IDENTITY 2.0
is the follow-up to the Total Identity book that BIS published in three languages (now out of print). While the previous book showcased Total Identity projects, this new book takes a much broader perspective. Focused on the concept of identity, it looks at current and future issues that influence businesses, institutions and service-oriented organisations. The book connects identity, as the driving force behind innovation and change processes, to social and economic topics—illustrated with case-studies and the views of creative commercial companies which have participated in projects with Total Identity or have an interesting outlook on these topics. Some of the topics this book addresses in essays and case-studies are: – The expressive organisation – Innovation – Labour market communication – Corporate social responsibility – Entrepreneurship in service-oriented organisations – Emancipation of the patient – Scenario Communication – Fusion of brand and corporation BIS Publishers Buiding Het Sieraad Postjesweg 1 1057 DT Amsterdam The Netherlands Telephone +31 20 515 0230 Fax +31 20 515 0239 bis@bispublishers.nl www.bispublishers.nl ISBN 978
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Introduction I THE FUTURE BEGINS NOW The Netherlands 2017
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Š 2008 BIS Publishers & Total Identity, Amsterdam ISBN 978 90 6369 183 7 No part of this publication may be reproduced and or made public in any way whatsoever without prior written consent from the publisher.
II NO REASON TO DELAY The Expressive Organisation IHC Merwede From Shipbuilding to Mechanical Engineering Context is Renewal Tis Innovation Park Centre for Innovation and Communication The Psychological Process of Harmonisation YNNO Window on the World Managing Identity is Managing Commitment GITP The Campfire: Organising Wisdom Corporate Social Responsibility The Netherlands Kidney Foundation Layers of Accountability Corporate Design Instrument for Change The Protestant Church in the Netherlands Faith in Identity Visible in the Transparent World ConQuaestor Enterprising Communication Culture Databank Databank Opens Door to Flemish Culture Lara for president
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III WORKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE Business Services Organisation Seeks Intrapreneurs M/F GITP Boundless Humanity Dura Vermeer More at Home, at Work Vedior Lust for life
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148 150 152 156 162 164
Real Property and Physical Planning The Concept as Law GreenPark Aalsmeer The Urban Development Plan From Goal to Reinforcing Tool Sustainability in Urban Networks FiftyTwoDegrees Business Innovation Center Municipality of Schouwen-Duiveland Made for Zeeland Vigilius Mountain Resort Mountain Stories Zuidas Amsterdam Zuidas Backs Diversity People and Society Profiling Under One’s Own Steam Carefree Living A Sustainable Perspective The Vital Being Rotterdam Hospital Joint entrepreneurship German Red Cross Blutspendedienst West Corporate Social Network ROC Midden Netherland Future Assured
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Government and Non-Profit The Struggle for Existence The NMa and its Environment Dialogue from Principle Government, Say Something The Senior Civil Service Office (BABD) Connection with Society The Concertgebouw Ascending the Stage Sirris Towards a New Standard Floriade 2012 Een belevingsevenement Consumer Goods Communicating about the Uncommon Sing-lin foods Noodle Culture Gulpener Beer On Beer and Love Sustainability Tango Proad Identity Chinese Characters Enza Zaden Communication in Images Gerolsteiner Water: Element of Success Professionals with the Ability to Bond Companies with the Ability to Bond Contact Details Staff
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FROM BEING DISTINCTIVE TO BEING CONNECTED
The distinction between organisations and their environment is becoming increasingly blurred. People are continually interacting from the standpoint of the roles they fill as working people, consumers and members of society. To be successful, organisations harmonise their ambitions with what the market and society consider legitimate. So the organisation’s ability to connect with them is critically important. Being attuned to what is happening now and what will happen in the future. In the sector, in the market and in society. Being able to predict what this means for the organisation, what it will require of it, and how it can anticipate this as it defines its ambitions. The better the organisation is connected to the world outside, the more successfully it can create its identity in parallel with this environment and continue to develop. That is what Identity 2.0 is about. Identity 2.0 consists of a collection of thoughts that were conceived within the total identity network. Thoughts about organisations in their context. About making connections. Thoughts that were conceived in conversations with clients, business partners, and partners of total identity. The book focuses on realising ambitions, on personal experiences in this area, and on the development of these ambitions in positioning and profiling. We hope this book inspires you to take a fresh—or even different—look at your own organisation or to reflect on your relationship with the world outside. Hans P Brandt, Managing Director, Total Identity
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The Future Begins Now
What will the world look like in 2017? How will it develop, and what consequences will this have for people and organisations? How can we anticipate this? 2017 is still a long way off, but this chapter will present statements that, taken together, will help us explore the future.
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THE WORLD IN
http://2017.totalidentity.nl
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The only limits placed on the future are the limits of our imagination. What will 2017 look like for you? Share your vision of the future with us. On this site we have placed more than a hundred statements to which you can respond and add to. Tell us what 2017 will look like for you.
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There is a European Interpol DNA databank in which a majority of Europeans have voluntarily let themselves be registered.
Rigourous birth control policies, mainly in South America’s and Asia’s most populated regions, lead to a worldwide slow down in population growth.
International terrorism has not been conquered. The terrorist network has its home base in several Islamic countries, which have increasingly distanced themselves from the international community. Tight security measures in the Western world in particular have limited terrorist attacks geographically to Asia.
Highly organised (international) virtualpurchasing networks of consumers have been formed that, because of their massive size, can set conditions and thus influence the business politics of multinationals.
Russia has introduced new baroque trends in the world of fashion and lifestyle. A new intellectual poverty has enabled kitsch to become a core aesthetic concept. Russia has taken the lead in this movement.
Seeing the plan
Traditional development assistance has fallen out of favour. Performance agreements are now being employed in which countries and multinationals are entering into a purely commercial relationship with the region concerned.
Over 40% of daily consumer purchases in Europe are made via virtual shops.
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In imitation of the marketing strategy and of product development at the Danish company Lego, the use of very user-friendly design programmes has enabled people to design their own houses, clothing, furniture, and so on, and to order them online.
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In the Netherlands there is a strong wave of emigration by senior citizens to special care resorts located abroad.
More conservation projects are being launched. They focus on such things as the genes of endangered animals, oral tradition and the freezing of seeds from as many plants deep in the permafrost as possible.
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Intel has introduced a protein-based microchip that functions as quickly as the human brain and can make a direct connection with brain tissue.
New DNA technology enables most forms of cancer to be fought successfully, primarily because it enables the disease to be found at a very early stage.
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Managers who believe they can intervene in their organisation ‘from the outside’ are no longer grounded in reality, because this approach clearly destroys more than it creates. Social network coaching, in which people are given assistance in intervening for themselves, is the new management hype.
A private Russian space organisation is making preparations to transport extremely condensed nuclear waste to Venus.
Political parties no longer exist as organisations. They are being replaced by flexible, media-focused political movements whose influence and power are established on the basis of continual Internet research.
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Of the top 100 companies in the Netherlands, 34 are led by women.
California wants to secede from the US and declare independence by 2020. Other states are considering going the same way.
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Under the influence of information networks and the tendency towards personal financial responsibility, there is a large need for extra service and greater user-friendliness in the context of personal financial planning. New insurers, hailing from different sectors (ICT, entertainment, telecommunications and real estate) are successfully meeting the new requirements of the consumer in a completely original manner and can count on a supply of clients from the broadest range of population groups. Several traditional insurance companies are confronted by large financial problems.
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The euro has taken on the role of the dollar worldwide.
Dutch insurers have developed mandatory lifestyle programmes (nutrition, exercise, and so on) that are required before standard insurance policies can be taken out.
Experiments with so-called negative interest in African economic zones are leading to spectacular development dynamics.
From Scandinavia comes the ‘neuro-feedback hype’: directly influencing brain performance (virtually) through monthly neuro-feedback intervention. Leading businesspeople and top athletes are the first to adopt the method.
Video telephony and conferencing are standard practice. They have reduced the need for some to commute to work. Yet this has only partially solved the tailback problem on the roads. 16
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The model of the Asian family-owned company has taken root in nearly every other part of the world. Instead of the State looking after citizens, it is mega family-owned companies that have internalised traditional social values.
Water is the most essential raw material in the world. The WEC (Water Exporting Countries) Commission has priced 1 barrel of drinking water at 9 euros.
Looking for the Essence
Behavioural problems are increasingly being solved (via legal rulings) through mandatory ‘chemical’ means.
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China has conquered the global oil market. After closing a strategic mega-contract with nearly all OPEC countries and discovering huge oil fields in the Indian Ocean, state-owned concern China National Petroleum Corp controls the world market.
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Since 2012, it has been possible to fight AIDS successfully. A medicine has been developed that is inexpensive to use. Africa will profit the most from this. A strong middle class has risen there that can take advantage of the economic boost this development will bring.
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Thinking about interaction
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The European culture industry is increasingly harking back to Romanticism. In Western Europe, religious consciousness is rapidly increasing. A new type of cross-over religion has also appeared. Because of multiethnic marriages, the substance of different religious traditions is increasingly being tied together. The number of churches is falling, as is the number of mosques.
Using new irrigation technologies (weather modification), dry regions primarily in southern Europe and Australia have been transformed into high-quality farming areas.
The proportion of products that are eco-products has risen to over 30%.
Having different identities (as an individual, as a part of an organisation) is normal. For everyone it is logical to define ‘their identity’ in relation to others. Hydrogen-powered Yet2.com, the world’s leading cars are rapidly knowledge broker, has surtaking over the passed Microsoft in market market. By 2025, driving a vehicle value and is now the world’s powered by fossil fuel will be banned. most valuable company.
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Urban and rural populations have different demographics. The countryside is populated by the middle class. Urban areas are home both to people with more than enough income to live in prime locations and to an underclass that must make do with older, less attractive neighbourhoods.
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Through gaming and the use of multimedia, young people have become adept at multi-tasking, simultaneously taking in different experiences and performing a range of tasks. The organisation of education and work processes should, therefore, place greater emphasis on the connection between different specialised disciplines.
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No Reason to Delay
Transitions and new relationships do not come about on their own. They are compelled by the market and society. This chapter provides examples of issues that are now coming to the surface and heralding a new order, a new way of thinking about the place of an organisation in its environment. Subjects that require careful attention at once. The future will not wait.
THE EXPRESSIVE ORGANISATION BEYOND IDENTITY
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Hans P Brandt, Managing Director, Total Identity Barbara Brian, Senior Advisor, Total Identity Peter Verburgt, Senior Advisor, Total Identity Jeroen Duijvestijn, former advisor to the Society and Enterprise Foundation
From Branding to Identity Thinking In recent years, branding has played a dominant role in the thinking about the relationship between a company and its environment. Whether the focus has been on the way in which a company visually presents itself, how it motivates its employees, or how an organisation communicates with the world around it, branding has been used to show what was special about a company, with a view to winning appreciation from those around it. This is now changing. Increasingly, branding is giving way to efforts focused on defining, cultivating and expressing the personality of organisations. The management of perception is giving way to providing insight into the ambitions of the organisation itself. The time when organisations could hide behind their brand name is now gone for good. Communication, behaviour and symbols are taking on new significance on the basis of identity. The focus has shifted to emotion, to identification, instead of making an impression; to commitment instead of profiling; to developing a relationship instead of giving in to impulses. Only then can an organisation be relevant to the world around it.
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Companies and institutions no longer communicate only with their stakeholders and vice versa. They have become learning organisations, seeking links to the market by continually adapting to their surroundings. When an organisation enters a dialogue in a fully transparent manner, this leads to efficient and flexible group processes inside and outside the organisation. This change creates the ideal context for innovation and creativity.
Identity is not an easy concept to grasp. Identity is the accepted distance to the ideal (the collective desire that is often unattainable). Identity is the ambition that can be attained because it can be made concrete, managed and verified. Ambition that is thinkable from an ethical perspective. By keeping the attainable, the thinkable—and thus reality—in sight, organisations can act from the vantage point of their identity. The necessity to act from a place of identity has stemmed from political and social developments. History shows, in a predictable pattern, how political/social tendencies influence the world of business and how business then adapts its marketing and communications to address these tendencies. Stairway to Heaven: the 1960s The 1960s heralded a period of freedom following the post-war years of reflection and rebuilding. People started to look to the future. Individualism reigned supreme. It was a time when the pill loosed the shackles of traditional religious and social mores. We wanted to make our own choices, live our own lives. Technological innovations encouraged this outlook: with the arrival of colour television and the landing on the moon, our worlds became larger and the opportunities for the individual were unlimited. Social progress quickened, and the economy boomed. Industry pushed full steam ahead to meet the demands of a steadily growing population that had increasing desires and needs. The different steps within the production process were increasingly coordinated better to offer just-in-time delivery. The mass media became a common repository of knowledge, telling us what was going on in other places. This resulted in social criticism for the first time in a long time. The war in Vietnam, the threat of the Cold War: everything was seen and assessed. Gradually, a feeling of realism supplanted the optimism of the early 1960s. The innocent cries of ‘flower power’ and ‘make love not war’ gave way to an underlying feeling of discontent. We wanted greater control, the ability to influence the direction of the events around us. This scenario could also be seen in the Dutch
economy—the rapid, unrestrained growth began to raise questions in people’s minds and led to a call for greater structure. The government took command of the situation. A Structured Consumer Society: the 1970s The focus on the individual increasingly gave way in the 1970s to a collective outrage about the decisions superpowers were making over our heads. We began to see that we could influence events if we organised and united within the context of solidarity movements devoted to subjects such as the environment, the third world, nuclear energy, and so on. With our thirst for realism, we wanted to be informed about what was going on. Time and again, industry was forced to negotiate issues with policymakers, politicians and the highly organised trade union movement. Everyone had something to say. Companies were backed into a corner and rapidly forced to account for their actions. Combined with a climbing national debt and the 70s oil crisis, all of this put a brake on the economy. A highly structured consumer society led to an undesirable degree of mediocrity. Initiatives and innovations were nipped in the bud. Influence and participation proved to have a down side, creating a growing need for greater differentiation and an ability to objectify. This in turn led to fragmentation and individualisation. The Rise of the Brand: the 1980s Economically, the 1980s were a period of reorganisation, pay restraints and the imposition of efficiency measures, and product improvements. Because everything had to be available everywhere, short distribution lines had to be set up. It was necessary to make quality transferable in order to guarantee it everywhere. Distinctions became obscured as a result, and standards were subject to inflation. People started looking for a new type of added value, which was sorely needed to stimulate sales in the hard economic times of the 1980s. The need for distinction and added value placed the brand in a different light—brand added value. The brand name was originally meant to assure consumers of a consistent, reliable quality. Marketers now discovered that it was well-suited to help consumers identify and differentiate products. Branding became the new by-word and was soon indispensable. The brand spoke to us directly, giving each of us the freedom to see in it what we wanted to see. Brands elicited an emotion, represented a lifestyle, and were the answer to individualisation.
earned?’ A counter-movement once again ensued, directed against multinationals. The operations of these companies started to become transparent. Initially, the movement was limited to a small left-wing group. Then, gradually, the issues being raised became relevant. The multinationals had to speak to us, communicate with us. Not surprisingly, Naomi Klein found an audience for her ‘No Logo’ message. We learnt that, behind the face of large brands, some fairly nasty practices were sometimes hiding. We discovered that purchasing a pair of Nikes promoted child labour in Southeast Asia, that the tropical rainforest was adversely affected by the number of McDonald’s hamburgers we ate, and that we were putting human rights in Nigeria at risk by filling up at Shell. The anonymity that marked the 1990s led to a sense of unaccountability, which was absolutely unacceptable. In the mid-90s, we took the effort a step further in response to this lack of accountability. We wanted to know not only about the companies behind the brands, but about the people behind the companies. We asked them to reveal their identities, and increasingly based our judgements on what we learnt. The perception we initially based on the brand was now playing an ever-diminishing role in forming our image of a company. Identity: the here and now 11 September 2001 was the final blow to an already ailing economy; a global crisis ensued. The call for authenticity and integrity grew. Particularly when large-scale fraud was uncovered at companies in the US and Europe in which we had placed our unconditional trust up to then. How could things have gone so wrong at Enron and Ahold, companies which we always thought represented the best their respective countries had to offer? Fear set in because, up to then, they had never been required to provide a real account of themselves —we had simply accepted their propositions as true without further consideration. We grew wary of vague explanations or endless discussions, and forced organisations to speak from the perspective of their identity, to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. This placed the impetus for communication on the top level of the organisation. Questions of legitimacy and tackling the essential issues and ambitions of the organisation could not be left to the marketer, whose function was limited to the sale of products. The organisation was responsible for delivering on its promises.
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Accountability: the 1990s Not until the 1990s, in the heyday of companies such as Nike and Benetton, did we begin to question the legitimacy of brands. ‘Who is actually behind these big names? Who is spending these enormous sums of money on branding? And how exactly is this money
image = perception (perceived identity) identity = ambition (desired image)
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THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN IDENTITY AND IMAGE Identity (desired image) Identity is how an organisation presents itself. It is apparent in its behaviour, its symbols and its communication. It is the reverberation of an organisation’s ‘personality’. The term ‘corporate identity’ is often used to convey the sense of ‘desired image’ and thus to make its ambitions directly visible.
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Image (perceived identity) Image is the actual mental picture that target groups have of an organisation. It is formed by all impressions and experiences that people have of the organisation, real or perceived. The formation of an image always has a cognitive component (what I know about company X) and an affective component (what I think of company X). Image and reputation are the same thing, although in popular language reputation is most often used in a judgemental sense and is therefore directed at the affective component. The internal image of a company is its self-image.
Ethics: the 2000s Identity does not last forever, neither as a starting point for the communication of an organisation nor as a way to gain social legitimacy. It is now apparent that identity is in real danger of deteriorating to the point where it is a construction that lacks any authenticity an empty shell used as a sales ploy. The public learns from its experience with the brand, and is not satisfied when identity is expressed as an instrument of image. At the same time, society is becoming more and more anonymous. The welfare state is gradually crumbling and we have to rely increasingly on ourselves. Media such as the Internet, UMTS and the mobile telephone have accelerated the flow of information and have made personal relationships more superficial. Interrelationships are becoming less the norm. With all the tools available to us, we circle around each other. Yet we are earnestly searching for a way to remain connected with one another now that personal contact is no longer an automatic and structured event between people. This fragmentation of society will create an ever stronger need for a certain type of standardisation: socially accepted standards that are necessary to give direction to an ever more dynamic society. Through shared values, we are creating a new form of Connectivity that is not limited to our social relationships. This can also be applied to the economy. The values we use to give our lives direction (our integrity) are also required of companies and the government. The economy is society and vice versa. And, increasingly, corporate responsibility and good governance are becoming a licence to operate.
FROM MAKING A CLAIM TO PROVING IT Year in, year out, companies large and small spend hundreds of millions of euros on communication: printed matter, visual material, logos and banners, house styles, campaigns, and radio and TV commercials. Clients and professionals work on the basis of longtrusted conventions, reflexes and methods: supply and demand are clear, and lead to measurable products at set rates with a pre-determined result. Everyone seems to be satisfied. Yet underneath, the unease is growing. Countless instruments that professional service providers have traditionally used to support the positioning of companies in advertising, design and corporate communication are losing the effectiveness they once had. They now come across as dull, and miss the intended effect. If they do have an impact, it is short-lived. The conventional methods and techniques— regardless of how perfectly and refinedly they have been developed within the different métiers—are not leading to the intended result. Because of their ineffectiveness, they are often the first item to be cut back during hard economic times. Particularly the way in which big brands
are presented and maintained no longer seems to be connected to current social realities.
reliability, even though it does not give much away with respect to its reserves of oil.
Erosion of Traditional Brand Thinking In recent decades, brands have evolved from tools used to limit risks and guarantee quality into symbols full of significance, into icons with which many people identify in the mantra of the modern marketer. This ‘brand thinking’ is based on the idea that the behaviour of the end user can be influenced through a construction of emotional and functional connotations that have no other purpose than to sell products and services. But there are serious reasons to assume that this thinking is ripe for critical analysis:
The more we come to know about the companies behind the brands, the shallower the content of the communication for many brands becomes and the greater our irritation with the excesses of this communication. So it is not surprising that those who are exposing the discrepancy between the behaviour of the parent behind the brand and the brand seen as a network of associations are eliciting a significant response in society.
The relevance of the symbolic function of brands in a wider sense—that is, as a bearer of identity—is also in decline. Increasingly, people are defining their identity on the basis of intangible consumer behaviour—their university major, extraordinary trips taken, visits to (cultural) events, engagement in sports. All of these things have much more of an impact on the interpretation of identity than brands do.
The Identity Scenario In contrast to ‘brand thinking’—in which the point is to establish a distinction from other brands as soon as possible, to communicate this distinction and thus gain consumers’ appreciation—identity thinking is focused on introducing transparency to the organisation’s thinking and actions.
Transparency and Brands The increase in transparency as a development in society is undeniably important, even for companies. Companies and organisations are increasingly being forced to be open about their comings and goings. The Internet has made it possible for anyone to know everything, more or less, about a company and to share this information with others. Every day countless new love and hate sites about companies are added to the Web. Journalists are contributing to this phenomenon.
Self-aware organisations determine the subjects, themes or issues about which they have an opinion and the way in which they express this opinion (values and/or standards that are shared with others). They take a position towards things that are happening in society and the marketplace and they thus lay claim to a logical position on the playing field of target groups, shareholders and stakeholders. These groups, in turn, know what to expect from the organisation and find this confirmed in its behaviour, communication and symbols. These three elements of identity are inextricably linked with each other and reinforce one another. The organisation presents itself clearly via these aspects and thus lays the foundation for trust and respect.
The increased transparency is putting many brands on the defence. The promises and values through which a brand profiles itself often stand in sharp contrast to the behaviour of the ‘parent behind the brand’, whether it is Nike that claims to bring out the best in people and at the same time seems to regard children as a cheap source of labour, or Shell, which is built around connotations of
Communication, behaviour and symbols take on an entirely different significance on the basis of identity. The focus shifts to emotion, to identification instead of making an impression, to commitment instead of profiling, and to the development of a relationship instead of acting on impulse. Only then can an organisation become relevant to its environment. 25
This symbolic function of brands is becoming less relevant. The brand used as a symbol of the social position someone occupies is being undermined by a process of social equalisation in society. Ironically, status brands such as Armani and Ray-Ban still serve as a symbol of social status only among the economic underclass.
