The Identity Circle-Case Studies for Organization

In an effort to boost growth in the 90’s, Maytag acquired numerous appliance brands including Hoover, Jenn-Air, Magic Chef and Admiral to complement its own, storied brand. Eight different brands in all made up the corporate portfolio, but instead of helping investors, employees and others understand where Maytag was going, it sparked confusion and doubt about what business Maytag really was in. The appliance business? No, too generic. The white goods business? Wrong again. At its core, Maytag was in the’ home management’ business. Its mission: to improve the quality of home life. That’s how the enterprise created proprietary value. And that is the strategic platform management adopted as it set fresh direction and sought to align diverse cultures, companywide.

AARP

One of America’s great consumer institutions, AARP was wrestling with how to stay relevant with Boomers, whose eclectic needs ranged from basic financial and health care support to the need to find genuine purpose in life and spiritual fulfillment. ‘Age’ was seemingly at the crux of the challenge: how to satisfy 75-year olds as well as 55-year olds, while also being seen as relevant to people in their forties, who at 50 would be eligible for membership. Who was AARP anyway and how did this well-known organization really create value? A close evaluation of AARP’s myriad services and successes revealed its true identity: AARP is driven to help people navigate ageless realities – basic needs that fall into several areas, including the need for health, for financial well-being, for community and the need to contribute. Paradoxically, AARP has never been simply about being 50; AARP is all about being human – a fact that has enabled the organization to reassert its relevance in new and compelling ways.

Dow Chemical

Operating in over 160 countries, Dow is one of the world’s truly global organizations. The name was widely known worldwide, but what it meant to be Dow was unclear. The costs? Customer confusion, investor frustration and employee attrition. Was Dow simply a chemicals, plastics and agri-business giant? Was it a basic commodities enterprise and no more? The company’s unique, value-creating characteristics had been completely overshadowed by what it made and sold. Dow needed to be “unbundled.” In doing so, Dow’s thousands of “commodity” products could be traced to 10 end-use markets, from home construction and healthcare to transportation and water purification. A key conclusion emerged: Dow was in the consumer essentials business. Indeed, Dow was driven to constantly improve what is essential to human progress. Now clear, Dow’s value creating potential opened up fresh selling opportunities, provided a new lens for making acquisitions and gave employees a dynamic frame of reference for understanding how they personally fit into this global enterprise.

Interbrew (now Inbev)

Mergers tear at the value-creating fabric of organizations, especially organizations that have been around for over 500 years. To pursue international expansion in the early 1990’s two of Belgium’s leading beer companies – Artois and Piedboeuf – merged to form Interbrew. With over 300 brands of specialty beers and well-known mainstream brands, Stella Artois and Jupiler, Interbrew was poised to grow beyond its traditional European markets. The challenge? Getting people who were sworn rivals to work together on behalf of this spanking new concern. The CEO knew that Interbrew would succeed only if it established an identity all its own. A year after the merger was announced, this new ‘old’ enterprise was thriving. Employees rallied around a shared purpose – to celebrate a thirst for life – that successfully transcended, but honored, the identities of the founding concerns. More than just a communications platform, Interbrew’s formative identity, and a new set of values, were translated into training, performance management and recognition practices that led to a cohesive organization more quickly. Was the merger a success? Yes: Interbrew sowed the seeds of what is today the second largest brewer in the world – InBev.