts them. Soundview believes this is an interesting concept and recommends the book because it further explains how a firm's identity relates to - and yet differs from - corporate reputation, positioning or culture. Additionally, the authors expertly articulate the real-world identity challenges that can develop in the aftermath of spin-offs, alliances, acquisitions, mergers and brand launches while also offering ideas how to positively reinforce the organizational identity in the face of change.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Identity comes of age, January 13, 2008

By	Laurence D. Ackerman "Identity Consultant" (Westport, CT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As someone who has spent their career helping executives deal with organizational identity issues, I am glad to see this book come to fruition. There is too little written about the power of identity to influence the strategy and health of companies.

That said, I don't think that The Soul of The Corporation goes far enough in explaining just how powerful a company's identity really is. In particular, there are two ideas in the book that actually get in the way of understanding how identity shapes the lives and welfare of institutions. The first, is the notion that you can change a company's identity, if and as needed. My experience says otherwise: the identity of a company - like that of a person's - is fixed, transcending time and place, while its manifestations are constantly changing. To "change" a company's identity would require literally dissassembling it completely.

The second concern I have is the idea of dividing a company's identity into its internal form and its external form. This notion flies in the face of what identity is all about: creating an integrated, highly efficient whole. Here is where identity, when effectively managed, becomes a force for alignment.

If the subject of identity - organizational and personal - interests you, check out two books written by me: Identity Is Destiny and The Identity Code. Each has a website by that name.

In sum, The Soul of the Corporation makes a useful, well-researched contribution to a field that is only now starting to come into its own and that deserves the time and attention of writers who understand the power identity contains.