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The Symbolic Value of Brands This ‘brand thinking’ is based on the view that brands are primarily meant to be clusters of values and channels of communication to the market, offering the biggest possible congruence between the brand values and the value system of the target group. Brands symbolise the aspirations of consumers, the lifestyle to which they aspire, and the socio-economic class to which they belong. This is the central thesis of branding.
The Individual and the Brand Finally, the attitude of the individual towards brands and the companies hiding behind them is also changing. Until the mid-1990s, people had little interest in the company behind the brand. These days, consumers want to be able to identify with the companies whose products and services they purchase, rather than with the abstract symbols or lifestyle communicated in the marketing of these brands. Because we can no longer automatically rely on government to safeguard the values of our society, people are now looking for companies with whom they share certain values and who have a long-term strategy and vision for society with which they can identify. Brand communication is too superficial, too one-dimensional and too artificial to address these concerns.
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BRAND SCENARIO VS IDENTITY SCENARIO In a brand scenario, a product, service or organisation is launched as a brand and placed on the market. By contrast, an identity scenario is focused on revealing what an organisation stands for, making visible what it is that ties organisations to their clients. Such communication should be based on the organisation itself, its own identity and values. The focus is on an entire range of facets that make you acceptable. This creates trust, sympathy and, in turn, prospects for the future.
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The expert Reality as a starting point for everyone individually fleshed out on the basis of the personality of the organisation.
The realist Reality as a guideline but rather generally, not individually defined, steered. Issues
THE CHOICE BETWEEN THEMES AND ISSUES Themes are defined from the inside out: what is going on structurally, in what fields are we active, what can we offer the client? Issues are defined from the outside in: what current themes are present in society that serve as the basis for our actions? Profiling based on themes is more structural by nature. An organisation understands the full breadth of its own profession, has a definite opinion about it and expresses this opinion. In the case of issues, the organisation plays on current economic and social trends in its profiling by making statements about them and by linking them to its services. The Choice between Values and Standards Values are the shared and, for us, natural principles from which we act, and they anticipate a high degree of awareness and capacity for self-guidance. Standards are used to make key values operational as a guide for employees. Values imply greater freedom of action for individual employees, who orient themselves and interpret the personality of the organisation. Standards have translated these values, rationalised the view of the future and made this view a guide for the actions of the employee. In the first case, it is the person that is the centre of focus. In the second, it is the process. In summary, themes/issues pertain to the ‘what’ in the organisation (the hard side) and values/standards pertain to the ‘how’ (the soft side). What an organisation does and how it does it make the identity and its profile visible and are critical to establishing its image.
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Choosing issues requires a proactive organisation that is primarily guided by what is going on around it. Trends and issues are identified and addressed as early as possible. Anticipating is far better than reacting. Forming public opinion is better than trying to manipulate it. An issue-driven organisation is close to its target groups, and stands in the midst of society, yet also has to invest in it. Choosing themes is relatively safer. Themes are matters that the organisation understands and which it can be proud of. Themes are less time-sensitive, and to a large degree the organisation has control over them. It can manipulate them and address them when it thinks the time is right, not by definition based on trends in the market or society.
The entrepreneur Structural approach. Recognition on that basis. Drive direction/steer (operational) process.
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Values, Standards, Themes and Issues The question here is: to what extent does the organisation find it possible to give its employees the relative freedom to give shape to the organisation’s values in accordance with their own insight. The larger the organisation is, the more these freedoms will undeniably be curbed and more or less exchanged for its standards or principles. These are choices that the organisation will have to make over time based on its growth, its ambitions and its strategy. The same applies to the choice of themes or issues mentioned above.
The stylist Structural approach. Recognition on that basis. Naturally, freedom of methods.
Standards
The Personification of Organisations Much more than simply adapting the communication strategy, identity requires an internal change in attitude. Standards and values that ensue from the personality of the organisation not only serve as the point of departure for its communication and symbols—they are also the guidelines for its behaviour. They guide all people in their actions and force employees at every level to take responsibility. Management steers and determines the framework in which they work. The employees are asked to have the discipline to give things shape based on the organisation’s identity. They tackle subjects from within these frameworks, make them operational, and take responsibility for them. They do this not by imitating the manager, but based on the personality and ambition that have been formulated.
Themes
Values
This new approach requires a different attitude from organisations. It requires a type of empathy that is directly opposed to the paternalistic, patronising and perception-focused attitude that people have come to associate with organisations.
VISION INTERVIEW WITH JAN SCHINKELSHOEK, FORMER DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATION AT THE RABOBANK ‘I am convinced that these days you cannot build a brand without thinking
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about the questions of who I am, who I want to be and who I want to become.’
‘The accent in corporate communication has shifted sharply in the last ten years from transmitting to receiving. Much greater attention is given to the intended recipient of the message and to whether the message reaches all stakeholders— not only the target group, but an organisation’s own employees. This follows the trend that requires organisations to account for themselves. It began in politics, then crept over into public administration and is currently knocking at the door of trade and industry. The Open Government Act is thirty years old and the business community is not yet up to par, though the trend is gradually taking hold. This comes from increased responsibility, individualisation and consumerism. Consumers or citizens are at the helm and have become more critical, and there is less that they are willing to accept without question. This has forced organisations to take a different attitude, to provide an account of their actions. Companies must justify and explain themselves and give an account of their actions.’
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‘Communication has changed from the provision of information to story-telling. Up to the end of the 1990s, we thought that corporate communication was about putting together a good story. Now you
see that companies who made matters sound better than they were in their communications have fallen flat on their faces. In my experience, this is a reaction to the exaggerated brand thinking of the 1990s: the creation of stories that were not grounded in the roots of the organisation, that did not grow out of an organisation’s identity. Increasingly these stories are seen through, and the market can no longer be fooled. Authenticity has become crucial. The story has to be real and true; it must come from the roots of the organisation. It is now important to make the identity of your organisation relevant to the market, today’s citizens and the consumer. I am convinced that these days you cannot build a brand without thinking about the question of who I am, who I want to be, and who I want to become.’ ‘In 2001 I started working at the Rabobank. 11 September 2001 marked the end of an era for me. The time for telling pretty stories was past. I started thinking about brands, corporate identity and about what I wanted to achieve through the communication for the Rabobank. Very consciously I chose to take the early story of the Rabobank—which began as a farm credit bank that was founded at the end of the 19th century to help farmers better themselves—out of long-forgotten files
and make it relevant to today. To revitalise the co-operative spirit. Ten years earlier I wouldn’t have done this. The changed sprit of the times, alluded to above, made it possible. After coming up with a number of concepts, we told our advertising agency: ‘Listen, we want someone that simply tells the Rabobank’s story.’ Jochem de Bruin was born. On seeing the first Jochem-commercial I knew: we had struck gold. Not everyone was convinced of this from the start. But it has been more successful than I or anyone at the Rabobank ever dared dream. With respect to our performance in the market, but also to the pride and motivation of our employees. The second fact is at least just as important to me as the positive appreciation from the market. Because of our decentralised structure, I cannot create a brand at the Rabobank from above, it won’t work. It has to have support internally. This involves a much subtler process than the one used at say Philips, where top management announces: Sense and simplicity, and that’s all.’ ‘When I first arrived here, I was confronted with a strange type of inferiority complex. A feeling of awe: everyone sat in wonder at the Bank’s image. This is why the Jochem de Bruin campaign was accompanied from the
Jochem de Bruin is a fictional Dutch character in an ad campaign by the Rabobank. He is played by the actor Vincent Rietveld. The campaign has attracted a lot of attention. Conceived by the Amsterdam advertising agency Ubachs Wisbrun, in June 2005 it was awarded the Golden Effie by the Association of Communication Advertising Agencies.
‘The fact that we take our corporate identity as the starting point for our brand communication also means that everyone and everything—the Board of Directors, the personnel policy, our products, our statements—all have to support the story of the Rabobank. They all have to tell the story. Moreover: taken together, we are the story. It is not easy to get all of this co-ordinated and make it a part of the image that you put out. But if you don’t do it, even though your story is based on an authentic past, it will go bust. It requires the communication department to take on a different role. This is why we are not a staff department that floats above all the other departments of the bank. We are involved in the development of products, we engage in the discussion on personnel policy, and we are present in all layers and capillaries of our organisation. It is beginning to work. The difference between who we are, our corporate identity, and how we are seen, our brand, is becoming increasingly smaller.’
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Credibility ‘Taking the corporate story as a starting point for your corporate communication is anything but simple. The story that you communicate to the outside world has to be a success story, even though mistakes have been made at the bank in the past. They are difficult to include in the story. Communication people, myself included, have the tendency to make the story shine brighter than the truth. When you do this, authenticity becomes a communication trick. This is the inherent danger. You have to be really honest and be able to talk about your weak points. That is very difficult. For example, in my view we still insufficiently translate the true story of the Rabobank, as told by Jochem de Bruin, into very tangible products and services. We position the Rabobank as the bank that takes the different path. It is a claim that we can base on our past history and it has worked well. But what does that mean for the present? Through what products are we keeping this promise? We have a couple of products that do this, such as member certificates and the generation mortgage, but it continues to be difficult. The hidden danger is that communication and business become too far removed from one another. This
is certainly the case when you try to spotlight your story in an authentic manner. It is a very subtle balance that has to be struck. The communication department has to anticipate reality, express an ambition, but at the same time make sure that they do not run too far ahead of the troops. This is when you make the story better than it is, promise the moon and, before you know it, your credibility is shot.’
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start by an internal branding programme. Jochem was given an internal website where we present him as an employee of the bank. We talk about what he does, he keeps a journal and comments on the state of affairs inside the bank. It is bearing fruit. The people at the Rabobank also identify with the Rabobank story. This explains the success of the campaign to a large degree.’
COMMUNICATION FROM THE STANDPOINT OF IDENTITY
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The Development of the Communication Profession Originally, the purpose of communication was to inform and explain. It was primarily seen as a way to inform the outside world about a company or an organisation. This changed in the 1980s. People started to use communication to realise the objectives of an organisation. This made communication an instrument in service of image, more focused on changing the opinions and (buying) behaviour of target groups through persuasion. This can particularly be seen in marketing communication, which radically professionalised this form of communication. Since the 1990s, communication tasks have broadened. Under the influence of an increasingly critical environment, it became clear that the communication focus had to involve more than selling the policy. Shouting made room for listening. Before strategic choices were made for an organisation, dialogue was held with the stakeholders concerning the policy decisions to be taken. This allowed a more structural and constructive relationship to be built with the target groups, and meant that their trust in the organisation was retained or strengthened. It also enabled a strong reputation to be built up. This approach requires a good knowledge of target groups and what they find acceptable. Studies of standpoints and social issues, as stated above, have taken on an ever larger role in communication. Communication and Identity Thinking Economic and social developments have set new requirements for communication these days. Although many organisations have only recently realised that they can no longer bypass their stakeholders, and have begun to seek dialogue with them, the current demand for transparency and integrity is forcing organisations to actually identify themselves. All those who take the increasingly louder call for standards and values seriously will set up their communication differently. The identity of the organisation should be the focus.
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Organisations should harmonise their identity and ambition with what the market and society consider legitimate. This no longer pertains to target groups or stakeholders, but rather to society as a whole (public opinion) and particularly to the market in which people are active. Increasingly, communication is a dynamic process in which reality is produced, maintained and adjusted. Time and again, processes, products and client relations are harmonised, fine-tuned and adjusted to the market, society and the requirements that they set. There is a continual push and pull between the organisation and its environment. This has obscured somewhat the distinction between the organisation and
its environment . People are continually interacting with one another in their roles as working people, consumers and members of society. All of these roles are fulfilled simultaneously, so that the dialogue has shifted from being a conversation to a process of ‘going public’. Companies and institutions no longer communicate only with their stakeholders and vice versa. They are becoming learning organisations that seek a connection with the market through continual harmonisation with their environment. Previous development demands a lot from the communication policy. It must ensure that the organisation thinks ahead in an intelligent, creative and innovative manner. At the same time, the organisation should bear in mind its own identity and the limits to it. This means that the analysis of market development should be continually linked to encouraging internal reflection on that analysis. In short, communication becomes a continual, dynamic process in which everyone inside the organisation has a role to play. As a part of this, communication specialists act as monitors and make a contribution to the planning of scenarios inside the organisation. Thus communication shifts from supporting policy to influencing it. The Importance of Corporate Publishing A central communication message or proposition is no longer sufficient within this context. The multiplicity of parties in the environment around the organisation want to know how it specifically serves their needs or interests. It requires the identity of the organisation to be translated and made intelligible for each target group. It is also important to inform each one of them individually so that each is given, and hears, pertinent information. An important instrument for achieving this is corporate publishing: making the competencies of an organisation accessible to boost its reputation among the stakeholders and thus within the social and economic context. The market and society dictate what the needs for these competencies are and in what context and form the organisation can best provide and communicate its competencies. Instead of focusing on the primary process of the organisation, communication arises from it. The organisation faces the challenge of translating the impulses and signals that ensue from the interplay with its environment into the competencies it provides. It also faces the challenge of communicating this by making apparent these competencies, and its own intelligence, creativity and ambition. This requires a professional attitude on the part of individual employees who operate daily in the midst of the market and are a part of it. They are asked to develop antennae to pick up on what is currently going on or what is potentially to come.
These signals are not always strong, and so the employees must be very familiar with the market in order to discern them, to interpret them and then to predict the impact that they will have or the opportunities they provide to their organisation. The translation of the knowledge and experience that an organisation gains in this manner into communication messages tailored to each target group is called corporate publishing. Brochures, annual reports, newsletters, books, the Internet, multimedia projects—all are the result of publishing. The traditional communication disciplines can no longer be approached separately. An integrated approach with co-ordinated management is indispensable. The term publishing implies dynamics, continuity. And that is precisely what is called for in the current situation—continual tailor-made communication, topical and up-to-date. Communication employees have a pivotal role to play in this, but for the input they largely depend on the specific market knowledge of their fellow employees and the degree to which they reveal and share it with the rest of the organisation.
THE CALL FOR ETHICAL CONDUCT The importance of identity as a starting point for the communication, behaviour and symbols of an organisation is well established. Unfortunately, the concept of identity is in danger of being inflated. In a declining economy it can be especially tempting to adjust reality somewhat to fit one’s own views without actually substantiating them. The concept of brand was a product of economic crisis. An identity that has been conceived can display the same narcissistic tendencies. But the comparison with the concept of brand ends there. The difference today is that the man in the street knows what a brand is and is not convinced when identity is expressed as an instrument of an image which does not come from the personality of the organisation itself. The identity that has been conceived, the identity that has been used as a management tool—we won’t let things get this far.
ISSUE MANAGEMENT Issue management involves analysing issues, followed by actions to establish harmony between an organisation and society. An important concept in these issues is the ‘future’. Issue management is largely focused on making predictions. Issues are not isolated matters and so do not arise unexpectedly. Issues develop from a trend or even give rise to it. Issue management is an important function for organisations. In part based on it, things such as strategy, vision and mission are established. Its most important functions are to: 1. determine vision and mission; 2. determine position with respect to the organisation’s environment; 3. formulate strategy; 4. implement strategy; 5. adjust strategy; 6. evaluate strategy. Issue management is more than a task for the communication department. It must be supported by management in an organisation. Large organisations such as Schiphol Airport, Shell and Dutch Railways particularly employ specialists in this area. Many PR agencies also handle issue management for their clients. Reputation Management Reputation management concerns systematically working to establish the good name and the fame of a company for all interested parties, the so-called stakeholders. Maintaining this reputation is an important motivation for large companies to run their business in a socially responsible manner.
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The Corporate Governance Code in the Netherlands and the importance of socially responsible business practices are critical subjects today which force companies to express themselves on matters they would otherwise not talk about. In other words, thinking in terms of identity has become mandatory. There is absolutely no sympathy for communication messages that are not based on or followed up by proportionate achievements. Exorbitant salaries for the top management of charitable institutions which are run primarily by volunteers, a government body that spends millions on furnishing the accommodation of senior management, failing to include certain transactions in
1 Schematic representation of trends and their effects on the business world
Time
Production period
Democratisation period
Marketing period
Dominant economic factor Time
Dominant economic factor Politics
Dominant economic factor Internationalisation of the market
Goal Accelerating society for the benefit of the consumer society
Goal Continuation of entrepreneurs domain
Goal Controlling the product in different markets
Essence Just-in-time
Essence Acceptance of political influence
Essence Reproduction of quality = objectivising
1960ss
1 1970s
1980s Inflation of the standard Discovery of the brand
Discovery of the individual
Discovery of the individual
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Inflation of sectarianism
Inflation of participation
Business world
Consequence Putting limits into perspective
Consequence Putting power into perspective
Consequence Putting added (instrumental) value in perspective
New standard Demand for control = public influence
New standard Demand for differentiation = individual quality = fragmentation
New standard Demand for the subject = emotional value = perception
Figure 1: shows the phases of the market dynamic. At the beginning of the product life cycle (PLC) the organisation still has an exclusive pioneer’s role; from the market introduction the product has first unlimited and then limited growth and subsequently price and hyper competition. Half way way, the margin on the product begins to fall and the investment potential of the organisation declines. Where the (dashed) line of saturation intersects the PLC curve, is when the shake-out in the market commences. Just before the point where the difference between the PLC curve and the saturation line is greatest, a transition to a new standard must take place. The innovation moment that leads to a new product life cycle is crucial for the paradigm shift: the better an organisation can create the moment of innovation and carry it through to the actual implementation of a new product standard, the better its future is assured.
2 Product life cycle and McKinsey’s 7xS model
Shared values Strategy
Policy focus on
Methodd
S Structure
Hyper competition Price competition Limited growth
Unlimited growth
Paradigm shift – – – –
Stable innovation Experimentation Policy focus on
Culture
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Pragmatism
Skills
Staffing Realism
– – –
Figure 2: McKinsey indicates seven dimensions (7xS) for looking at an organisation. Shared Values Style Culture, atmosphere, style, attitude, social capital Skills Proficiencies capacities, levels, competences Staff Staffing human factors, co-workers, psychological capital Strategy Strategic plans, perspective point of view Systems Methods, procedures, functional organisation Structures Structure of forms of work, responsibilities, model
Identity period
Ethics period
Dominant economic factor Relationship with the client
Dominant economic factor Recognition of the consumer
Dominant economic factor Awareness of responsibility
Goal Keeping a grip on markets
Goal Transparency as proof of genuineness
Goal Self-interest is general interest
Essence Information provision
Essence Internally and externally shown leadership
Essence Legitimating
1990s
2000s
2010s
Discovery of effect
Discovery of the sender
Discovery of Consequence
Inflation of values and standards
Inflation of Personality
Inflation of Content
Communication period
Consequence Putting information into perspective
Consequence ‘License to operate’ instead of ‘genuine’ existence
Consequence Putting the intention into perspective. Ethics becomes morals and deconstructs into different culturally-charged concepts. It therefore fails as a guiding factor factor.
New standard Demand for identity = genuineness
New standard Demand for ethics = conscience
New standard Demand for insight = effect
3 Redefinition of culture, skills and staffing Shared values
Shared values 2.0 Shared values 1.0 Strategy
Interaction between business world and socially avant-garde Method
Structure
Paradigm change business community
Hyper competition Margin development
Price competition
Saturation of the market Limited growth
Innovation dynamics/rhythm of paradigm change Corporate identity
Unlimited growth
Stable innovation Experimentation Staffing Realism
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financial statements, doing business with governments that could not care less about human rights, transferring pollution-producing production processes to developing countries: we call on governments and organisations to account for themselves if their communication is not backed up by corresponding achievements. Although there are always companies and government organisations that would like to slip through unnoticed, we demand integrity from them and hold a trump card: the call for standards and values, for integrity even in business.
SOCIAL INNOVATION Economic growth in the Netherlands will increasingly have to be generated from social innovation instead of from technological innovation as it has been in the past. This concerns innovative organisation models, new forms of work, strategic leadership, and the realisation that a large part of the knowledge and expertise that a company needs lies with its employees. A study conducted among 9,000 organisations in the Netherlands has shown that, though we excel in developing knowledge in the sciences and technology, we are very bad at recognising knowledge, disseminating it within organisations and using it in the form of new products, services and processes. Social innovation is the reason for this. Only within an organisational structure that works well does innovation have a chance of success. Not only should it be clear where an organisation stands and what its ambitions are—its processes must also be in harmony with these. The basis for achieving this is the use of human capital through new structures and strategic leadership. Employees are no longer a production factor but a source of knowledge. That’s why it is smart in virtually all sectors to employ people from a range of age categories, with various levels of experience and from different cultural groups. In a socially innovative organisation, the talents of all employees are optimally used and personal motives are tapped into. If the personal ambitions and the ambitions of the organisation complement each other, this creates a win-win situation that produces success for both parties. Audrie van Veen
From Identity to Integrity Even though many companies were interested until recently only in the opinions of their shareholders, these days they have to satisfy all of society. For some organisations this is simply a matter of logic. For others it requires making radical changes to their operations. A good reputation is essential. A good reputation builds on itself, but is not simply a matter of good communication. The performance of an organisation is inextricably linked with its reputation. The two go hand in hand. This is what we have learnt from brand thinking: perception management is a trick people no longer fall for. We will no longer be satisfied when an organisation says, ‘Trust us’. We will say, ‘Show us’ and ‘Prove it’. Earning the trust of those who determine the reputation of a company will in the end require openness and interaction with this environment as a condition for being seen as an organisation that has integrity. The distance between a company and its environment is becoming obscured. In order for companies to stand closer to the environment around them, to make closer contact with society, networks will take on an increasingly larger role. Companies are developing feelers for what is going on in society via contacts with people everywhere. The network concept that is gradually taking the stage will only grow stronger. The distance between society and companies is being further reduced by the gap that has been created by a retreating government and the manner in which companies and people carry out the tasks left behind. A new division of responsibilities has come about among government, the market and the citizen. Citizens and companies are expected to make a contribution to the welfare and prosperity of the general population. This turns companies into social partners of the government and citizens. And the government sees the rise in the call for ethical behaviour and values as a starting point for economic actions.
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There are therefore different approaches that can be taken with respect to using standards and values as a
starting point to increase our ‘gross social product’, but it makes ethics a ‘hot’ item. As citizens, we increasingly turn—led to some degree by the media—to business and government. We think it is important for standards and values to be incorporated into the way in which an organisation goes about its business. Especially since some of these tasks used to be handled by government. We want operations in all layers of the organisation—not only in the words of the CEO—to be ethical. We want everyone to bear responsibility for their role within the organisation and for the responsibilities the organisation bears.
Facing the Consequences Total transparency and an organisation that engages in dialogue will lead to highly efficient and flexible group processes within and outside organisations. This change provides the ideal context in which to achieve innovation and creativity. Knowledge will be optimally shared and used, processes will run faster and more dynamically, and developments will proceed more rapidly based on new organisational structures. Investors will not hesitate to invest in such organisations, which will have a good reputation with other stakeholders and among the public. Organisations will thus go from strength to strength.
The role of the CEO here as the standardbearer of and the spokesperson for the organisation in imitation of large American companies is now playing itself out. We do not want a single personification of the organisation but the total one and integral accountability. Hiding behind the CEO or the proposition of the organisation will be a thing of the past.
Discovering the Impact The new organisation of companies and the coincidence of companies and society, citizens and employees will not be in dispute. They will take their own paths and prove themselves. We do expect values to be discussed as guidelines. We also expect them to be subject to inflation since, in practice, they will run up against too much resistance. This inflation will ensue from the actions of individuals. Though large groups of the population will initially not object, a number of pundits will fan the discussion and find more and more support for their views.
All of this will reduce the size of organisations. The required value-driven transparency calls for flexible and efficiently organised organisations. The demands of clients will guide the processes around which a network of small, structured groups will form and be active. The work supply will fluctuate sharply with the demand. Work will require more time in some weeks than it does in other weeks. Employees will bear responsibility for organising their own time for this work. Over time, this can also be done in various work environments by each person.
Ethics are perhaps no longer effective. But the effectiveness of increased flexibility has been shown. Apart from the discussion of standards and values connected to ethics, these organisations also operate optimally based on realism. Measurability and objectivity have in the end become guidelines for the economy. When standardisation makes ethics counter-productive so that it degenerates into issues of morality and thus incurs substantial resistance, organisations will not find it difficult to dispose of it as a starting point and trade it in for a different paradigm based on reality and impact. This will herald a new pragmatism: he who wins is right. This article was adapted from: ‘The Expressive Organisation—Working with Identity,’ a publication in 2005 of the Society and Enterprise Foundation.
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On the other hand, we can be held accountable because we too are a part of one or more networks in which the responsibilities we bear are value-driven. The debate reaches far and wide—responsibilities are borne and accounted for at every level. This will gradually remove the division between companies and society entirely. Each of us fulfils different roles in our lives—our role as a citizen, as a consumer and as a working person—and it is at that level that discussion will take place. This discussion is no longer between citizens and companies, but among citizens themselves. Citizens who take on these different roles, who must be accountable and explain themselves in the roles, and force one another to be transparent, honest and efficient.
In the end, ethics will degenerate into morality. Because of an inflexible, subjective interpretation, values will become norms, and that will spell the end of ethics as a guiding factor. Because of the tendency to interpret them subjectively, ethics are often counter-productive in the end, leading morality to break down into different culturally and politically charged viewpoints connected to the stages of economic development the Netherlands finds itself in at a given moment. A focus on the gap between knowledge-intensive, high-quality innovative organisations and the organisations that rely on them. Individually and within the sub-groups, people will search for a new form of realism. Insight into the impact this is having will be a primary focus. The extent of this impact will form the criterion.
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This entire situation requires organisations to change their operations. The organisations of the future will be value-directed. Management will trust the employees to give disciplined shape to the organisation’s core values. Accountability will thus reach the lower echelons of the organisation. The organisation will become transparent at all of its layers. And in exchange, we will give organisations our trust and they will be given the necessary license to operate.
VISION INVERVIEW WITH GERT JAN WOUDENBERG, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF TBI HOLDINGS
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‘I want TBI companies to be welcoming companies where people like to work and take the time to ask a colleague: how are things at home?’
‘TBI is a concern containing many old OGEM companies. In 1995 we began purchasing even more building and installation contractors. We noticed that our operating companies were sometimes too small to meet the selection criteria for tenders on large projects. This meant that it had to be made clear that our operating companies were a part of a larger whole and that this larger whole had the power to carry out such projects. At the time, we consciously chose to profile TBI as a network of companies, each with its own identity. Throughout this process, we always maintained that the operating companies were the foundation of the concern. They were free to set their own course and take independent decisions. We will never impose anything on the operating companies or try to implement a TBI culture. If you ask an employee of J.P. van Eesteren whether he would like to work for Heijmerink, he just might say that he would prefer not to. And that’s OK with us. All operating companies have their own culture. Each has its own particular feel, which has developed over the years. And something that has developed naturally is always better than something that has been conceived or imposed. We want to avoid becoming a large impersonal conglomerate. The operating companies of TBI should be welcoming—places where people like to work and take the time to ask a colleague: ‘how are things at home?’
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Network Structure ‘We want clients to see TBI Holdings as a modern network organisation made up of leading, respected companies. Companies that find it important to earn money, but that still attach great value to other things as well. How these companies interpret this is up to them. I know people who work at Shell whom I have asked in jest: ‘If I sawed you in half, would you be red and yellow inside?’ That doesn’t need
to be emulated by TBI in our view. We like the diversity found within TBI. What we especially value is the exchange of knowledge and the collaboration between the operating companies. Symbols play a part in this—we have created a TBI logo and house style, for instance. It was a real challenge, though. All of the various directors of the operating companies gathered around the table here. One thought the logo should be red, the other preferred blue. But it did get a process underway that encouraged the different construction companies to think about themselves as part of a larger whole. And the logo and house style have improved the collaboration between the operating companies. We work on the internal links between our operating companies in other ways as well. We publish a company paper called Zone that is sent to our clients, our 11,000 employees and to other stakeholders. In Zone, TBI regularly spotlights social phenomena that we face in our work. And, of course, we talk regularly with the boards of the respective operating companies about how we can work together better. That bears fruit. Operating companies voluntarily share knowledge with each other. When a company lands a project to build something with which another company from our network has experience, it doesn’t hesitate to pick up the phone. But it all requires an enormous amount of energy. So we take small steps. Still, we are convinced it is the only way to work: to encourage our network of 120 companies from the bottom up to work together and share knowledge. That is not how it is taught in some books, and it goes entirely against the established brand thinking that emphasises uniformity, yet it works well for us. For years we have ranked among the best companies when it comes to our return on invested capital. In recent years, only one director has resigned. And
of the 120 companies, 118 are running very well indeed.’ A Service-Oriented Leadership ‘The way in which TBI is structured as a network organisation also affects the way the company is managed. We do this very differently from other construction firms. We have a horizontally structured organisation in which enormous responsibility is given to the operating companies. Our board of directors communicates directly with the management boards of the operating companies, which can take all operational decisions independently. Ten years ago, TBI had a turnover of 1.2 billion guilders. Today the turnover is 2.0 billion euros. During the same period, the staff at the holding company increased from 21 to 23, which shows that, at TBI, entrepreneurship is conducted in the lowest echelons of the organisation.’ ‘A certain type of leadership fits with such a network structure. I call it a service-oriented leadership. In recent years, members of many boards of directors have expressly profiled themselves in the press. They think they are doing their company a good turn by doing so. Pure rubbish. The Board of Directors at TBI is there to express the values of TBI Holdings, not to profile the values of Gert Jan Woudenberg or Klaas Penning. TBI Holdings will simply continue when I leave. It is healthy to put the personal role you play in its proper perspective. For me it’s all about the reputation of TBI as a company. A company that builds and fits out buildings in the proper manner. Building up such a reputation and maintaining it is a long-term affair. It should not rely too much on any particular person. Reputation is something that you have to earn over
Zone is the corporate magazine of TBI and in each issue discusses a social theme in all of its dimensions, such as here: health care
Theme: infrastructure
Theme issue 25 years of TBI
important that our people are made aware that TBI places great value on such things. When that happens, our clients notice the difference. Many companies loudly proclaim the virtues of socially responsible business practices and fill half of their annual report on the subject. We do the reverse: we first want it to become embedded in the minds of our people. Only then will we consider writing about it.’ 37
Socially Responsible Business Practices ‘Day in, day out, TBI is engaged with the urban environment. It is the context in which we live—day in, day out. It involves a certain responsibility. We first have to earn a few cents with our projects, but with a little more effort we can also make sure that our surroun-
dings benefit from what we do as well. This is also true in a broader sense: a third of the profit earned by TBI—and with our turnover that is a considerable sum—goes to a foundation that uses it to finance socially relevant causes. Such as a student aid fund for the children of our employees, and a subsidy for, say, the restoration of buildings listed as historical monuments. The foundation does this anonymously. For us it is
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the long term because these values are anchored in the organisation.’
FROM SHIPBUILDING TO MECHANICAL ENGINEERING IHC MERWEDE
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Aad van Dommelen, Creative Director, Total Identity Luc van Woensel, Advisor, Total Identity
The history of IHC Holland Merwede is that of IHC Holland and Merwede Shipyard. Since 1992 the two companies have been joined under the same holding company: IHC Caland. In 2005 the companies continued their alliance under the name IHC Holland Merwede BV. The success of this group of companies, with their own strong identities, relies on their assets as a single company with a common focus and course.
& Mining, Offshore & Marine, and Technology & Services. IHC Merwede currently faces a decisive challenge. It comes down to integration—not in the sense of ‘everyone doing the same thing’, but in the sense of providing a unique, integral product that enables clients to operate efficiently. To meet the challenge, employees must understand the mission and the policy within the organisation and how they can contribute to it. This integration of values is essential to achieving a broader market orientation: building and maintaining high-quality capital goods for the dredging and offshore sectors.
IHC Holland Merwede has operated since 2007 under a different name: IHC Merwede. The activities have been reorganised in three divisions: Dredging
A critical success factor in this process is the employees. Through an extensive and consistent communication programme, they have been familiarised with the
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IHC Holland Merwede develops and builds for the dredging and the offshore sectors, for projects that guarantee a sustainable future for the world.
new corporate identity of their company. An important part of this is a so-called brand book. The identity of IHC Holland is presented in a clear and accessible manner in the publication. The brand book shows the choices for positioning and profiling, and the way in which this can be made visible in communication and preferred behaviour. The book also contains the corporate story of IHC Merwede. The brand book is an exclusive publication that has a unique, personalised character. It aims to inspire employees through text and to infuse the image that has been created into the range of ideas at IHC Merwede and the ambitions of the company.
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CONTEXT IS RENEWAL THE INNOVATIVE CAPACITY OF ORGANISATIONS
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Stephan Steins, publicist Hans P Brandt, Managing Director, Total Identity
Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say. ‘Innovation’ is an oft-heard slogan used by strategists in the widest range of social situations and knowledge-based challenges. Today innovation is considered to be the antiserum for those societies and national economies that are seriously threatened by the emerging markets in Eastern Asia. Not only have entire production divisions been created beyond the eastern horizon in recent decades, but this far-flung competition has also successfully realised or even surpassed quality standards which, up to now, were always considered to be exclusively European. This development has, slowly but surely, pulled the rug out from under the classic Western European economy as an industrial production area.
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In recent decades, a new global competition has begun between an ever-larger number of Asian countries and the traditional industrial powers. It is also becoming clear that the power of innovation will be the decisive factor in the end, because established positions and proven quality are no longer enough. At the same time, the contest between East and West is becoming a showdown between two worldviews. In the West, the issue is whether we can muster the level of critical capacity necessary to bring about a continual process of innovation. It also concerns the dynamic balance between constantly seeking innovation and knowing how to find it in time. In the East, things are different. There the question to be answered is: ‘To what extent are people capable, as a society, of making these innovative qualities their own?’ And so the Eastern ‘what do we do’ and the Western ‘how do we do it’ will face off. It means that Western communication, which aims to examine innovative development, will no longer be determined by the transfer of information (what), but by the clarity of a position (how). This challenge has direct consequences for the relationship between the client and the consumer, and for the resulting new development of demand that will occur when the interaction between producer and consumer intensifies. The new responsibi-
lity for companies will then consist in deciding how their influence over the development of supply and demand will be brought to bear. The Effect of Unsurpassed Quality In this situation, we like to think back on the old virtues of past industrial periods for which Europe was once famous: ingenuity, innovation and modernisation. Virtues that, in the post-war period, escaped the attention of companies for a time because they settled into a presumptuous and vain ‘Made in ...’ mindset. The unsurpassed quality of many European products and standards seemed to be enough to give them a long-term competitive advantage. So why invest in the development of innovation when the quality of production was already sufficient for economic success? In the competition with the emerging Asian markets, Europe has only recently begun to think again about structural competitive advantages. With respect to high-quality work locations, to the development of knowledge, to ecologically responsible future technologies and to complex production processes, the West can rely on its traditionally strong points. This was made possible to some extent by a change in business culture, brought about by an updated view of what that culture should be in light of the new definition of the concept of ‘innovation’. Dialogue between the Company and Its Environment We have to learn to understand innovation as a process that is broader than simply modernisation on a business and economic basis. Innovation is a sociological phenomenon that is based on the tradition of the Enlightenment, whose deepest desire—from a critical view of conventions and institutions and with an appeal to reason and knowledge—was to achieve the ‘liberation of man from his self-incurred state of immaturity’ (Immanuel Kant). To follow this line of thinking in the dialogue between a company and its environment, it is necessary to ensure that organisations and individuals act rationally. To begin with, it is important for the freedom to innovate and capacity for it to be present in the organisation. This occurs only within an open, creative culture of divergent thinking. Creating a culture
in which signals are picked up from the environment and the acquisition of knowledge is given priority is therefore the first condition. Next, people must possess the skills needed to implement relevant ideas and concepts in the best manner. Knowledge of the market, of technology, of society, and so on, is indispensable. Communication is the key in this process of exploration and revision. Giving shape to the discourse that bears fruit and making it functionally usable—that is the challenge that lies ahead for the disciplines of modern identity and communication design.
This concerns improvements or revisions of existing solutions and their application. It also pertains to services and their provision, communication with clients and target groups and, last but not least, improvements in the production, marketing and business processes themselves. Only in the integration of these challenges is an innovation dynamic achieved that reflects an awareness of the social context and makes this context its starting point. The gauging and stressing of social concepts and needs (the metronome of the market) are central parameters in this that form the basis for interaction between producers and consumers, and that continue to inspire the business culture in this area of tension. This dynamic between the sense of possibility and sense of reality forms the motivation behind a steady stream of paradigm changes within an organisation.
With the concept of ‘innovation’, an entirely new road has opened. Innovation not only focuses on ‘more’, but also, and especially, ‘different’—in which ‘more’ as a side effect is still desirable. Seventy-nine years ago, the economists Cobb and Douglas discovered that technological progress significantly influenced growth. They came up with a mathematical formula to express this. This in itself was innovative. Ten years later, Schumpeter discovered that growth does not continue uninterrupted because of technological progress, but occurs in cycles in which the progress continues to renew itself. To express this, Schumpeter came up with the concept of ‘basic innovation’. He remarked that innovation has not only technological but also organisational aspects. This too was an innovation. When we talk about innovation in the post-isms era we are in today, we have to ask the following question: How should our culture develop in order to avoid the feeling— with the onset of increasingly faster progress—of being ‘too late’ and in order to pluck the fruits that it bears? We cannot stop time, but we can revise the rules of the game. We have to start with people—ourselves, our culture. A new term could perhaps be: post-innovative development. Language can also be innovative—or at least inspire innovation.
Manuel Demetz
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From Communication Comes New Culture The new (innovation) requires a corresponding (organisational) culture to come about in the first place and to make headway. This should make it possible for the idea to grow in a stable process of innovation into a product that is ripe for the market. Then the culture has to ensure that the consumer recognises the idea and believes in it.
GROWTH, INNOVATION OR FORMATION? A growth-oriented society can develop without glorifying a collective ideology, but it cannot do without ideologically inspired keywords. ‘Innovation’ and ‘growth’ are words whose specific significance is adapted to the context in which they are used. Although ‘growth’ originally had a biological meaning, it is also associated with negative connotations such as ‘exploitation’ and ‘the law of the jungle’. In many discussions, the word ‘growth’ is difficult to combine in a single sentence with climate-friendly measures. Yet people do not want to continue to grow in the manner that has been common up to now.
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Determining the Playing Field Identity, brand and visual manifestation serve as a set of instruments in the realm of communication for transferring what is learnt from the debate to a broader group of people. The target group—the individual, the organisation, society—has learnt in its communication to anticipate the function of identity, brand and manifestation. Latitude is also created for the social phenomenon of ‘innovation’ to take shape. For the process of innovation and the communication surrounding it, this means that the target group must be addressed in terms that it understands and relates to. The logic of revised business models is offered to the consumer in the form of transforming experiences in a traditional context. Two issues come to the fore here: communicating and initiating the innovation process within the company and, corresponding to this, achieving social awareness.
The integration of standards and values, or the implementation of management principles throughout the organisation, is becoming an essential part of the development of a knowledge-based organisation in general and the process of innovation in particular.
Discourse
Key insights: strategic capacity
Chapter
No Reason to Delay
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Science
Network and organisational culture
Key insights: organisational capacity
Key insights: anticipatory capacity
Vitality
The corporate identity manifests itself in the degree to which the organisation is able to translate the metronome of the market internally to paradigm changes and the resulting capacity for innovation. As a result of the speed at which it anticipates, the organisation becomes visible as an innovator, an early adapter or a follower. The market leader in a sector sets the (innovation) metronome of a market through its capacity for innovation. The followers see this strength as a guideline, or as the leading dynamic. The manner in which an organisation relates to this dynamic characterises its corporate identity. If innovation is the goal and, in line with this, communication the instrument to launch or anticipate social processes, an organisation can flourish only if it orients itself to the cultural and ethical discourse going on in society. Entrepreneurship based on an attitude that refrains from social engagement is no longer imaginable in today’s society. The Three Cultural Perspectives The cultural/social context within which an organisation is active leads to insight into, and awareness of, one’s own operation. This forms the basis for the strategic, organisational and anticipatory capacity of the company. The cultural context is the beginning of all innovation. At the same time, innovation itself can be understood as a cultural expression.
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Organisational Culture Based on Social Responsibility Socially responsible business practice should mean more than a positive image. A credible, authentic approach to social challenges is increasingly becoming an essential criterion for the right of organisations to exist.
Organisational Culture Based on Knowledge Through objectified expertise, knowledge clarifies social awareness and social processes. In this way, knowledge has an important connecting function to fulfil for the discussion between the businessperson’s sense of what is possible (will) and the reality of the market (feasibility). Social awareness, which can be summed up as the expression of the collective intelligence of consumers, also requires objective verification. Freedom of movement for business is therefore limited and, at the same time, stimulated by the increasing intelligence of the consumer. This means that the organisational culture continually has to prove its legitimacy by corresponding with standards and values that are now socially accepted. Organisational Culture Based on Vitality? The technological possibilities for realising innovation are unknown. The provision of better service and the optimisation of processes have been improved, intensified and optimised by knowledge and technology. Without this knowledge, chains could not be linked. The emergence of virtual worlds such as Second Life ensures that an organisation must communicate in two directions. In addition to traditional communication, an organisation also has to convey what it stands for in a virtual world. The question is whether an organisation is able to handle communicating to various social environments without losing itself. Play it, Baby… The interaction of people’s social discourse, knowledge and vitality creates the cultural context for our innovative actions and the basis for a strong corporate identity. Because new challenges are emerging: so the question is no longer ‘Who are you?’, but ‘What do you do?’ and especially, ‘How do you do that?’ Brands are being superseded by ethical discourse, suggestions are being replaced by standards and values, and marketing is being embedded in corporate publishing... To launch and carry out the process of innovation, organisations are advised to seek the stage themselves, take a position, and become a player and an active subject. Fruitful interaction with the market and the ensuing incentives which launch the processes of renewal cannot be decreed. As mentioned above, it is all about creating a free, conceptual (mental) space in which creativity is given free rein without limits. The new would not be new if it were predictable. A real qualitative enrichment of knowledge ensues from a challenging process. Losing our way, we fail, we run aground, only to start over and give it another go. None of this is seen as taking risks, but as unleashing driving forces on the basis of which innovation can flourish. Organisations and companies
are becoming their own training colleges. We no longer wait for the impetus to come from the outside so we can assimilate it. We now develop ourselves into pioneers of social renewal. Not behind closed doors, but out in the open for our stakeholders to see—making it clearly visible how knowledge and creativity go hand in hand.
We leave behind our personal baggage when necessary. We strive to liberate ourselves from anachronisms. Liberation here means: going beyond one’s personal story—beyond being right. We create, and change knowing into being aware. This forms the basis for our actions. Organisations are leaving behind their position—an orientation point focused inward—and transforming themselves from a closed structure to an open entity. Out of ‘organisation people’ with their valuable position and competence, seen in fairly narrow terms within the company, come ‘network people’ who surpass their own abilities and see themselves as the ones who make and use connections. ‘Organisation people’ were managed and trained on the basis of their characteristics—qualifications, specialisation and definition. In contrast, ‘network people’ emerge as more or less freely associated, active directors of that knowledge they have that is applicable within the network. In this relationship they have the potential to influence other individuals and processes, and to be influenced.
Concept of the network
Complexity
Transformation as the Way and the Goal To achieve the right climate for innovation, a change in awareness on the part of individuals and organisations is necessary. If we seriously try to implement our plan to take a stand within social dialogue and act as commentators, we will become a part of sociological processes which we help to initiate, which we then respond to and which, most importantly, change us. Communication puts social processes in motion; design makes innovation manifest. Organisations choose a climate that changes our behaviour—from being organisations that are led, to communities with a capacity for self-governance, from employee (I) to sources of inspiration (we).
Knowledge development
Expectation: Knowledge which the (transformed) individual can handle in a networ network
Concept of an organisation
Knowledge which can be handled by individuals
Less and less fuss (of limitations) More and more fuss
ƒ ƒ
Human network; ƒ measured by connection
Human organisation; ƒ measured by suitability
Time From organisation person to network person (insight of Peter Verburgt)
Summary In the climate of innovation sketched above, the individual and organisations are faced with the challenge of developing a keen social awareness based on communication with their environment. Under the influence of this communication, resources are opened up to paradigm changes. New concepts and a changed attitude serve as the source of the capacity for innovation, and ensure that the organisations actually change internally. This enables them to face the current global competition.
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Modern corporate identity management can make the connection between the innovative dynamics of organisations and the self-awareness of the network person.
CENTRE FOR INNOVATION AND COMMUNICATION TIS INNOVATION PARK Léon Stolk, Senior Designer, Total Identity Manuel Demetz, Senior Advisor, TI Total Identity (Italy) Wilco Lensink, Senior Designer, TI Total Identity (Italy)
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Netzwerke Techno Innovation Südtirol (TIS) was created through the merger of two public organisations: the Business Innovation Center (BIC) and the Cluster Alpine Network (CAN). The autonomous Italian province of Bolzano founded these organisations with the aim of increasing the strength of economic innovation in this Alpine region. The BIC was founded as a centre for start-up companies. The CAN was meant to stimulate cross-sector collaboration between companies. To form an innovative business climate for businesspeople, college graduates and politicians, the decision was made to bring their shared ambitions together. Network possibilities and the sharing of knowledge in a physical environment. An analysis of the internal and external images of the companies served as the starting point for the corporate identity programme. With the findings of the study in hand, the spearheads of the new organisation were established. In phase 2, the identity matrix was developed. Then the strategic objectives and the brand policy were set. The position given to the themes and values in the identity matrix formed the basis for the design. The themes were the starting point for the design of the iconographic elements, the values, the basis for the style elements. The structure for the identity of the TIS logo is monolithic. The fact that no visual sub symbols are used reinforces the feeling of solidarity and stimulates internal collaboration. A special aspect of the logo itself is the fact that it functions as a guiding element. Depending on the operative business parameters (turnover, net profit or equity capital), it can be adapted visually. ‘Literally and figuratively’, it bears witness to the state of affairs at TIS: openness that fosters appreciation.
Zentrum für Wissenstransfer Gründer zentrum
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50 Grafik A -Parameter Y = Bruto Sozial Produkt Süd-Tirol -Parameter X = Umsatz TIS
Grafik B -Parameter Y = Wirtschaftswachstum Süd-Tirol -Parameter X = Wirtschaftswachstum Italien
120000 Grafik C -Parameter Y = Netto Gewinn -Parameter X = Eigen Kapital
Die Parameter bilden einen inhaltlichen Schwerpunkt für die Ausarbeitung eines Quartalsbericht (alle 3 Monate). Das Logo wird zu einem visuellen Steuerungsinstrument und fördert Transparenz Datum
12 2006
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THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESS OF HARMONISATION OBTAINING A PREFERENTIAL POSITION IN THE LABOUR MARKET
Chapter
No Reason to Delay
Part
II
Willemijn van der Houwen, Senior Advisor, Total Identity
In addition to the usual employment contract in which economic and legal obligations are established, the employer and employee also implicitly enter into a ‘psychological contract’. This contract pertains to the identification (and thus loyalty) of the employee with his job and/or employer. This loyalty can be based on an exchange of matters that can be objectively measured, or on intrinsic values. This combination produces a spectrum of four types of employee in which the attitude and behaviour of people are described. This information forms the basis for using HRM tools and for giving shape to internal dialogue and labour-market communication. A narrow focus on the recruitment of people—a mistake often made in times of labour shortages—can tend to undermine the loyalty of the existing employees. More than an ad hoc response to direct needs, labour-market communication should be a permanent psychological process of co-ordination, both internally and externally.
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The Dutch Labour Market The Netherlands is developing into a service economy in which a high degree of explicit knowledge is computerised. This has increased the importance of having implicit knowledge ‘in house’. Organisations should nurture the implicit knowledge they have and act in accordance with it—they should retain the people with this knowledge and ensure they remain loyal. We also see that organisations form an integral whole with society. Because of growing individualism in society, employees feel less committed to a single employer—they endeavour to meet their own professional needs in a range of areas. They seek personal development as well as varied and challenging work. They literally link organisations together, which leads to the formation of a sizable network among the organisations themselves and between the organisations and society. To tie people to an organisation, the psychological process of establishing harmony (rapport) between employer and employee is important. Employers have to realise that, apart from having an employment contract with their employees, they also enter into a psychological contract.
Psychological Contract – a Spectrum A psychological contract reflects the unwritten and unspoken expectations existing between employer and employee. A balance must be struck between the psychological contract and the written and spoken expectations. The psychological contract encompasses three aspects (M. Sonnenberg, 2006): –perceived employee obligations, such as the obligation to co-operate –perceived employer obligations, such as giving employees room to develop and providing them with a good work climate; –the degree to which the employee has the feeling that the employer is meeting its obligations. Though the economic and legal obligations between employer and employee are specified in the formal employment contract, they are not explicit in the psychological contract. As a result, they are open to subjective interpretation by employees and depend on the degree to which they meet the expectations of the employer. This interdependence of subjectivity and interpretation is subject to opinions and changes within society. The psychological contract is important because it influences the attitude and behaviour of an employee with respect to the organisation being worked for. Within the given fact that, in addition to an employment contract, an employee enters into a psychological contract with his employer, we can discern four types of employee: committed, fascinated, inspired and driven. Committed employees commit themselves to the identity and mission of the organisation. They throw their lot in with the organisation. Fascinated employees feel themselves drawn to the work itself, to the possibilities for development, to their colleagues and to the conditions of employment. They are perhaps willing to throw their lot in with the organisation, but only as long as this appeals to them. Driven employees feel intrinsically drawn by the nature of the organisation. Perhaps the organisation interests them because it is a platform from which they can realise their
Individu
Geboeid Bijv. gefocust op groei
Gedreven Bijv. gefocust op invloed
Loyaal aan organisatie Missie & identiteit van de organisatie
Ge誰nspireerd Bijv. gefocust op identificatie
Gebonden Bijv. gefocust op zekerheid en stabiliteit
Interessant
Relevant Bijv. maatschappelijk
photography: Aatjan Render
Loyaal aan zichzelf Eigen doelen en identiteit
Finally, there are the inspired employees. Like painters who draw their inspiration from their muse, these employees draw their inspiration from the nature of the organisation. They are extrinsically motivated. Their goals are primarily focused on identification. By placing these four types of employee in a spectrum, it can be determined where these employees are concentrated within an organisation. When an organisation is aware of this, it can employ various communication (and HRM) tools to retain different employees for the organisation. With the aid of a mentality scan, the organisation can measure where the employees lie along this spectrum. It can also determine whether this needs to change and,
if so, what the content of the communication message should be. The spectrum helps organisations ascertain whether they want (or even must) recruit people that fit in with the current staff or whether they should seek people who think differently in order to ensure renewal in the organisation. It would therefore be realistic to say that there is a link between the way an organisation functions and the predominant type of employee that works at the organisation. For example: if predominantly committed people work there, then this requires a different communication approach to initiate processes of change than would be used for fascinated employees. The Mentality Scan of Total Identity Using a quantitative mentality scan, we measure how the identity of organisations is viewed and experienced among the target groups (the employees), the extent to which they endorse the ambitions of the organisation, and how they conduct themselves in line with these ambitions. The scan 47
own goals. Their loyalty is thus tied to individual goals, such as the possibilities for development.
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consists of groups of questions. For each question, the scan tests the degree of importance respondents attach to a particular subject (objectives, values, ambitions of the organisation) and how they assess their own attitude to the subject. The types of employee discerned by the essay can be identified in this manner. Loyalty Loyalty grows to an important degree because employees are proud of their employer, its mission and its products/ services, in part because of the perspective that is given them inside the company and the dynamics within which this develops. The management of an organisation can, to a certain extent, influence this loyalty by acting clearly and consistently, and by communicating. The goal of the communication is to ensure that employees experience developments within the organisation—such as changes in the organisation strategy or even the job descriptions for positions—less as a violation of their psychological contract by making sure they are not confronted by unexpected matters. These expectations are managed through communication by management and the Human Resources department. So communication plays an important role in producing committed, fascinated, inspired and driven employees. A New Definition of Labour-Market Communication All this makes it expedient to take a critical look at the most commonly used definitions of labour-market communication and to fine tune them. Total Identity defines labour-market communication as: ‘A strategic management instrument that is based on the belief that people are an organisation’s critical factor for success. The communication’s goal is to position the organisation as an employer on the external and internal labour market in order to recruit and retain good quality people using all available means of communication.’ With this definition we indicate that labour-market communication is a continual process of harmonisation in which the corporate business model and the business strategy dictate what the communication about the organisation should say. This definition also shows that labour-market communication is a form of marketing communication and corporate communication. The ‘selling’ of the organisation as a potential employer and the exchange of messages between groups or persons that are a part of the internal and external field of stakeholders is, after all, an important part of this. A mix of the four types of employees seems to be essential to realising a certain degree of continuity. If, for example, if only driven employees worked at an organisation, an exodus could ensue as soon as these employees started to have doubts about the organisation’s integrity during crises.
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What does this mean with respect to labour-market communication? It is becoming increasingly important for organisations
to profile themselves on the labour market from the perspective of their identity, their ambition. This can partly be pursued by positioning the organisation in a distinctive manner on the labour market (presenting an employer brand). Yet, because of the relatively large supply of employers and the critical attitude of job-seekers, a strategy of enticement is not enough. People looking for work do not take the first offer they get. They carefully consider whether they can commit themselves to a certain organisation. Discerning job-seekers will ask themselves the extent to which an organisation’s values—which are expressed in its culture, mission and vision—and its ambition correspond to their own personal values and ambitions. Large companies generally work with generic claims and reinforce these claims by using an onslaught of media. Organisations would be wise not always to participate in this media deluge, but to seek a common cause with potential employees by linking an original recruitment strategy to a distinctive claim in the market that fits seamlessly with the identity of the organisation in question. With the mentality scan, the employer can ascertain what type of people it now employs and whether it wants to look for the same type of employee. By knowing what type of employee it is looking for, it can adapt its communication to them. This enables it to increase its chances of drawing the attention of the right people to its job openings and perhaps even arouse their interest. In short, knowing what type of employee currently works in an organisation gives it a significant advantage in its communication with the external and internal labour market. The strength of a good employer brand lies in the implicit or perhaps even explicit communication of the organisation’s ambition and values. The diagram illustrates an organisation that has different core values to which individuals within the organisation (should) adhere. These values are the foundation of the organisation’s identity. Through knowledge of what values have priority within the organisation, contact can be sought with people who hold the same values. What an organisation wishes to say about itself does not by definition have to correspond with what someone wants to hear about a potential employer. The organisation should not try to sell itself, but should make it clear that it provides a platform/network where the fascinated, driven, inspired or committed employee can work. This means that an organisation must design its external and internal labour-market communication outside in instead of inside out. Experiencing Identity People have become more critical about the messages they hear every day and therefore about what organisations say about themselves. That is why it is important for organisations to substantiate their claims by giving potential employees the opportunity not only to see the organisation, but also to experience it. This distinction
Core values/Key themes Message (external labour market communication) The market W&S process
The organisation
(external AMC*) Personnel complement
(internal AMC*) Influx
(external AMC*)
Boomerang recruitment Outflow Living and experiencing the identity * AMC stands for labour-market communication
In developing labour-market strategies, Total Identity thinks from the perspective of the collective ambition of an organisation. The concept is not the first thing to be creatively established. First, without using of any resources, it is ascertained who the target group is, where their professional interests lie, what drives them, and how they can serve the ambition of the organisation from the perspective of their individual values. Once this is known, we develop the strategy to approach this target group and determine what media/means best fit this goal. We look for means that make it possible for the employer to profile itself and for the target group to see and experience the organisation. The images and the means creatively determined are not the starting point for the strategy. It is the strategy and the target group that serve as guidelines for determining the means to be used and the development of a distinctive concept.
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If it is assumed that the promise made externally corresponds with ‘reality’, it could look like the diagram above. Of course in times of scarcity the focus might shift from internal to external communication. But if an organisation fails to engage in internal and external labour-market communication, the price it will pay as a result will outstrip any benefits, since the chance is real that, in a dynamic economy, the outflow of personnel will be substantial. After all, the promises made do not correspond with reality. The smaller the amount of energy an organisation puts into its labour-market communication, the smaller the return on investment will be. Job-seekers are confronted with so many different communication messages from organisations that it is difficult for employers to draw their attention to their own organisation. Yet it is this attention that is so very important. The first essential step is simply to get people interested in the organisation. Grabbing their attention can pique their interest, and this in turn can lead to them taking action. The (potential) employer that does its best to make the psychological and emotional processes (the values) ‘tangible’ by letting prospective employees see and experience its company
should be able to recruit and retain people and, if necessary, bring them back into the fold.
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is made because there is a real difference between the two. Seeing involves a physical process. Experiencing involves a mental process in which intangible experiences are given a cognitive frame of reference and enjoyed (Nijs and Peters, 2002). Organisations should realise this when substantiating their claims. Simply communicating the fact that they are distinctive because of the value of their ‘knowledge’ is not enough. Job-seekers want both to see and to experience the organisation in light of its key values and themes. That is, they want to see and experience the corporate identity. They assess the organisation based on the degree to which what they see and experience corresponds with what they hope to find, i.e., that it is in harmony with their own values and ambitions. A psychological process of harmonisation takes place.
WINDOW ON THE WORLD YNNO
Chapter
No Reason to Delay
Part
II
Inge Sijpkens, Advisor, Total Identity Léon Stolk, Senior Designer, Total Identity
YNNO is the leading consultancy for innovative work. Under the name Twynstra Work Innovation, it was for years a part of Twynstra Gudde. In 2006 it was repositioned. Firstly, the name YNNO was invented—it is pronounced ‘you know’. It calls up associations with ‘innovation’ when the y is pronounced as an i. The letter y also has a subtle link with Twynstra Gudde. Innovation and a service organisation form the core of the strategy. These were further expressed in the creative concept.
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YNNO wants to support clients in realising new ways of working. By implementing efficient work processes, smart knowledge-sharing and an innovative
work environment, people will be able to work together better. The underlying principle of the concept was the sharply focused image that YNNO had to have of the client’s world: an open view finder, a window on the world. YNNO is interested in an innovative corporate design with an ‘invisible’ hallmark. It is a literal visualisation of the window on the world. The corporate design also has a link to the digital world. All measurements are based as much as possible on screen formats. The colours come from the RGB colour palette and the house-style typeface is Arial. Pictures of industrial landscapes in the corporate design show the consultancy areas in which YNNO is active. To give YNNO an
even more surprising and original identity, the logo has been placed vertically. The printed material is extremely personalised: all employees have their own templates, with a photo of the person in question. Printing on demand is used frequently. Internal communication is exactly the same as external. Everyone can follow the story of YNNO. Transparency in it clearest form.
Marjo de Haan Mobile +31 6 53 46 96 77 marjo.de.haan@ynno.com
Bert Baas Mobile +31 6 53 46 96 77 bert.baas@ynno.com
Léon Stolk Mobile +31 6 53 46 96 77 leon.stolk@ynno.com
Stationsplein 1 P.O. Box 907 3800 AX Amersfoort The Netherlands Telephone +31 33 467 73 33 www.ynno.nl
Stationsplein 1 P.O. Box 907 3800 AX Amersfoort The Netherlands Telephone +31 33 467 73 33 www.ynno.nl
Stationsplein 1 P.O. Box 907 3800 AX Amersfoort The Netherlands Telephone +31 33 467 73 33 www.ynno.nl
Ine J. Voorbeeld Mobile +31 6 53 46 96 77 ine.j.voorbeeld@ynno.com
Marianne Maria anne B. Voorbeeld Mobile +31 6 53 46 96 77 Mobile maria anne.b.voorbeeld@ynno.com m marianne.b.voorbeeld@ynno.com
Karin van Gaal Mobile +31 6 53 46 96 77 karin.van.gaal@ynno.com
Stationsplein 1 P.O. Box 907 3800 AX Amersfoort The Netherlands Telephone +31 33 467 73 33 www.ynno.nl
Stationsplein 1 Statio onsplein p P.O. Box 907 3800 AX Amersfoort The Netherlands Telephone +31 33 467 73 33 www.ynno.nl
Stationsplein p 1 P.O. Box 907 3800 AX Amersfoort The Netherlands Telephone +31 33 467 73 33 www.ynno.nl
22 oktober 2006 Ons kenmerk 000000 Uw kenmerk 000000
Geachte heer Brandt, YNNO Postbus 907 1016 GV Amsterdam Leliegracht 17 1016 AP Amsterdam
Het begrip huisstijl is een versimpelde vertaling van het begrip ‘corporate identity’; het is een verzameling van gecoördineerde uitingen van een onderneming of instelling. Een huisstijl maakt iets zichtbaar. In het gunstigste geval geeft deze verzameling een juist beeld van die onderneming of instelling.
Total Identity T.a.v. de heer H.P Brandt Postbus 12480 1100 AL AMSTERDAM
Corporate Identity
Telefoon (020) 467 77 00 www.ynno.nl
Een ‘juist’ beeld moet worden opgevat als een beeld dat sfeermatig een afspiegeling is van een activiteitenpatroon en van de doelstellingen. Slechts zelden kan een visueel programma een letterlijke vertaling zijn; dat is alleen mogelijk voor zeer enkelvoudige ondernemingen, bijvoorbeeld voor bedrijven die slechts een standaardprodukt leveren.
KvK 00000000
Een goede huisstijl is niet automatisch een weerspiegeling van de indruk die het publiek heeft van een onderneming. Imago heeft meer te maken met ‘het gedrag’ van een onderneming dan met de visualisering ervan. In principe is het eenvoudiger om een goede huisstijl te ontwikkelen dan een imago te sturen. Naar buiten toe kan men refereren aan iets tastbaars, iets dat zichzelf is.
Met vriendelijke groet,
Henk J. Probeer
Geachte heer Brandt, Het begrip huisstijl is een versimpelde vertaling van het begrip ‘corporate identity’; het is een verzameling van gecoördineerde uitingen van een onderneming of instelling. Een huisstijl maakt iets zichtbaar. In het gunstigste geval geeft deze verzameling een juist beeld van die onderneming of instelling. Een ‘juist’ beeld moet worden opgevat als een beeld dat sfeermatig een afspiegeling is van een activiteitenpatroon en van de doelstellingen. Slechts zelden kan een visueel programma een letterlijke vertaling zijn; dat is alleen mogelijk voor zeer enkelvoudige ondernemingen, bijvoorbeeld voor bedrijven die slechts een standaardprodukt leveren.
YNNO Postbus 907 1016 GV Amsterdam Leliegracht 17 1016 AP Amsterdam Telefoon (020) 467 77 00 lwww.ynno.nl KvK 00000000
Retouradres: Postbus 907, 1016 GV Amsterdam
22 oktober 2006 Ons kenmerk 000000 Uw kenmerk 000000
T.a.v. de heer H.P Brandt Postbus 12480 1100 AL AMSTERDAM
Corporate Identity
Een goede huisstijl is niet automatisch een weerspiegeling van de indruk die het publiek heeft van een onderneming. Imago heeft meer te maken met ‘het gedrag’ van een onderneming dan met de visualisering ervan. In principe is het eenvoudiger om een goede huisstijl te ontwikkelen dan een imago te sturen. Naar buiten toe kan men refereren aan iets tastbaars, iets dat zichzelf is. Een goede huisstijl is niet automatisch een weerspiegeling van de indruk die het publiek heeft van een onderneming. Imago heeft meer te maken met ‘het gedrag’ van een onderneming dan met de visualisering ervan. In principe is het eenvoudiger.
Met vriendelijke groet, groet,
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Karin van Gaal Program manager hjk@ynno.nl
MANAGING IDENTITY IS MANAGING COMMITMENT
No Reason to Delay
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Arend-Jan Eshuis, Senior Advisor GITP / Chairman of GITP Academy
Human resources management focuses on people. The identity management of an organisation, too, is focused on its members: how they experience this identity or even express it. So it was natural that the link between HRM and identity management would be made at some time. Arend-Jan Eshuis, organisational psychologist at the Dutch HR consultancy firm GITP, is someone who explicitly assigns a role to HR in the identity management of organisations.
What was it that ensured that identity issues were considered in HRM? The HR function gradually penetrated the domain of management. Managers are given a large role in the management and development of personnel, and the HR perspective is becoming ever-more important in the discussion of organisational strategy. The identity and competence of the organisation often coincide with the competencies of individuals and teams. When they do, the importance of HR increases. Are there other changes that were responsible for the rapprochement between HR and identity management? It began with social developments such as democratisation, the trend towards individualism, the disintegration of dominant value systems and the associated socio-political groups, and so on. Yet people want to belong to a group. So now other organisations are providing the sense of belonging and meaning. What was once simply a source of income is now, for many people, an environment in which to blossom. Even clients and other stakeholders are eager to be associated with companies that have something that they value. This has consequences for the role of HRM. It also affects the manner in which an organisation communicates its identity.
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Interaction as Supplier with Extra Value How do companies react to this? They began by looking at themselves differently. In the past, people saw an organisation as a type of machine: if you pulled the right lever, you obtained the desired
effect. Now people use the metaphor of a living organism. An organism that does not exist in its own right, but is linked with its environment. Such an organism can evolve, develop, and learn. This is an area that concerns both identity and the HR issue. People assess companies now on other grounds as well. Yes. The added value that people expect from a company is not linked so much to the products—they increasingly resemble those of the competition—but to the contact with the company. The interaction between service provider and client has become more important. This led to an HR policy in which competencies were the central focus, and as an extension of this: knowledge and experience. But with competence management alone we fall short of this. From Competence to Commitment What do you mean? The behaviour of employees is increasingly the means by which a distinction is created. In their work, employees try to find meaning based on values, personal choices and insight into themselves. But we also rediscover that relationships, community and mutual understanding are necessary for a long-term collaboration—and therefore for a successful organisation. I sum this up with the term commitment. Commitment is necessary so employees can give their work meaning. Individual needs and organisational objectives can co-exist here. That seems very optimistic. Yes, and yet it’s unavoidable. Anyone who feels committed will not restrict themselves to: ‘What will I get out of it?’, but will ask themselves: ‘Working with others, what do I want to accomplish?’ Investing in Social Capital What can HR do in the field of identity management against the background of all these developments? From HR an atmosphere can be encouraged in which renewal is possible. Organisations that are successful in the long term seem to be able to modernise and retain their core values and skills at the same time. They can also communicate their underlying values and associated
rules of conduct well. This encourages responsible actions among their people. Thirdly, mutual trust is necessary because it enables people to share knowledge and give feedback. People also dare to take initiative—and that is necessary to launch renewal. All of these things make up the social capital of the organisation, which HR must invest in. This social capital contains the individual competency and knowledge management, but there is also a connection with the collective level. Social capital also serves as the bridge between explicit and implicit knowledge development.
And what about HRM’s traditional set of instruments? Recruitment and selection, evaluation and reward, training and development: these remain important tools, but they are now being employed more broadly. HR will increasingly be the initiator of learning-and-development processes, even at the collective level. The HR person responsible becomes a social architect who takes part in thinking about what the identity of the organisation is. They also supply the right resources and processes to help this identity grow in all layers of the organisation.
From the beginning of this historical development, people pondered whether women would display an innately feminine political talent, or at least have a political style that was clearly different from that of men. Clichés were thrown around about men and women, and people thought they could discern differences in the content and form of their respective use of language in public. But after objectively considering the matter, thus passing over any emotional aspects, we have to acknowledge that such ideas are untenable. On the one hand, the actual possibilities for exercising influence at the national and international level are overestimated. On the other, the example of Margaret Thatcher shows that women are very able in leadership positions to excel in qualities that are generally seen as characteristics of masculine social behaviour. The benefit for the social debate comes primarily from the fact that the image of the woman’s role in society can now definitively be adjusted and thus contribute to a wider acceptance of emancipated role models. Alexandra de Bruijne
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HR as Social Architect In what fields can HR work on this social capital? We know the first level: competency development. But we have to search for the so-called meta-competencies that enable a person to learn in a changed environment— initiative, responsibility, collaboration, integrity, and so much more. Competencies that not only improve daily achievements, but also form the basis for selfconfidence and versatility. Secondly, HR should promote social capital by encouraging interaction and collective learning processes. The implicit and explicit conveyance of standards and rules of conduct is a condition that is necessary in order for these processes it get off the ground. A third point on which HR should focus is psychological capital: increasing commitment and loyalty by promoting the independence, the self-esteem and the resilience of employees.
WOMEN IN POWER When in 1968 the black American civil-rights activist Charlene Mitchell ran as a third-party candidate against Nixon in the presidential election, it was particularly symbolic for the newly developed self-awareness of women in Western societies. A socialist, Mitchell not only challenged traditional patriarchal structures, she threw the door open for women of every political persuasion. It would be another eleven years before the British conservative politician Margaret Thatcher—under different political circumstances—was elected Europe’s first female Prime Minister in 1979.
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Can you give examples of implicit knowledge development? Generally this involves processes of socialisation pertaining to the transfer of values and rules of conduct, the adoption of successful problem solutions, the building up of networks. This socialisation applies not only to new employees, it is a form of collective learning that lasts throughout a person’s career. Someone that invests in their social capital is actually perpetuating and developing the organisational identity. And this identity inspires commitment and provides stability. It ensures that an organisation does not get blown off course during the first storm that blows.
THE CAMPFIRE: ORGANISING WISDOM GITP
GITP is a leading consulting firm specialised in human-resources development. The firm began to see its margins decline. The service from which it once achieved its successes— the assessment—was increasingly up against greater competition. The solution appeared not to be the continual expansion of the services portfolio. To make the transition to a more decisive, more market-oriented GITP, a strategy was developed after market analysis that, in any case, diverges from the fixed patterns. The consulting firm is returning to its origins in the assessment and development of people, both professionally and personally. Both within the organisation where people work and within the society of which people are a part. A direct result of this is the Campfire, an initiative for a lively exchange between society, professions, business practice and experts. The name alludes to the place where Indians sat around the fire in times past and told stories. The Campfire is an innovative knowledge platform and stands for a series of round-table meetings at which decision-makers, pundits and experts debate with GITP about current themes. GITP organises the Campfire several times a year, which results in a stream of publications, CDs, DVDs and podcasts. The themes discussed are leadership, diversity and future trends. Videoreport: Bart van der Horst
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No Reason to Delay
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Hans P Brandt, Managing Director, Total Identity Léon Stolk, Senior Designer, Total Identity
The book: everything in black and white and in perspective. Cartoons: Maarten Wolterink The DVD: Short video report on the meeting – action, emotion.
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The CD: An almost complete account of the discussion. – floor.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY GUIDING DEVELOPMENT OR EMPTY SHELL?
No Reason to Delay
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Barbara Brian, Senior Advisor, Total Identity Manuel Demetz, Senior Advisor, TI Total Identity (Italy)
Because of a lack of sufficient basic knowledge, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not yet on the part of organisations embedded in them. Nonetheless, CSR can be a powerful instrument for innovation. But an organisation must develop the capacity to make choices in which economics and ethics meet. The choices made must then be underpinned in a dialogue with the organisation’s environment. Globalisation has been accompanied by the increasing importance of economic thinking throughout Dutch society. Terms such as cost reduction, efficiency, profit maximisation and market forces are no longer limited to business. They are now also used in health care, in education and the cultural sector. The raison d’être of organisations in recent decades has increasingly been linked to economic principles—to the detriment of social/ political, cultural and charitable motives. Because of the tension this has created, discussion has arisen in the Netherlands—in imitation of the US, where it has long been a subject of discussion—concerning Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The significance of this has further increased in recent years, primarily because of the pull-back of government. Thus many social tasks have implicitly and explicitly been placed at the door of business. From Marketing Tool to Integral Responsibility But what exactly is CSR? The sponsoring of a sports club is already considered to be a socially wise business practice. In reality it is money spent on advertising for media presentation. And many a sustainability report is limited to reporting on the internal use of environmental friendly paper or the amount donated to a good cause. In addition to this Anglo-Saxon CSR thinking (CSR as charity), we also see a strong development towards CSR in the core business.
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To achieve actual social responsibility, CSR must be understood as an instrument of innovation for management. The focus is on the extent to which social responsibility and the maximisation of profits can
sensibly be put together as a package. CSR must touch all aspects of business operations. Whether it concerns the mission, profile or strategy, the actual success of CSR can be achieved only in an integral manner. The road to new insights is therefore a matter for the long term. Undoubtedly, social pressure also serves as an important impetus behind the commitment, but CSR should primarily be the conviction-driven choice of the organisation. CSR: an Affair of the Heart ‘All things that a company undertakes, regardless of how big it is, began with an individual who had an idea and went for it. How do you start, not only to share your dream, to talk about it, to assess and criticise it, but also to assume your social responsibility through it? To do things that you sometimes have no desire to do, things which run risks. Sometimes having to clean up someone else’s mess. Things that serve an ideal that fulfil you. It takes guts. It requires willpower. Guts to take the risk of (temporarily) alienating yourself from those around you and making a different choice. This applies just as much to individuals who want to be a part of a society in which (financial) success is an important sign of personal success, as it does to individuals who want to belong to an organisation where (financial) success is an important indicator of personal achievement. CSR is not only a matter for the head—it must first touch your heart as well.’ Karin Rikkers, CSR Advisor at Nuon Economics and Ethics In contrast to developments within economic theory, the CSR discussion harks more sharply back to the origins of the ethics involved. The requirement that management include ethical reflection as a priority in the process of making strategic decisions gives the CSR discussion a moral and philosophical character and, at the same time, points to the actual roots of the modern economy. The Scottish economist Adam Smith stated that separating one’s judgement about the motive behind an action from one’s judgement about the action itself clears the way for the creation of the modern market economy. In view of the fact that bad motives can lead to a good result, morality has lost its function as a social link. In the modern, functionally differentiated society,
morality has been marginalised. The sociologist Luhmann goes a step further when he comments that morality is unimportant for the continuation of the individual social function systems. In this light, CSR as a subject runs the risk of disqualifying itself. CSR is a choice, after all, not an obligation. The importance of CSR cannot primarily be shown through figures. In the first instance it is not about concrete matters such as costs and income. It is more easily discerned in the emphatic nature of results, the degree to which the reputation is stable, and so on. Innovation Dynamics Making and substantiating choices about the quality of clients, purchasing behaviour, certain product developments, whether or not to enter certain markets, and establishing a strategy to become more productive: choices made from a CSR perspective can create more than the optimisation of margins. They can also bring about a higher dynamic for innovation. By considering these matters through an economic/ethical lens, the organisation is freed from its customary practice. Giving free rein to the thinking process encourages a reassessment of choices to be made. From a new perspective and with new arguments. Based on the philosophical perspective that focuses on the issue of sense and goal, the CSR debate can point to a potential for innovation. CSR cannot be the property of the departments of CSR, Finance, Marketing or Communication; an intra-disciplinary approach forces everyone to look beyond their own discipline. It makes the organisation new, purer. Only then can CSR be felt intensely and experienced down to the pores of a company (and in all aspects of its operations). Currently there is no framework in which to hold the discussion because there is no co-ordinated thinking about the three pillars of CSR: ecology, sustainability and social responsibility.
IS GOOGLE SELLING ITS SOUL IN CHINA? With its slogan ‘don’t be evil!’, Google launched its search engine on the Internet in 1998. The company thus carried out an ambitious promise: it would improve the negative image of the Internet and Internet technologies. By introducing ethical and emancipatory standards, it would create a democratic structure on the Internet. The possibilities for introducing a process of democratisation in worldwide Internet communication which everyone took part in would improve by making the structure of the Internet transparent and by making it easier to find subjects in the jungle of the Internet’s worldwide content. The Internet was not seen as the medium of governments and large companies that dominated the ‘communication space’ through their acquired market positions. The focus was on giving the individual the possibility to take part in the communication processes of a globalised world. The claim announced by Google itself has made the company the target of considerable criticism. In order to be allowed to operate in the Chinese market, Google has conformed to the limits set by the Chinese Government and permitted heavy censorship of its services. The censored Google in China embodies precisely the opposite pole from the identity-linked company philosophy that was such a salient feature of the company’s special character. Google’s argument that its mere presence in China alone should be seen as making a contribution to democratisation does not change any of the givens. As long as Google simply becomes ‘more Chinese’ and China does not continue to democratise, Google will fail to substantiate the logic of its strategy. It is clear that the pressure of worldwide economic competition has led Google to give up a number of the basic principles of its company philosophy. Stephan Steins
In short, this comes down to the fact that ecology concerns the use of resources (both natural and therefore also human), sustainability deals with the urgency and endurance of these resources, and social responsibility concerns making the grounds used for making choices about ecology and sustainability transparent and clear.
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These concepts do not need to be redefined, but should be interpreted consistently as a starting point for obtaining and developing insight. The theme of sustainability, for example, does not have to be redefined. It does require people to think consistently and continually about the operation of market mechanisms. Economists position the subject of sustainability far to the left in society, particularly because there is so much noise about the terminology. As long as this noise continues, they do not see the necessity of viewing sustainability from a CSR perspective. They do not see the urgency: 15% profit is 15% profit, after all. The argument supporting sustainability is
DAMAGED IMAGE FOR DELL
Chapter
No Reason to Delay
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II
The American computer manufacturer Dell had to exchange more than four million notebook batteries during a massive product recall. Although the defective batteries were made by Sony energy devices, it was Dell’s image that suffered in the end. The value of a share in the world’s largest computer manufacturer has been reduced by nearly half in the last two years. To a significant extent, this was the result of Dell’s poor business communication. The company was criticised for not responding quickly enough to reports of combusting notebooks and for leaving clients that reported complaints sitting out in the cold. Such a ‘communication strategy’ does not sit well with customers who are highly communication-oriented. Dell sells its products these days only via the Internet. So it can be assumed that its customers are in contact with one another and can quickly share experiences and information. The ‘Financial Times Deutschland’ even described Dell’s operations as ‘ignorant’ (idiotic). Dell responded to the problems with the announcement that it would invest 100 million dollars in its marketing and that 2,000 jobs would be created in the customer support department. The damage to Dell’s image has been caused not only by patchy communication and a slow response to customer complaints. The remarkable thing in this entire story is that batteries from the same production series installed in the computers of Apple, HP and Sony did not experience any similar problems. Because of stiff price competition in this sector, manufacturers try to save money in the production process, but that can lead to a poorer quality product. Striking a balance between profit maximisation and maintaining the good name of the company presents producers with an ever-greater challenge. Stephan Steins
CSR
Economic centre of gravity
management-theory (academically driven)
creation of value in the long term (investor driven)
Ethical centre of gravity
consumer-behaviour (consumer driven)
critical tradition (ethics driven)
irrelevant. But with CSR thinking, companies can grab the chance to develop market mechanisms based on ethical considerations in addition to economic ones. Four Levels If CSR is to be recognised and embedded in the business world as an economic necessity, it is important for consumption to be the starting point. In view of the fact that consumption has always been the driving force behind economic thinking, participating in consumption is an essential condition for keeping the system afloat. CSR faces the challenge, from an ethical perspective, of building a bridge between the opposing mindsets of companies (with their focus on consumer behaviour) and NGOs (with their critical attitude as stakeholders). On the other hand, interest in the further development of a positive management theory and the interest shown by the capital markets in value-creating opportunities over the long term are the driving forces. Both of these phenomena form the economic kernel of the CSR discussion. The innovative potential of CSR comes from its dynamics, where the focus is always on the economic and ethical aspects. CSR initiatives have to take stock of all four levels and make evaluations while keeping the objective concerned in sight. This enables CSR’s internal claim to be acted on by delving into socially relevant problems. As stated, CSR is not focused on charitable initiatives as a partial solution, but on an integral thinking process within management, which is connected with a ‘new’ awareness.
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CSR in Practice This requires managers to handle the theme of CSR very cautiously. A serious approach to it also means, after all, that it concerns fundamental strategic considerations that, as such, pertain to the basic orientation and/or the business model and the identity of an organisation. For this reason, the organisation must be able to
implement such a change successfully in order to ensure that the embedding of ethics can be used as a source of innovation and serve as a relevant basis for the actions of management. It is also useful to place the responsibility delegated by the management board and mandated by the directors entirely with a corporate staff department or a CSR manager, who monitors and safeguards the process and is in charge of the innovation for the operations in order to achieve an economic and ethical balance in the end. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) In practice, the extent of CSR often becomes visible in the account that an organisation gives to its stakeholders. The annual report is an appropriate instrument for this, a reference point to show where things stand as a whole and a review instrument for the organisation itself. It can also reveal the degree to which the operations at this point need further fleshing out.
Sustainability
Social responsibility
Idea of the organisation = ambition
Costs If not invested in identity
Continuous process of (self) reflection
Aesthetic organisation Investments = capacity
n tio s isa edure n a c Org d pro an
Building the organisation Production processes = identity S a ma les an rke d tin g
and tion ign nica Des mu com Architecture and interior
The GRI makes a distinction, in line with principles, with respect to the reporting limits, the content of the report and the quality of the information. To establish the content, for example, the focus is on the outcomes of the stakeholder dialogue, the comprehensiveness and relevance of the information, and the degree to which the information is placed in a broader sustainability context. With respect to the quality of the information, the GRI focuses on the degree of accuracy, neutrality, comparability, readability, timeliness and controllability.
Corporate Social Responsibility Ecology
Although the GRI was explicitly set up for social reporting, Total Identity thinks that this term does not do justice to the result of the account given in accordance with the GRI. The GRI provides assistance with reporting on all operations, and focuses on aspects that affect the entire company. Separate social or sustainability reporting will, in our view, soon be a thing of the past and will be replaced by an operations report in which CSR and financial accounting are integrated.
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The Road to the Aesthetic Organisation The continual exchange between the ambitions and the design of the organisation has financial consequences. Investments are the ultimate result. They are the catalyst for the further development of the organisation; they provide the financial return and create new space for improvement. As this triad develops, running like a well-oiled engine, it creates an organisation that is selfsustaining. Investments produce profit. The collective ambition is accentuated. Innovation in design leads to acceleration, greater intelligence and strength. This in turn creates space to invest again. It gives shape to the aesthetic organisation, grounded in operations that are based on economic and ethical aspects, on actual CSR.
LAYERS OF ACCOUNTABILITY ONLINE ANNUAL REPORT OF KIDNEY FOUNDATION
Chapter
No Reason to Delay
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Dmitri Berkhout, Senior Communication Advisor, Total Identity Jeroen Veldman, Senior Interaction Designer, Total Identity
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Homepage—2006 annual report of Kidney Foundation
The Netherlands Kidney Foundation has devoted itself to promoting the interests of kidney patients since 1968. With some 50 employees and 79,000 volunteers, the Kidney Foundation is the engine behind much scientific research and many social initiatives whose goal is to improve the quality of life for kidney patients and prevent kidney disease. The Kidney Foundation is one of the largest charities in the Netherlands and is a member of the VFI, the association for charities that are active nationally. As a charity, the Kidney Foundation is aware that it has a duty to spend efficiently and effectively the funds it raises. The annual report is the appropriate medium to account for and justify both the funds raised and how they are spent. In recent years, accounting
requirements have been tightened, with greater transparency in the charity sector as the underlying motivation. At the same time, the Internet quickly made its entrance as an interactive communication medium. It prompted the Kidney Foundation to reassess how it gave an account of its operations and communicated: were there better means to provide transparency than the traditional annual report? The Big Picture This led to the decision to place the annual report online. The Kidney Foundation now has an annual report Website. It has replaced the printed annual report. The inherent characteristics of a Website enable the visitor to review developments
at the Kidney Foundation in different layers. A visit to the main pages is enough to get the big picture. If visitors want to know more, they can click links to underlying, more detailed information. In this way, people can obtain information all the way to the project level. In addition to providing information in layers, the Website saves costs: one design can be used for several years and there are no printing or postage costs involved. The online annual report is also flexible— the information can be updated in the interim if necessary. With the online annual report, the Kidney Foundation has definitely answered the call to charities for greater transparency.
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Introduction animation
CORPORATE DESIGN INSTRUMENT FOR CHANGE IN A TRANSITION, THE CORPORATE DESIGN SHOULD FIT THE NEW MENTAL ATTITUDE
Chapter
No Reason to Delay
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Renaat Van Cauwenberge, General Manager / Managing Partner, Gramma
A large organisation transfers part of its activities to a new independent company. Senior management is told: transform the organisation from a product-oriented company to a client-oriented service company. The general manager is creative and goal-oriented. The sales manager is cut from the same cloth. They make an energetic duo that sees many opportunities. The employees, however, find it more difficult to adjust to the change. For years they have been trained to prevent mistakes. Set procedures, change that was introduced by consensus, and a range of products that changed rarely or not at all—that was their world. Now they are confronted daily with new ideas and insights. They lose control, and the tension with management is palpable. The continuity of the new organisation soon starts feeling the pressure.
Many readers will recognise the situation described here. This article formulates an experientiall-based opinion of the role of corporate design in such transitions. The position we are defending is twofold: a change in house style and logo is an effective way to make the change visible internally and externally. Corporate design would be able to influence behaviour better if it fit into the motivational frame of reference of the employees. Although corporate design has a commercial and social task, it should also be given psychological significance if a useful relationship is to develop among the organisation, the clients, and the employees. Before I discuss this in greater detail, I would like to remind everyone of three laws that are engraved on the tablets of corporate design.
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Change, but Be Sensible about It Everything changes, including organisations. In all transformations, corporate design provides the footing, a bridge between the past, the present and the future. Anyone that lets their design be blown about by the winds of fashion is ensuring that their target groups will lose the plot. Yet continuity does not exclude variation!
To the extent that these variations remain coherent, corporate design can evolve dynamically alongside them. It thus expresses the continuing development, the visual story of an organisation. Corporate design should therefore be seen as a long-term investment. A clear perception among the target group is, after all, an intangible asset to an organisation. Design is Order It is important to conclude that corporate design leaves little room for artistic discretion. Corporate design misses its target when it is posited out of the blue or if it is the utmost expression of the designer’s individualism. The job of corporate design is to create order in the midst of chaos and it therefore has continuity as an essential feature. It makes use of the ties that have been forged in cultures and individual minds between images and experiences. Good corporate design appeals to the emotions of the observer. On seeing a form, the observer immediately makes a connection to past feelings and experiences. Repetition is Power Good corporate design should be repeated if it is to work well. A single confrontation with a visual statement will generally have little effect on anyone. Corporate design should be used for the long term, as a programme. By this we mean: integrally and systematically applied to all manifestations an organisation uses to present itself to the outside world. From a sign to an annual report. From letterhead to a flag. A system of signs that are organised and co-ordinated so that they convey the right message every time in attractive variations and are clearly a part of a co-ordinated whole. Psychological Significance of Corporate Design Let us take our first example as a starting point. How can a product culture be changed into a service culture, and to what extent can corporate design help those involved over the bridge? The ideal, of course, would be to link the two cultures. But an organisation that for years has not moved beyond the perfection of its own products cannot easily be changed to a creative and client-oriented service company.
In transitions like these, it is not the objective facts (new location, new CEO, new work methods...) which are decisive, but essentially how the different groups of employees process the change. It is fundamentally important to realise that the motives which determine the relationship between the employee and the organisation lie not only on the cognitive-rational level, but also just as often on the psycho-motivational level. Some 80% of our behaviour can be explained by things that lie just ‘under the surface’. To influence human behaviour, we have to have an eye for all motives. If a person wants to exercise influence, they would do well to delve into the underlying normative patterns which are the foundation for human behaviour. It is simply a fact that our emotional compass, at a deep instinctive level, is a strong factor that regulates behaviour.
Once the new ambitions are known and we ask the employees what the new organisational identity should look like, we are given answers such as ‘client-oriented’, ‘flexible and transparent’, ‘efficient and effective’, ‘I don’t know, as long as only functionality is shown’, ‘it should be young, fresh and dynamic’, ‘it should be creative and even a little wilful’, and so on. We could use these answers as a starting point for the corporate design, but they are so general and apply to everyone. It is more economical to look at the underlying, basic motives for the answers. In the answers to the question of what the identity should look like, patterns of expectation lie hidden.
The enormous expansion and acceptance of new information and communication technologies are contributing to an increasing interrelationship between them and thus also to a continuing change in work processes. For companies and organisations, this primarily means that business culture is geared to new challenges. It increasingly seems that old structures and traditional dogmas form impregnable barriers to organisations that want to extend their business reach and innovative power. As a result, the utopia of an organisational form that breaks away from the classic structures has become a subject of discussion. Flexible networks, virtual teams and project-oriented network enterprises are increasingly taking the place of classical hierarchical structures. The commonly held view according to which organisations are seen as closed, static entities is increasingly becoming the focus of discussion in the light of current developments. From modular and virtual organisations, joint ventures and networks, so-called new ‘hybrid’ organisations are being created. The management of dynamic organisations is more focused on independence and collaboration. There is a growing need for personal responsibility and new competencies in the areas of management and collaboration. The Cisco study ‘Success as Vision: Communication and Business 2010’, which appeared in May 2007, asked how innovative communication methods will define business up to 2010. The study comes to the following conclusion (among others): because of the widespread technical possibilities, the end of the traditional office is in sight. Employees of the future will work at their own pace, have their mobile office with them at all times, and see their colleagues only at certain meetings. Alexandra de Bruijne
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Making the Invisible Visible The underlying psycho-motivational significance that employees impute to an organisational identity can be measured. In psychological terms, there are a number of primary reasons why people more or less feel ties with an organisation. For some employees, the new story is a voyage of discovery to new experiences, or a framework for new social interaction. Others see the new story as a way to reap recognition and admiration. Still other employees will be sceptical about the new story because the safe haven is gone, and so on. We gratefully use here the images of the psychoanalyst Alfred Adler and of Paul Heylen, as well as those that have been developed in the research models of Synovate Censydiam. A more detailed discussion of this is beyond the scope of the present article. If interested, see censydiam.com
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In the process of change, it is important for employees to be able to identify with the new organisational identity. We define ‘organisational identification’ as the degree to which employees connect their own values with those they ascribe to the organisation. People will identify with an organisation more strongly the more it shows features that meet their psycho-social needs. Put more simply: if employees expect an organisation to reassure them, and to make them safe and secure, and if the organisation does just that, then the chances of their identifying with it are greater.
Statements about the preferred organisational identity point to underlying psycho-social motives, that is, the basic motives that explain why someone looks at an organisation in one way or another. There are people who want to stand out from the crowd, who seek the respect of others by focusing on what they have achieved. They prove themselves through their skills, knowledge and learning, and by expressing this in a very personal manner. We all know the caricature of the businessman who dines in expensive restaurants and puts his knowledge of fine wines on display by using specialised jargon. In the same way, an organisational identity can serve as a mirror to reveal to someone their underlying basic motives. In their descriptions of the organisation we look for recognisable signs that can be connected to these basic motives.
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STRUCTURE VERSUS CREATIVITY? Organisational structures and creativity are often seen as being poles apart. Structures must guarantee order, synergy and efficiency, while creativity really starts to bloom only in a more or less free-and-easy environment. At least, so people often think. Structure and creativity do not by definition have to be opposed at all. Through ideas management, creativity management, design management and similar concepts, an attempt is made to bridge this chasm and to design strategies that help to structure creativity and innovation so that they can serve economic goals as well. The most important objective is to make a creative space, to tap and use creative sources in combination with planning, development, valuation, selection, realisation and the study of ideas. Success is reserved for companies that not only rely on their professional knowledge and marketing expertise in the competitive battle, but are also and primarily more innovative than their competitors. Arthur D. Levinson, Director of the biotech concern Genentech, aptly summarises his approach as follows: ‘Bringing in creative people, listening to what they want to do and then doing it.’ The inclusion of creative employees—even or especially from other disciplines—in the management of companies and organisations increasingly seems to be a successful trend in structuring. In the innovation ranking published annually by the American magazine ‘Business Week’ and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the highest places are held by companies that explicitly follow this new strategy, such as Apple, Google, BMW, Walt Disney Co. and the Virgin Group. Stephan Steins
Corporate design, with its rich visual vocabulary, should at this point seek a connection to the underlying mental attitude and thus ensure that employees do not become alienated. People focus on maintaining a positive self-image. If the ‘style of the house’ corresponds with their underlying expectations, employees find confirmation of the rightness of their decision to commit themselves more firmly to the organisation. By revealing and understanding this underlying motive, we are able to create a framework, a general look and feel, that externalises it. This means that employees will more easily relate to the new corporate design. They will more easily approve of the design because it gives a visual symbolic meaning to an unspoken basic need. In the example above this was appreciation through recognition. From Product Culture to Service Culture The transition from product organisation to service organisation requires a new mental attitude. By making enquiries, we can investigate to what extent the necessary underlying basic motivation is present in order for the transition to be made. We can then develop a corporate design that corresponds with this motivation. If an organisation wants to continue making progress in adopting a strong and vital identity, employees will quickly become alienated if this identity is visually designed with a look and feel that places a strong emphasis on protection and security.
In contrast to a product organisation, which benefits from regulation, critical restraint, and the unassailable position of its products, a client-friendly organisation requires a basic attitude of commitment, engagement, friendship and social interaction. The organisational identity should affirm intimacy and vulnerability, and the ability to shared experiences and emotions with others. The organisational identity should be relationally strong, open and receptive.
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So the question of guiding the transition through visual means always relates, too, to the importance of a corpo-
rate identity policy. The introduction of a new corporate design is given more of a psychological than a purely functional significance. An organisation that wants to continue to grow from having a product culture to having a service culture can, of course, look at so-called visible, objective, measurable criteria: how do we ensure that our name recognition remains up to standard? How do we increase the profits of the organisation? These questions are quite relevant, but just as significant are questions about the fundamental motives underlying human behaviour.
This collective perception belongs to the intangible assets of a company. For this reason alone, corporate design should be given the attention that is given to every other area of investment.
The transition to client-friendliness requires clientfriendly behaviour on the part of employees. If the organisational identity (and therefore also the corporate design) can address the underlying motives that make a client-friendly attitude possible, it will be able to exercise greater influence over the behaviour of its employees, who will also find it easier to commit themselves to the organisation because their experiences with it will correspond to a number of their basic psycho-social needs. For them, the organisation has acquired psychological significance, and a relationship has been established. These employees will happily support the organisation and make excellent ambassadors for the new ambition. But employees that do not stand behind the organisation because they are unable— or unwilling—to assume a new mental attitude are in danger of becoming alienated. The new style does not fit them. Therefore, if a corporate design wants to be more than pure cosmetics, it will have to find a connection to people’s psycho-social frames of reference. A thorough knowledge of these psychological dynamics is in fact one of the basic tools of the designer. Corporate design concerns nothing less than the personality features of an organisation. It is not cosmetics, but essence.
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Conclusion We argue that historical awareness and the psychological significance of the organisation are the pillars of corporate design. Designers fill a crucial role, now more than ever, in the transformation processes that every company occasionally goes through. But an important condition for change is continuity in the organisation’s image. Above all, corporate design is an instrument for transformation 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.
FAITH IN IDENTITY THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS
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Aad van Dommelen, Creative Director, Total Identity
Religious faith in the Netherlands focuses increasingly on defining faith: on evaluating and sharpening the arguments that support belief in God in a society that has turned its back on religion on rational grounds. The evidence of non-believers seems to have greater sway than religious feeling. Yet everyone seeks a sound footing, believers and non-believers alike. This is particularly true of Protestantism, in which faith has been critically studied for nearly five centuries. Religion and identity have always been relevant among Protestants, but have also led to long-term schisms in the community: every fundamental religious argument had its own denomination. With the establishment of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands on 1 May 2004, the separate communions of separated Dutch reformed Christians and Dutch Lutherans came to an end. That is unique for a faith in which schisms have been common. It was a forceful move to a single united church with one identity. Expressing this process in design is a special challenge. Shared communication is of the utmost importance: one voice to express the message of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands clearly and concisely. One mission, one identity and, last but not least, unified congregations. A monolithic logo was chosen to give visual expression to this new reality. It had to underpin the new unity. So different symbols were incorporated into a logo that will be used in all communications. The Christian faith has a wealth of symbols: dozens, perhaps hundreds, of different crosses and other symbols. Following a long process, an ingenious integration of several symbols was chosen. The final logo is made up of the separate symbols of a dove and a Greek cross within a circular halo. A magnificent focal point is created by having the dove and the cross appear in lighter shades against the darker coloured background. The use of orange and red give the logo extra warmth.
Circle The circle is a universal symbol, a pure shape without a beginning or an end. It represents perfection and eternity and thus points to God.
Cross There are many different types of cross, the pre-eminent symbol of Christianity. The Greek cross, with four arms of equal length, is the simplest type. It alludes to the Passion and Easter: the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Eight-Armed cross This cross is a combination of the Greek cross and the first letter of the Greek word Christos (X). The number eight refers to the eighth day of creation, the fulfilment, the new beginning, the resurrection.
Wheel Cross In the combination of the cross and the circle, apparent opposites are harmonised. The combination of sun and wheel (solar cross) is associated with the chariot of Helios, who is sometimes associated with Christ. An aureole with a cross inside symbolises Christ.
Peace Dove In the middle of the logo there is a dove , the sign of peace and of the Holy Spirit. In the Bible, doves appear a number of times, such as the dove that returns with an olive branch to Noah’s Ark.
Descending Dove The Holy Spirit represented as a dove is sometimes pictured in an upright position. The aureole makes it clear that it is the Holy Spirit, though not with the three rays signifying the Trinity.
Upright Dove The Holy Spirit upright represented as a dove is sometimes pictured in an upright position. The aureole makes it clear that it is the Holy Spirit, though not with the three rays signifying the Trinity.
The 6 crosses (24 arms) in the logo are transparent, creating a radiant effect: a round sun or aureole. In the middle, the form of a dove fits exactly in the window formed.
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The introductory animation of the logo shows dozens of historical cross types. www.pkn.nl/1/site/uploadedDocs/PKN7ECO_Film_ad1.swf
VISIBLE IN THE TRANSPARENT WORLD CREATIVITY AS A PRECONDITION FOR EFFECTIVE CORPORATE PUBLISHING
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For decades, publishing was focused on nothing more than indicating what an organisation does, makes or offers. An expansion of the media landscape and of new media has radically changed this picture. Instead of being a tailpiece of corporate communication, publishing now has to be used throughout an organisation to enable it to define its identity efficiently and effectively. The one-sided use of communication is no longer enough when it comes to approaching individuals personally. to the organisation has to have detailed knowledge of the media behaviour of the target group—knowledge that is then translated into effective and creative means of communication. Digital (R)evolution Web 2.0, user-generated content, viral movies, Hyves, digital paper, Second Life. The digital world is approaching its second ‘Big Bang’. For organisations that have only recently become used to making the transition from paper to the digital world, it is difficult to play a role in this. The constant search for the right mix of print and digital and interactive media has made corporate publishing more complex, but also more promising, because the technological developments have made it possible to engage in real dialogue with stakeholders.
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The technical developments—broadband Internet, combined with widespread public access to broadband connections—have now made it possible to communicate with stakeholders through multimedia instead of to them. Not only can interaction take place, interaction must take place if you want to gain the stakeholders’ loyalty. They want to be heard. They want to see that their views are being taken seriously by the organisation. To actually bring about this interaction, publishing must be given a different role within the organisation. Where publishing is the tailpiece of corporate communication, as it often is at the moment, it must become an integral part. The
organisation is responsible not only for the message, but also for the way it is designed. External publishers are currently used almost exclusively to produce the various means of communication employed. An internal publisher should gradually take over this job. A central role should be given to the publisher within the organisation in the interest of good publishing. Publishing provides the necessary distinctive face that will allow the organisation to set itself apart from the competition. And setting up publishing effectively, and managing it internally, can yield significant financial benefits. Clear Focus The fact that the name of the game in publishing is radically changing is best illustrated by developments that have taken place in traditional media. A good product can fascinate the reader/viewer/listener, but it will take more to win their loyalty if you actually want to make contact and interact with them. Consider developments such as Volkskrant TV (the television station of the major Dutch daily the Volkskrant ) civic journalism, the chat boxes of The Music Factory (TMF) cable channel, and the textmessaging campaigns of Radio 538. These are no longer isolated actions, but fully fledged parts of communication. The challenge for organisations is to find the right path within shifting media panels that will enable them to engage in dialogue with stakeholders and shareholders, and to make good choices, based on good arguments, within that dialogue. By lining up the message and the means of communicating it with the wishes of the target group, you are able to win its loyalty to the organisation. Choosing the right digital tools requires a clear focus and good timing. Otherwise, you run the risk of following the hype, and if you do that, the stakeholders will no longer take you seriously, and your communication will be ineffectual. Corporate publishing should give substance to this in all its forms. Only then will you be able to give substance to your distinctive identity efficiently and effectively. Once you have done that, you can exchange your position in the ivory tower for an active one on the playing field in this rather demanding society.
No Automatic Pilot To occupy this position, you must adjust your publishing strategy. The days when the communication department could bring attention to the company while cruising along on automatic pilot are gone. Press releases are seen as annoying. Except when there is a disaster or some other bad news, the press room fills up only when figures such as football giant Marco van Basten or Crown Prince WillemAlexander give a press conference. And how can you ensure that your corporate magazine stands out in the flood of other communication that inundates every consumer? An organisation must look for other platforms from which to make itself visible. At this point ‘publishing 2.0’ begins with a rock-solid analysis of the current means of publishing media and budgets, based on effectiveness rather than nostalgia. How do you choose the platform that is visible to the right audience? And how do you ensure that the presentation grabs their attention? To run effective corporate publishing you have to think long and hard about what you want to say (message), to whom you want to say it (target group), how you want to convey it (use of media) and how you want to say it (tone of voice). Making the Transition in Communication Only when an organisation is aware of the transition that corporate communication is going through can effective publishing be linked to it. It should be a transition that can be split up into different areas. From monologue to dialogue For decades, publishing was used to tell what an organisation does, makes or offers. Publishing involved one-way communication in which the organisation gave a monologue on what it thought was important, and why this was important for the stakeholder. If organisations really want to communicate with their stakeholders, they will have to ensure that the monologue turns into a dialogue. Organisations must ensure that stakeholders feel as though they have been handed a microphone, that they are actually being listened to, and that they will quickly be given (or find) an answer to their questions. It should be a process that—in view of the new media and new media storage—is actually possible to carry out.
SO YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT HYVING IS? Then you are older than 25, don’t live in the Netherlands, or both. The verb ‘hyving’ is taken from ‘Hyves’, a social networking Website that was launched in Amsterdam and that is really popular among young people. Hyves was launched at the end of 2004 and, with more than three million subscribers, is now one of the fastest growing (Dutch) chat, communication and media platforms. Up to now, the company has been unable to repeat its success in other countries, try as it might. Hyves drew the attention of the press when it was discovered that many Dutch politicians had registered with the site in the run-up to the elections in order to gain direct contact with young voters. The creators of Hyves responded to this development by making overview pages available on the site where politicians could present their programmes and ideas. This development is just another example that shows the visible trend whereby traditional structures and associated forms of communication continue to lose ground to the changing forms of social communication used by young people in particular. During the campaigns for the Bundestag in 2005, the German political parties made their first use of podcasts. Stephan Steins
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From the scattergun approach to a needle in a haystack The ‘era of the monologue’ was dominated by the might of the strongest, and by the power of money. It was commonly thought then that, if you could bring your message to people’s attention often enough, they would remember it. To ensure that you did not miss anyone, you resorted heavily to a scattergun approach. The media served as a good place to do this because, following the disappearance
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SECOND LIFE: THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL COMMUNICATION OR JUST A GAME? The hype that has sprung up around the virtual Internet world of ‘Second Life’ speaks to the imagination both of the public at large and of media experts and economists. At the moment, the technology and—thus also the virtual world of Second Life—are still under development. The situation is similar to that surrounding the start of commercial applications on the Internet in the 1990s. The ‘game’ places high technical demands on the computer, the graphics card and the Internet connection, and that means that it cannot yet be distributed quickly or widely. The Second Life community is growing rapidly: each month some one million new accounts are created. But to achieve an economically profitable distribution it is necessary for the growth capacity to expand even more. The number of new accounts does not give a true picture of the actual use of this virtual world. The number of people present in Second Life regularly and at the same time amounts to only a fraction of the number of registered accounts. Although renowned companies such as Adidas, Reuters, Sony, BMG and Mercedes Benz are already ‘Residents’ in Second Life, experts say that from an economic perspective it will not become a real alternative to the current Internet until there are or more than 50 million simultaneous users. One thing is clear from developments surrounding Second Life: either virtual-reality technology will replace current Internet technology in the short or long term, or the two will merge. This pertains to their functions as both communication forums and as marketplaces. In the industry there are doubts about whether the American company Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, can achieve this. Regardless, Second Life has already clearly revealed one possible future for digital communication. Stephan Steins
of the political and religious groups from Dutch media, it also had its sights aimed at reaching the masses. The fragmentation of media groups makes it increasingly difficult for organisers to take a scattergun approach in the hopes of attracting viewers and listeners. And not for budgetary reasons alone. With the explosive increase in (access to) available information, stakeholders are building filters that are ever more precise—a personal firewall. They do not have time to review all information, and the firewall enables them to get the big picture. A message aimed at the masses is filtered; only a message that pertains to the individual is noticed. So organisations really have to do their homework to get the message through. So you have to know the media behaviour of the target group and to translate this knowledge into effective and creative means of communication. From Single- to Multi-channel Thefreedictionary.com defines ‘publish’ as follows: ‘to prepare and issue (printed material) for public distribution or sale’. No one can deny that, in view of recent developments, this definition is outdated. But it is still the definition on which corporate publishing is based in many cases, although print is now often replaced by television, radio, or both. Organisations have to realise that the production and distribution of communications for just one medium is no longer effective. The challenge is to choose the right combination of channels so that interaction actually takes place. It is a plain fact that, in nearly all cases, several publishing channels are required. To draw stakeholders to the Internet, for instance, action must be taken at the same time on other platforms. From Means to Effect Publishers are often asked to design corporate publishing from the perspective of products. Organisations want a brochure, a Website, or a newsletter. Corporate publishing should ensure that from now on organisations approach publishing based not on the means available, but on some serious thinking. The request for a brochure should be translated to: What is my message? Whom do I want to reach? And how can I best reach them? Strategic questions should be thoroughly analysed, and then creatively and tactfully translated into particular communications. Only in this way can corporate publishing be effective and efficient. If an organisation is willing to abandon the use of automatic pilot in the production of communications, it can choose the right course, on which not communications but their effects are the focus.
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Inventiveness and creativity are therefore required for corporate communications to be distinctive. Plastering the umpteenth poster of the party leader on the wall will not win any extra points. But something such as the
The privatisation of state companies such as the PTT Post, NS (the Dutch railway system) and the power companies changed this situation. The change has spread: national health insurers are now simply health insurers, and hospitals and educational institutions have been forced to become competitive. And it is no longer the government but citizens who make the choice. Once a luxury of minor importance, corporate publishing has suddenly become an absolute necessity. Organisations must profile themselves since commercial companies are looking for opportunities in the market—opportunities that they can often take advantage of more easily and cheaply than ‘old’ government entities, without the ‘baggage’ of a long history (including the workforce and costs), and that organisations, through corporate publishing, are eager to bring to the attention of potential customers, creatively and interactively.
In an era in which technological developments come in rapid succession and new communication channels spring up, it is increasingly important to take on the challenges of the changing communications culture. It is also important to integrate different types of media used for design and content into a single communications strategy that guides the receivers to the relevant information and offers them the possibility of responding to it via a suitable channel. Cross-media communications are the overarching whole through which the strategic goals of companies, organisations and the media as regards products, services and information can be communicated. Leading international media concerns have long presented their publications as cross-media publishing. Copy is revised by editors and stored in central databanks to which the different media formats and channels have access. This expansion is not limited to publishing texts on the Internet taken from the print media or television. The Franco-German cultural station Arte.tv is heading in the opposite direction. With the publication of its printed ‘Arte Magazine’, the broadcaster is meeting the specific wishes of its audience, which largely consists of readers. By combining different media channels, cross-media campaigns whose collaborative efforts are well directed can achieve a clear increase in the range of media reports. The greatest strength of integrating classical forms of media, such as print and television, with the Internet lies in the combined response to the need for different forms of communication, which varies by target group. This guarantees topicality and the fast provision of information in combination with the possibility of accessing extensive and engaging background information as necessary. The recipient can also be referred to other relevant information. If other options are added that enable readers, viewers and consumers to give interactive feedback, then the result can be a clear strengthening of corporate identity. Alexandra de Bruijne
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From Activity on the Side to Necessity Until some time ago, corporate publishing was not necessary for every sector. The monopolistic government, and the use of government money to make up shortfalls were a sufficient guarantee of ‘healthy’ operations. Publishing was therefore a ‘luxury’ activity carried out on the side, and was used primarily for internal and external reports.
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viral movie on the then leader of the Socialist Party Jan Marijnissen ‘Jan greets...’, which was circulated by more than a million individual Internet users, has considerably more attention-grabbing value, although many other things have undoubtedly also contributed to the big increase over the last few years in the Socialist Party’s popularity.
ENTERPRISING COMMUNICATION CONQUAESTOR: MASTERING FINANCE
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Frank Kessel, Publisher, Total Identity Guido van Breda, Creative Director, Total identity
The financial-services provider ConQuaestor was created in 2004 following a management buyout from IBM. In addition to knowledge, skill and quality, the organisation’s main focus is entrepreneurship. ConQuaestor employs more than 500 financial professionals, consultants and interim managers. The positioning of a new brand in a market with dominant parties was the first priority in the communication strategy. The next big challenge was to give the organisation greater depth. Once name recognition as a service provider had been generated, for instance, it was important to position ConQuaestor as an employer. The positioning of Mastering Finance was established during strategy sessions. In order to improve the identity even further, elements such as labour-market communication, the corporate magazine and Website, the personnel magazine, and events were made part of a single integral publication strategy. Mastering Finance has also been given a human face: the Master Class. Each month, inspiring speakers share their views on topical themes, the profession and social developments. Professor Roel Pieper, Herman Wijffels, Irene van Lippe-Biesterfeld, Hans Wiegel, Professor Doctor Sweder van Wijnbergen, and Eckart Wintzen have all made appearances. ConQuaestor wants to share knowledge and insight, without emphatically profiling itself. This independent character can also be found in ‘f.inc’, the full colour corporate magazine. This publication links theory with practice and focuses on the market and relevant developments. The human aspect is also addressed in ‘f.inc’. In each issue a charity organisation is given the opportunity to advertise free of charge. ConQuaestor provides added value: the design of ‘f.inc’ achieves this with metaphorical images, clear colours, and an aesthetically focussed composition.
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DATABANK OPENS DOOR TO FLEMISH CULTURE CULTURE DATABANK
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Martijn Arts, Director, Total Active Media
Cultural Network Flanders is an initiative of the Flemish regional government. The objective of the organisation is to encourage people to do more and to enjoy cultural activities and their free time. A large multimedia project has grown out of this: the Culture Databank, into which countless activities can be entered. User-friendliness, design, and expertise in IT were innovatively combined in its structure and implementation. A particular feature of the project is the possibility for any person or organisation to enter an activity themselves. Events and leisure activities in Flanders are made accessible in an open environment to a broad public.
Decentralisation of data entry
A future ambition is to link the databases of third parties in order to make the data accessible over multiple channels and to supplement them. In this way, an international network can be set up in the area of culture and leisure time. Websites, call centres and digital television could be used for international campaigns, to provide/obtain information, to make reservations, and so on.
Local participants
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Cultural participants + Local participants
Cities Municipalities Provinces Support points
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LARA FOR PRESIDENT
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Stephan Steins, Publicist
Since the middle ages, symbolic language has developed in parallel with an increasing need for the transfer of information. There has been a development from icon to virtual reality in which the personal perception of the consumer has become ever-more important: the consumer has changed into a producer. At the same time, the transfer-oriented process has been transformed into a dialectical process. In this tale, which has philosophical overtones, two icons— Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lara Croft—face off to see who will become the future President of the United States. At the same time, a process of democratisation is sketched out in which the individual and the masses simultaneously elevate the product so that it has the status of a negotiable object: Lara Croft as an interactive product of a collective in a struggle with Arnold Schwarzenegger, an end product that can only be consumed.
The date is 4 November 2012. Presidential candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger and his assistants have been locked into a long battle to amend the constitution to allow foreignborn former Governors to stand as candidates for the Presidency. Schwarzenegger, the undisputed superhero in the film industry, icon of the two-dimensional world, the can-do man for the job, no matter how tough, and the avenger of orphans and widows, appears in front of the television cameras. On the evening of election day, he has to concede to a much stronger opponent: the new President of the United States is Lara Croft.
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Why has Schwarzenegger been forced to concede to Lara Croft? Because she is a woman? That seems improbable. Her predecessor in the White House, as an African American woman, was already the darling of the media, so this particular hype had pretty much played out. Was it her legendary bust measurements? Just as improbable. Many people claim, after all, that on that score Schwarzenegger could hold his own against her. So who is Lara
Croft, the person who will hold sway over the world in the coming years? Where is she from, and what is her vision? The Schwarzenegger brand functions like a projection screen for the greater public in a world that is now history. It was the world of two dimensions. Lara Croft has transformed the event horizon of Citizen Romanum from a classical model to the modern media world. In contrast to Schwarzenegger—and this is what handed her the victory—Lara Croft appears in 3D. This third dimension is by no means limited to the profane possibility of being able physically to turn and move the figure around in virtual space. The quality of her identity consists of the fact that she was created and can be further developed as a collective intellect of the socialised individual. Her mind is interactive. As a product, Arnold Schwarzenegger could only be consumed. He was what his makers decided to offer to the mind of the individual. One among many, a product that you could choose or decide to ignore. The ‘hero Schwarzenegger’—beyond the real person who has sophisticated needs and strong points, on the one hand, and weaknesses such as heart problems and operations that contrast with the image projected by the media, on the other—is a fragile product of marketing. This construct did its utmost to suss the expectations and needs of those who consumed the media-projected image—the voters and to work them into the definition of the Schwarzenegger identity and thus influence his reputation. But in the eyes of the consumer, the interpretation offered by the producers of the media product remained static, a process that could not be transformed. The circle of active producers was limited to a few individuals. This fact created an increasing feeling of alienation among voters. The opportunities they had for interaction and shaping it were seen as being too complicated and non-committal. As a result, the voters’ interest waned and they participated less and less in social processes. The marketing strategists responded to this trend towards disengagement, which had long been apparent, by making
the spectacle bigger than it was. In their eyes, the hero had to be more boisterous, stronger and more colourful to continue to attract the attention of the public at large. Schwarzenegger seemed to be the ideal candidate for this. But nothing was gained when it came to the quality of social participation. After initial successes, people soon saw through the loud-mouth effect. It quickly evaporated and showed counter-productive results.. Lara Croft is different: the concept of her identity in the media is open, not closed Both candidates, and the associations the media have created for them, have the necessary attributes, such as strength, decisiveness and uncompromising shrewdness, in seemingly hopeless situations. All of this is accompanied by a touch of erotic charisma. But Croft does not leave the consumer inconveniently stuck in his traditionally passive role. Her identity actually feeds and relies on the active subjects, the voters. The consumer can add personality features to, and make decisions (decision models) concerning, her basic character, which is a top product of modern identity design. This actually makes the consumer a producer. The current producers of marketing identities created through the media, in contrast to their colleagues at Schwarzenegger Studios, have been transformed from pure makers to communicators in the ‘Lara Croft project’. They continue to initiate and animate the birthing process of the media product, but then withdraw to encourage a creative process at the social level, which they then co-ordinate. The circle of products can thus be extended to acquire a broad social basis. From the medieval icon, via the sketched and, later, the animated image, to virtual reality, the associative transfer of identities has penetrated ever deeper into people’s perceived horizons. In past centuries, individuals were able to verify all relevant information themselves, such as the social organisation of villages. The quality of the harvest, the consequences of this quality for trade with neighbouring villages, the integrity of their fellow citizens, the analysis of the economic, ecological and socio-cultural preconditions, could all be assessed, as it were, within the boundaries of their own horizons.
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With the growth of mass societies and their metropolises, the life-defining external factors and the need to transfer information also grew. The world became less transparent, more complex. Information now had to be transferred by third parties, by organisations that set up entire PR industries for the purpose, and by advertisers who created media identities with propaganda formats geared to the spirit of the times. These increasingly complex mechanisms changed individuals into consumers of their own reality, which was supposedly of their own making,
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and which manifested itself as models of association within the boundaries of their world. Objectively speaking, this development brought about the progressive alienation of the individual from the communication mechanisms of modern society. Conceptually, the significance of Lara Croft is that the individual not only remains a potential consumer of communication patterns, but interactively delves into them. This changes not only the product, but also the individual producer. The removal of the dualism between consumers and producers transforms the transfer-oriented process into a dialectical process. Social participation in the design of media identities forms a process of democratisation that elevates the product so that it has the status of a negotiable object in the physical world. In this way, Lara Croft can not only commit the voters to the perspective projected, but also develop more strongly the concept of direct democracy. As an expression of the social willingness to articulate and (inter)act, Lara Croft has successfully created a new foundation for human participation in social processes. In this context, Croft acts not only as a virtual, nonphysical person, but also as a legally binding object. The virtual world, as a reflection of collective awareness similar to a network, derives its legitimacy from the democratic vote of its producers, for whom she is an avatar not in the virtual world but in the real one. The most radical ecological projects from the State of Florida have been included in the Lara Croft programme. Different groups in the ecological-renewal movement are fighting for priority in the network of the legislature. On the domestic front, following the destructive hurricanes of recent months, various initiatives on the theme of ecology have emerged in the form of a bill after garnering massive support, including from other States in the country.
Croft cut an excellent figure against Schwarzenegger during the election debates, which were broadcast over Web TV. Specialists are working feverishly to rectify the slight delays in Croft’s movements when she interacts with different people, according to the Ministry for Digipersonal Communication. With the imminent introduction of the Croft 3.0 programme, the delays should definitely be a thing of the past. Schwarzenegger has already given his heartfelt congratulations to the winner. On leaving the television studios, he was heard mumbling something that sounded a lot like ‘I’ll be back’.
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From New York City come reports of worrying developments: the association of free gastronomists wants Lara to smoke cigarettes. But they are still arguing over whether the new President should be allowed to smoke on screen and therefore also in public. The association’s desire is apparently linked to their attempt to get the smoking ban in bars and restaurants relaxed and winning sympathy for this move. The tobacco concern World Indian Tobacco has already offered to provide the server farm of the Croft consortium with new computers if the campaign is successful. Political observers and experts are expecting the conflicts about Croft’s synaptic subroutines to increase noticeably after the election victory of today. The NRKI (national foundation for defence of the rights of artificial intelligences) has already announced it is conducting a further analysis of the server use and keeping a close eye on adherence to the allowed limits. For voters, a personal meeting with a real, carbon-based person is not significantly different from one with a virtual photonic person; they consider both of them to be only conceptual projections on one and the same screen.
III Working Towards the Future
The issues outlined in Part 2 are not unique to a certain trade or sector. They are present in a wide range of fields. Part 3 talks about the encounters between these issues and about their development in the domains of business services, real property and physical planning, health care, education, social services, government, non-profit organisations and the business-to-consumer market. The connection made is demonstrated in concrete cases in which the translation of ambition to positioning and profiling is revealed.
ORGANISATION SEEKS INTRAPRENEURS M/F
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Alexandra de Bruijne, Trainer, Total Identity
Organisations tend to grow accustomed to how they do things while the world around them screams for innovation. There is an enormous need for entrepreneurship within organisations and companies. There is a need for people that have the courage to take on new ventures. People who want to devote themselves to improving and renewing the organisation, the department, the product or the service. The creative ideas and the courage of employees in this conceptual era represent an advantage over the competition, particularly in a development involving reproducible activities performed in environments where the workforce costs a little less. To prevent a delay in growth, pioneers and professionals are necessary: creative elements, businesspeople with their heart in the organisation who want to help move it forward. They bring about renewal and progress in companies. They tap its potential. They build a bridge between developers and managers by transforming new ideas into marketable and profitable products and services which guarantee continuity. These people have been dubbed intrapreneurs. Intrapreneurship means starting up, developing and realising new companies within the structure of an existing organisation.
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The Prospect What is enterprise within an organisation? It is the process of creating value by bringing together a unique package of resources in order to take advantage of new opportunities. Enterprise is also searching for a prospect without (too defensively) taking into consideration what is possible or acceptable within the organisation at that moment. So enterprise has four aspects: feeling with innovativeness, creative ambition, daring to take calculated risks, and exploiting them. It also concerns, first and foremost, identifying opportunities and then finding and arranging the necessary tools. In other words, the intrapreneur transforms reality into an opportunity and the opportunity into a reality. This cannot be done without incurring consequences for the organisation. It
affects both the structure and the culture in which work is carried out. Organisation in Isolation Because of their size and the attention they give to processes, organisations have a limited relationship with the outside world. Some organisations are isolated within their own system. As a result, a limited part of the organisation a limited number of employees have a direct feel for market developments, for what current and future demands are being placed on the organisation. What was once the productive strength of a large organisation is increasingly a limitation that is difficult to compensate for. This problem of an organisation’s own structure and size makes existential intervention necessary. Because there is a separation between organisation and society, people realise much too late that the innovative development and improvement of products and services should affect how a company assesses and organises itself. Too much attention and effort are given to simply keeping the organisation afloat. This gives the organisation an enormous legitimacy problem, since it is increasingly unclear what its core business is and what the benefit and relevance of its existence are.
Challenges Intrapreneurs do not keep to the daily management practice of monitoring and control. Managers rightly emphasise the availability and the efficient use of the desired tools which they think only a large organisation is able to handle. The challenge, therefore, is how a company can be created that is eager for opportunities—one that is open to, not threatened by, opportunities, and is therefore able to use the tools at hand in an intelligent manner. In large organisations, the development of an enterprising attitude is a precarious process. The existing hierarchy and relationships with colleagues can be put under pressure. Often the workflow that is followed permits far too little new input. Decision-making about the allocation of time and money is also based on fixed procedures. Usually different managers from various levels must give their approval.
And even they have to justify these decisions to their superiors. A feasibility analysis and estimate of the market potential have to be precisely performed and are quite timeconsuming. As a result, too much is based on preventing failures and mistakes and on minimising risks. Conflicting Interests But this concerns not only complex—i.e. bureaucratic and hierarchical—organisation structures. Innovative solutions often mean other ways of working and thinking that can conflict with existing personal interests. Convincing the management structure is a difficult challenge that requires considerable time. With their qualifications, these people have made a career, after all, based on their successes with current products and services. Sometimes they fail to recognise the opportunities brought by new products. Their resistance can also come from the fact that the development of new products takes funds away from the budget for existing activities. Differences of opinion, unaccustomedness, incomprehension, ignorance and a culture that does not tolerate mistakes can all mean that innovations do not get off the ground. They often get no further than being good resolutions and plans that sink below the laws of traditional organisation processes. Of course, large companies do set up pilot projects, but these are a calculated risk. This means that the experiment is isolated and has no consequences for the organisation. The biggest obstacle to innovation is that companies identify with their product or service instead of acting in support of their identity—that is to say, based on their ambition. As a result, the change in product or service seems to directly affect the continuation of the organisation’s existence. Under these conditions, improvement and renewal look too much like self-preservation and become a defensive act. Conditions for Intrapreneurship Corporate entrepreneurship concerns not only the top level of a company, who must be on board, but also something that should be supported and experienced much more broadly. It is the employees—particularly younger, better educated employees—that are involved in new technological, social and cultural developments. They know about events in the market and among clients and they see new opportunities sooner because they are less isolated within the existing organisation.
right kind of ‘disability’. That means having employees in the workplace that have characteristics that force the organisation to adapt in order to facilitate their creativity and entrepreneurship. Good management involves innovation, encouragement, confrontation, challenging people, and movement— not monitoring, as is often the case. Support from management for entrepreneurship is not enough. It is much more important to take advantage of employees’ creativity, to unleash their creative ideas, to inspire people, and to help them bring about innovation. Modern management promotes a proactive attitude. This management should also establish clear ambitions with respect to intrapreneurship. By making funds available—for example, to extend knowledge and increase skills. The payment structure should also be geared towards rewarding enterprising behaviour on the part of employees. This is not so much a case of paying people for profitability, but rather appreciating those that stick their necks out and can deal with failure. Learning from failure is an important part of an enterprising company. It transforms the organisation into a knowledge-based environment. Finally, internal entrepreneurs are assisted by a broad job description that gives them the freedom to define their jobs for themselves and the time to develop their ideas. It is all about the actions of employees and the culture of an organisation which rewards enterprising behaviour on their part. Conclusion The laws of the traditional organisation are an enemy to (internal) entrepreneurship. Organisations should therefore undergo radical transformation. This is not about permitting and tolerating internal entrepreneurship. It is about setting internal entrepreneurship, in corporate culture, in recruitment policies, in pay structures, as a basis for commitment to the enterprising organisation.
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Intrapreneurs can handle uncertainty. They dare to take risks. They are persistent and are driven to achieve. They have the courage to change and do not cling to reassuring certainties. For the enterprising organisation, this means that its actions cannot be based on the conviction that stability and certainty are always required. The organisation can really survive only if it is willing to change. That is why the organisation should find the courage to give people freedom and to include people with the
BOUNDLESS HUMANITY GITP
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Hans P Brandt, Managing Director, Total Identity Jeroen Veldman, Senior Interaction Designer, Total Identity Léon Stolk, Senior Designer, Total Identity
The context for providers of business services is changing. Increasingly, they are being asked to look further than their immediate clients and even further than their clients in turn: service providers should anticipate developments in the market and the speed at which they change. Their knowledge should be continually updated and proactively integrated into their services. A static provision of services is no longer enough. The Necessity of Transition at GITP GITP recognised the need to make a transition. The agency, which leads the market in Human Resources in the Netherlands, saw its margins decline. The service that had once made the GITP successful, the assessment test, was increasingly up against greater competition, and the solution did not appear to be an ever further expansion of the services portfolio. Making a transition was no sinecure for the organisation. GITP came to an impasse internally; with its roots deeply embedded in the science of applied psychology and its success in the field, it became an institute where innovation was difficult to launch.
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Strategy Discussion A new focus was needed in order for GITP to maintain its market leadership and prevent further disintegration around the margins. An intensive strategy discussion ensued with Boston Consultancy Group and Total Identity. The former devoted itself to
fact-finding, while Total Identity introduced thinking outside the box and focused on instilling passion into employees. This process led them to decide to return to the original core business of the agency: the assessment test and development of people. A corporate story was written and was presented by the famous Dutch actor Rense Royaards as a short theatre piece during a company-wide strategy day. There was a serious lack of understanding of what the strategy was about inside the organisation, and this prompted management to join forces to actually make the necessary transition successfully. Social Themes and the Individual In the new strategy, the portfolio had to make room for a formula: the formula for assessment and development. This gives birth to innovation and renewal. Firstly, emphasis is placed more on the individual. This means that it is each person, instead of the organisation in which people work, which becomes the centre of focus. The broad need on the part of individuals for assessment and development is separate from the organisation where they work. People are increasingly taking control of their own careers. GITP assists them through this individual process by assessing and developing each person at set times in the context of the phase they are in. Both professionally and personally, inside the organisation where they work and inside the society they are part of. Furthermore, in addition to the scholarly ‘inside world’, the social ‘outside world’ has made its entrance within GITP. Insight no longer comes only from the field and professionals. Identifying social developments, underpinning them with scholarly study and making internal and external training programmes and
development processes operational puts assessment and development in a new framework. Making Connections To place yourself literally inside this social context and to create concrete added value from that perspective requires a good connection with society. This is currently being explored and done in many ways. A prominent move in this context is the collaboration initiated by Total Identity with the major Dutch daily the Volkskrant. In its role as a specialist in assessing and developing people, GITP makes a professional contribution to Volkskrant Banen, the weekly for highly educated professionals. Collaboration with De Baak, the management centre of VNO-NCW, is also being considered. One Brand Individual complexity must be coupled with a strong uniformity of the whole. The freedom for the individual also includes the necessity of univocal central communication, which manifests the essence. That is why GITP now has one brand, without extensions in the form of branches or services: GITP, with ‘assessment and development’ as a descriptor. But the logo is more than a brand; in all its simplicity, it is once again a statement. The statement of an organisation that is aware of the increasing dominance of the media in our times, an organisation that plays a pioneering role. Part of the logo always forms a small icon that symbolises a medium, coupled with a message (a book tip, a television programme, a stage play, and so on). In its form, the logo calls up associations with a hallmark, perhaps a quality mark.
THE LIMITS OF THE CREATABLE SOCIETY HAVE BEEN REACHED: INDIVIDUALS ARE TAKING THE REINS s o c ia l is s u e s
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Making individuals more self-aware, more authentic, more independent and sensitive to context, giving them greater control over their personal development, teaching them to use their full potential: that is the strength of GITP. Because individuals who are aware of their own talents, ambitions and role in society will discover their passion and strengths—and thus tap their own potential. That is the conviction of GITP.
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We have reached the limits of the creatable society. In vain, people decide—often in reaction to this—to tighten regulations or to implement some different structure. Or perhaps even to install a new manager at the top. What is actually going on is that, in recent decades, the autonomy of the individual has steadily increased. For decades, GITP has actively provided services aimed at promoting the successful performance of individuals in organisations. It has clearly discerned this trend through the years. Assessing and developing people and social engagement are in GITP’s genes. The right man or woman in the right job. The renewal GITP offers is based on a powerful conviction that is expressed by the following formula: Individual x Social Embedding = Passion + Strength©.
Social embedding is a precondition for this. That is why we actively participate in the social debate on current themes such as careers and age, entrepreneurship and cultural diversity. The bottom line remains: the ambition to use our know-how to help people and organisations perform better. This was, after all, the objective behind establishing GITP 60 years ago. From that perspective, GITP wants to make a mark on the future of human resource management. Han Looten, Chairman of the Board, GITP
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The strategy of GITP in 2D and 3D (tetrahedron).
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Inside = Outside Knowledge comes in from the outside and moves back to the outside in a continual interplay. This debate is carried out everywhere and continuously: inside GITP and with the outside world. Inside and outside are actually the same. This makes the communication strategy very clear and simple: GITP and its context have virtually become one, and this situation only needs to be facilitated. With a strong corporate publishing strategy in which reports on the debate, results of research and the translation of knowledge into services are carried out through a wide range of means and channels. Websites, e-zines, films, publications, reports, podcasts, advertisements, free publicity and magazines are the carriers of the communication through which GITP shows that it understands people based on current affairs and scholarly knowledge. Page
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Statements GITP actively shares with the outside world the insights it gains from connections with clients, the sciences and society. It discusses these matters clearly via publications and articles, as well as through marketing communication. GITP makes clear statements on current themes. Through the use of eye-catching images and the GITP logo clearly displayed as a hallmark at the bottom, the advertisements and other marketingcommunication tools (such as product folders) take on a distinct character, both literally and figuratively. All are aimed at individuals, who either do or do not recognise themselves in them.
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KNOWLEDGE OF PEOPLE
New people. New social interactions. Yet little certainty. Old familiar power structures which have lost influence. People are looking for new relationships and groups within their own culture. People no longer form a single group—they are less a single entity. This trend is progressing, picking up speed. You want people to develop themselves. You want to do the same and have organised yourself for it. It is about your own responsibility, your own management. You know that this has led to alienation. You seldom see each other. You no longer talk much. The ties that bind you have become almost invisible. You are focused on your own field, looking for inspiration, new significance, continuing to improve—what ambition! But you notice that ‘one plus one equals three’ no longer works for you. Counting professional skills is not enough. Once, shortly after the war, attention was focused on the selection of personnel, on quick revitalisation, on participating in reconstruction, on quality and reliability, scientifically based and socially involved. The clear-cut nature of every beginning. A small, transparent organisation, an institute. The company psychologist, on call 24 hours a day if necessary, referring employees to other specialists, and at the same time being given free rein to show initiative, to act as you think best. Leadership, no management culture.
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Although turnover rose, personnel numbers grew and diversity in products and services developed, things became more complicated when it came to organisational structures, recruitment, selection, career issues, training programmes, selection, management science... And now? And now... Here you are today, still working hard, still driven, still loving your profession and giving attention to the client—yet far from where it all began. Maybe you are too product-driven. Sometimes you do not clearly see the need in the marketplace, do not sufficiently feel the spirit of the times.
You start to look for familiar themes and subjects currently relevant to life around you. You face the challenge of adapting your personal reality to the reality of the world. You seek a connection, certainty, knowledge of what is going on. You think about the future. The possibilities. The demands. Grounded in assessment and development. Surrounding this are three focal points: trends and issues, advice and coaching, and insights and technology. You know how inspiration leads to insight, how your own insight could provide answers to questions around you. Yet you wonder how this should be approached. You begin to see how things could be. Top specialists. A specialissues team that identifies and interprets, then joint research with other parties, and an academy that puts things on an operational footing and develops applied instruments. The academy as a platform for internal sharing of knowledge and social programmes with external parties such as De Baak, the Volkskrant and Twynstra Gudde, perhaps. Free from your routine, with responsibility—this puts you on a dynamic course. Conducting research for now, and then realising projects focused on innovation. Not obligationfree, but concrete: translating trends into new concepts and methods. In this way, you return to the public debate—on stages, in the media, at symposia. The framework is determined centrally.
Stills from ‘Knowledge of People’ the corporate story performed by Rense Royaards, actor, The Work Theatre Text by Peter Verburgt, Senior Advisor, Total Identity
But hierarchy, in your eyes, kills efficiency, kills your own creativity. So... couldn’t we go back to having leaders, instead of managers—leaders that encourage and motivate people to take local decisions and develop initiatives? Reinventing and recreating yourself over and over, becoming better in conceiving and developing ideas. It takes collaboration, outsourcing and discussions among yourselves, inventing and coming up with intelligent and original ideas. You plan to discuss things again, to combine pragmatism and inspiration. You will initiate dialogue inside the office, which is even more important than dialogue between the various offices. It is inconceivable that you no longer know your colleagues and have no idea about what’s going on elsewhere. Words escape you. You imagine an entity that is self-aware. Supervising people so their authenticity can develop further—that’s what it is about. Serving clients optimally because disciplines from HRM are integrated into HRD. Thinking from the inside to the outside, from the outside to the inside. Breathing, taking it in, exercising influence, sharing your knowledge, developing your knowledge. Making our way together into the future. Sharing your knowledge, developing your knowledge, making our way together into the future, breathing, taking it in, exercising influence, sharing your knowledge, developing your knowledge. Making our way together into the future... making our way together into the future.
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Brochure for behavioural science courses and personnel & organisation courses. The central theme of the courses is to meet and connect to people. To support this, the brochure has photos of exeptional meetings with people.
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ADVISORY CELL GITP, one of the leading Dutch companies in Human Resources Management, wants to change radically. The current principle, by which the client (literally) is guided by the organisation according to a fixed pattern, should be transformed into a system in which clients choose their own way within and outside the spaces provided by GITP, and yet take the same route, perhaps even faster and with more pleasure. The GITP accommodation makes this new formula tangible by offering a diverse range of spaces which give client and employee an optimal work environment. The domain for the client is divided into three parts: the cell, the intimate core of the GITP formula, a room that presents the shared work area of the clients, and the lounge-area for the meeting and relaxing. The GITP cell is the essence of the new GITP accommodation formula. This space was designed to promote optimal communication between the client and GITP, as the seed for the beginning of a new career, for learning and amassing new skills. To allow all functions of the GITP concept of assessment and development to take place and the area itself to remain pure and clear, the GITP furniture piece beon1 was designed. This furniture unit undergoes a metamorphosis according to the degree of formality required for the meeting. The furniture unit also changes the atmosphere of the entire space.
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Theo Deutinger, Architect, TD Architects
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The site landscape of the GITP Website provides space in which to communicate a multitude of messages at different levels. Special Websites for corporate and labour-market communication, a sales channel for business solutions and media, an internal platform for digital services, and a series of discussion sites for current social issues—these are some of the online cutting-edge features that give the new GITP form and content.
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Each Website has its own primary communication function, without losing its relationship with the other GITP domains. The accessibility of the content has also been given some thought. Portals tailored to the different target groups ensure that visitors find their way to the Website they seek as quickly as possible. This ensures that the site landscape functions efficiently and in an integrated fashion.
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DURA VERMEER
Dennis Glijn, Client Services Director, Total Identity Guido van Breda, Creative Director, Total Identity Marcel Jiskoot, Copywriter, Jongens van de Wit Hélène Søpnel, Senior Advisor, Total Identity
Dura Vermeer is a nationally operating construction group. The organisation has a great many orders but not enough resources to implement them. The construction industry has to contend with a scarcity in the labour market that is even worse than during the boom of 2001. Moreover, the supply of jobseekers is decreasing every year. Dura Vermeer has the difficult task of recruiting and retaining qualified and, for the most part, experienced personnel. An additional problem is that these people are also being sought by the competition or are already working for them against comparable primary and secondary terms of employment.
To meet this challenge, Dura Vermeer needs an employer’s image with which (potential) employees can identify. This distinguishing capacity cannot adequately be found in the job, the working conditions and the type of organization. For this reason, Dura Vermeer focuses not only on the job seekers but also on job-switchers. This has consequences for their strategy and media efforts.
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Billboards Human dimensions, reliability and collaboration are core values for the organisation. In keeping with this, a concept has been developed that touches on various themes (variation, challenges at work, growth and development) because the reasons for switching to Dura Vermeer will be different
for everyone. This is how ‘More at home, at work’ comes into being at Dura Vermeer. ‘The billboard’ is a recurring symbol in the campaign is. Normally, the billboard (or construction site sign) indicates which project is being constructed. In the campaign, they are used as the personal billboards of co-workers on which personal (construction) goals are written. Stripped of its self-evident construction context, it becomes a striking and recognizable element in communication manifestations. Media A media analysis places the campaign in a wider context. Radio is the mainstay of the campaign and is supported by display advertising (bannering) at relevant sites, print and guerrilla advertising. Local branches of Dura Vermeer, responsible for recruitment, will subsequently continue with this and take advantage of local labour market opportunities. They are facilitated by means of a HR Tool kit with recruitment resources. Integrated approach The labour market is a very dynamic market. For this reason, the promise of the labour market must be confirmed by internal communications. This prevents recruitment being accompanied by staff turnover. An approach has been selected in which the impact of the national campaign will reinforce pride in the company. Dura Vermeer does this by proudly spotlighting its own staff: they serve as a model. They are shown at the sites where they actually work on challenging, varied or large-scale projects. Their real names and personal motivations are stated in capitals on the billboard next to them.
IDENTITY-DRIVEN LABOUR MARKET COMMUNICATION Our desire for self-realization manifests itself in everything we surround ourselves with, from the couch on which we sit to the company we work for. It is not just the brand but also the authenticity and the essence of the underlying organization that plays a leading role in the way we express ourselves. This means that an organization is judged by the way in which it makes contact with its stakeholders about essential subjects. This is crucial for labour market communications. Many companies formulate their mission as a static statement in which all development is missing. however, they will now have to make the dynamics of their mission and ambition clear. Organizations should go more deeply into the question of their right to exist and what they are striving for. Only when an organization has the courage to state this and to clarify the way in which it wishes to develop with the commitment of the staff, can an organization touch people and bind them to it. Obviously, it is then, necessary to highlight in an inspiring way, that quintessence for existing employees and for people looking for a new organization. It is about making an ideological ambition shareable and about gaining support. This requires different competences from an organization than familiar ones such as controllability, efficiency and manageability. We shall grow towards a learning and living organization where management exists alongside room for interaction between the aim of the organization and that of the individual. Organizations that will make significant and inspirational connections for both parties. A new interpretation of matchmaking between organizations and potential employees, where people are selected less for what they can do and more for who they are. If an organization succeeds in inspiring its employees by giving scope to its (ideal) organizational development as well as to the personal progress and development of its staff, then labour market communications will inspire people both inside and outside the organization and its goal will be achieved. Hélène Søpnel, Senior Adviser, Total Identity
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ZEG, WERKVOORBEREIDER, OOK TOE AAN MEER UITDAGING EN AFWISSELING? KIJK DAN OP WWW.BETEROPJEPLEK.NL
Wat voor Sjoerd geldt, geldt ook voor jou: werken aan je persoonlijke ambities. Bij Dura Vermeer is er aandacht voor jou, en aandacht voor elkaar. Samen brengen we de mooiste projecten tot stand. In een hele goede werksfeer met ruimte voor jouw wensen. Daarom zit iedereen beter op z’n plek bij Dura Vermeer. Lees waarom Sjoerd kiest voor Dura Vermeer op www.beteropjeplek.nl
Wat voor Freek geldt, geldt ook voor jou: werken aan je persoonlijke ambities. Bij Dura Vermeer is er aandacht voor jou, en aandacht voor elkaar. Samen brengen we de mooiste projecten tot stand. In een hele goede werksfeer met ruimte voor jouw wensen. Daarom zit iedereen beter op z’n plek bij Dura Vermeer. Lees waarom Freek kiest voor Dura Vermeer op www.beteropjeplek.nl
ZEG, (HOOFD)UITVOERDER, OOK TOE AAN MEER UITDAGING EN AFWISSELING? KIJK DAN OP WWW.BETEROPJEPLEK.NL
ZEG, (HOOFD)UITVOERDER, OOK TOE AAN MEER UITDAGING EN AFWISSELING? KIJK DAN OP WWW.BETEROPJEPLEK.NL
Wat voor Martijn geldt, geldt ook voor jou: werken aan je persoonlijke ambities. Bij Dura Vermeer is er aandacht voor jou, en aandacht voor elkaar. Samen brengen we de mooiste projecten tot stand. In een hele goede werksfeer met ruimte voor jouw wensen. Daarom zit iedereen beter op z’n plek bij Dura Vermeer. Lees waarom Martijn weer terug is bij Dura Vermeer op www.beteropjeplek.nl
Wat voor Jan geldt, geldt ook voor jou: werken aan je persoonlijke ambities. Bij Dura Vermeer is er aandacht voor jou, en aandacht voor elkaar. Samen brengen we de mooiste projecten tot stand. In een hele goede werksfeer met ruimte voor jouw wensen. Daarom zit iedereen beter op z’n plek bij Dura Vermeer. Lees waarom Jan kiest voor Dura Vermeer op www.beteropjeplek.nl
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WARE VERHALEN ‘Wat de campagne zo bijzonder maakt, is de keuze om gebruik te maken van échte verhalen. Het zijn onze collega’s – en geen acteurs – die figureren in de campagne en vertellen waarom zij beter op hun plek zijn bij Dura Vermeer.’
Alfred Boot Boot, onze directeur Personeel & Organisatie legt uit waarom deze campagne ‘Beter op je plek’ nodig is. ‘We kunnen veel extra collega’s gebruiken, want er is veel werk bij Dura Vermeer. Daarnaast zijn deze mensen nodig om onze ambitieuze strategie voor de toekomst te kunnen uitvoeren. Daarom kiezen we voor een landelijke campagne om hen te bereiken. De landelijke campagne draagt ook bij aan een grotere naamsbekendheid van Dura Vermeer in het algemeen.’
ONZE MENSELIJKE MAAT ‘We laten met de campagne zien waarin we ons positief onderscheiden van andere bedrijven. Zo staan onze mensen, onze cultuur van familiebedrijf en de trots op ons vakmanschap centraal. We richten ons op continuïteit voor de lange termijn. Daarnaast investeren we in lange relaties met opdrachtgevers, leveranciers én medewerkers.’
ZOEKEN ‘De campagne richt zich specifiek op calculatoren, werkvoorbereiders, uitvoerders en projectleiders. Die hebben we momenteel het hardst nodig. Jaarlijks zoeken we zo’n 250 mensen. De grote vraag naar mensen met Techniek op MBO, HBO en WO niveau maakt dat zij overal erg gewild zijn. Vooral degenen met werkervaring zijn moeilijk te vinden.’
Beter op je plek Arbeidsmarktcampagne
Above: Before the start of the campaign,staff are informed by means of an informative folder.
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Right: By sympathetic guerrilla advertising activities, for example with the assistance of appropriate energy drinks, local branches of Dura Vermeer can strengthen their regional recruitment ability.
LUST FOR LIFE
WANTING TO SEE IT ALL, TO DISCOVER, EXPERIMENT, EXPERIENCE AND GO FOR IT
VEDIOR GROEP NEDERLAND
Wish
Business Services Working Towards the Future
Reflection of the Vedior identity
Introduction
Challenge
Pull
‘Gives perspective’
‘Made me think’
‘Let me do it differently’
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Empathy
Adjust
Advise
‘Give me the right direction’
‘Creates new insights’
‘Surprised with solutions’
Motivation
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Goal
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Dennis Glijn, Director of Client Services, Total Identity Guido van Breda, Creative Director, Total Identity Marcel Jiskoot, Copywriter, Jongens van de Wit
Supply
Differentiate
Connect
‘Provides me with a job’
‘Has a better job’
‘Offers a tailor-made job’
Condition
Central Value
Added Value
The Client Vedior is one of the world’s largest staffing-service companies. In the Netherlands, the concern has more than 300 offices, over 100 of which fall under the Vedior formula. Vedior is ambitious. It wants to become a proactive service provider, an HR specialist that helps flexiworkers and organisations work differently. To achieve these ambitions, Vedior is actively working on establishing a specific image among stakeholders.
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The Image Vedior Seeks In striving to establish a distinctive image,
Vedior has focused on its own identity. Identity is not solely concerned with who you are. It is also about who you want to become. Within this vision, identity is equivalent to the image you seek for the organisation, to collective ambition. In several intensive sessions, this ambition was distilled from the policy plans of the organisation. This was translated to the values and themes which are the central focus for Vedior and its market, now and in the future. This has become the strategic and creative foundation under ‘the newly conceived Vedior profile’.
‘Lust for life is an attitude that is not linked to any particular age or generation. Wanting to see it all, do everything, discover, experiment, experience and go for it. This attitude is found in all generations and, of course, especially in generation Y. They can live this way more easily, after all, since they do not have many responsibilities and obligations as yet: no family, no mortgage, no old habits, and so on. And they have what it takes: optimism, a diploma, energy, and no inhibitions. The generations between 30 and 60 have responsibilities. But this doesn’t mean they have no lust for life. On the contrary. They have more money, more life experience, and long-nurtured desires. So we focus on these generations in Lust for Life. And it is really the only way to go in a labour market that, in the coming years and decades, will be marked by an aging workforce and fewer young employees. ‘The life line, the new element in our new house style, represents the Lust-for-life outlook. Work is a part of everyone’s life. Through that work, they want to lead the life they want to lead. In order to see, grasp and try everything life has to offer them. For us at Vedior, this requires not so much a different view of work, but rather a fuller view of life and therefore a different view of living and of services and product range. With Lust for Life, we place living on the market in a relevant and unique manner!’ Wim Davidse, Strategic Marketing Director, Vedior Groep Nederland
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Corporate design In line with the positive energy generated by generation Y’s outlook, a house style has been developed that is characterised by positive forms, the very distinctive letter Cocon and ‘the life line’. This element stresses that, in Vedior’s view, life and work cannot be considered separately, that Vedior believes in life with a flexible outlook—open, optimistic, ready for discovery, living and learning. Everything all at once and in context together. Grasp from the heart of its target groups.
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Working with them, Vedior takes pains to achieve this. By helping them be clear about what they want, what they can do, how they can develop themselves and where their potential can best be used. This leads to a job that suits them. So the focus is not on work, but on the opportunities, motivation and ambitions of young people.
The level of aspiration in Lust for Life Young people under 18 are also important to Vedior. They are, after all, the flexiworkers of the future. And in a labour market that is getting older, with fewer young employees, it is vitally important that people 28 and older feel drawn to communication. That is why Vedior does not focus on generation Y itself, but on the attitude of this group. ‘Attitude Y’ appeals to all target groups. This outlook is best exemplified by the pay off Lust for life. 107
This unbridled lust for life also says something about the way in which they want to work. They want to keep their options open for now.
They want to experiment, discover where their strength, ambition and opportunities lie and, during this process, they want to continually reinvent themselves.
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Communication Communication perspective: the life and work of generation Y Generation Y is a self-aware group that is also called ‘the multitaskers’. They are full of energy, live life to the fullest, and want to get everything possible out of it. They do want to choose. They want to see it all, live it all, do it all. Preferably all at the same time, and now.
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Image Communication Living life to the fullest and mobilising all the energy in your young body and mind. And work? It is of course a part of life. Nothing more, nothing less. With television commercials, advertisements, Websites, in-store communication and brochures, the lust-for-life attitude is communicated. We see young people lead their lives. The energy they put into it is almost tangible. All images were made at locations that are important for the leading players. The result is authentic communication with a documentary character.
ENERGY ACROSS THE BOARD ‘We talk to young adults that are living life to the fullest. They give their own personal interpretation to their Lust for Life. We show them that there are jobs that allow you to work like you want to live. A positive outlook, experimenting, pleasure and energy across the board. The best way to appeal to this group is by keeping things real. No putting on an act, no cover girls, just “normal” people. Young people do not want to have anything forced down their throats. They want their interest to be piqued by something new, something exciting, something they can identify with. For the commercials, it is therefore important that everything looks real, that the people we see are really experiencing what they are doing. We are actually watching a visually interesting documentary on six young people that live in a big city. Because the target group is very diverse, we see this diversity reflected in the commercials. The central figures are quite different from each other. But one common thread runs through it all: that is their ‘Lust for Life’! By the way, if you pay attention while watching the commercials, you will see these young people cross paths. They are present in each other’s world, without being a part of each other’s lives. The casting was one of the most important preparations made for the commercials. The actors had to be young adults whose lives were exactly the same as the roles they would play in the commercial. This would enable us to keep it as real as possible, using their real friends, their sports, their own clothes, and so on.
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Marco Grandia, Director, Christal Palace
At the online digital shop www.vediorlustforlife.nl everything about the new Vedior can be found in the style of the brand, and about the campaign and the walk-in stores.
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The 16mm film shots are alternated with 8mm shots and shots made with the video camera. To introduce even more variety to the commercials and make them more personal, the commercials are interspersed with still photos of the main players. They can be Polaroids, passport photos, pictures taken at a birthday party, pictures of friends, school photos, and so on. Their personal photos make the commercial even more real and personal.’
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The Offices Lust for Life is more than a concept. You have to feel and experience its energy. The temp offices are being transformed into shops where the focus is on much more than a job. At the shops you can look around, find inspiration and experiment. You can test yourself, give a specific direction to your future development and explore organisations and branch offices. You can also quench your thirst, book a trip or buy a book. An online digital office has also been opened, offering the same things with the same feel. After all, the target group is online everyday. www.vediorlustforlife.nl
THE CONCEPT AS LAW Real Property and Physical Planning Working Towards the Future
Chapter Part
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Sector
THE CONCEPTUAL APPROACH AS A STRATEGIC CHOICE FOR LOCATION DEVELOPMENT
Saskia Dijkstra, Senior Advisor, Total Identity
Globalisation, an economy that is increasingly serviceoriented and a growing number of small businesses have led businesspeople to set different requirements for their work environment. They value a business location with the right partners, competitors and collective profiling opportunities— a location which appeals to clients and suppliers. By developing a business park based on a concept, which serves as a basis for its functions, target group focus and marketing, it is possible to come to a common proposition. The focus is centred on a new approach to the development of business parks and the method for developing concepts to achieve this. A development that is based on the specific culture and nature of an area, from which economic dynamism then ensues. The impact of business parks on town-and-country planning in the Netherlands has been a subject of discussion since they arrived on the scene. Government and advisory councils, including that of the Ministry of Spatial Planning, have argued for greater individuality and specific local development. This should lead to an improvement in the quality of land use. The success of a location, in the end, is in the hands of businesses, which either do or do not choose the new location. Having discovered the strategic asset of ‘housing’, businesses are setting a growing list of requirements for the quality of spatial planning. They increasingly value a business location with the right partners, competitors and collective profiling opportunities. Locations that appeal to clients and suppliers alike. The conceptual approach to a business park or location makes it possible to imagine the future. The added value of a new concept is revealed through making strategic choices in advance for target-group segmentation, urban development and marketing. And this provides abundant opportunities to local governments, provincial authorities and property developers to make land exploitable.
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This approach makes a case for thinking about the big idea behind the location, the concept, in the initial phase. In
this way, a future work environment is brought into being from the very start. This article describes the new approach to realising and organising business parks, as well as the method of concept development used to come to it. Factors Underlying Changing Business Needs A number of economic developments have led to a change in businesspeople’s requirements for their work environment. The character of our work activities is changing. Globalisation and the increase in the number of one-man businesses are the two most important aspects. From Production to Knowledge Industry The transformation of the Netherlands to a service economy imposes certain requirements for the quality of business parks. Service providers attach considerable value to the image projected by their business locations, because they increasingly serve as a type of business card. Employees are the operating capital of service companies. These employees are setting more and more requirements for the amenities around a business location (childcare, good accessibility, parking, shops, restaurants, and so on). In a market in which good personnel is scarce, it is important for employers to be able to stress these advantages in order to attract and retain people. Employee Needs as a Concept In England, the Chiswick Park business park profiles itself with a focus on employee needs: ‘Chiswick Park, a place where you can enjoy work’. This business park offers a wide range of facilities to make working there as pleasant as possible, based on the dictum that happy employees are more productive. It also says that the reputation of the park helps to attract top personnel. The property developer has made the strategic decision to profile the park in this way. It is an example of a business park that was developed on the basis of a conceptual approach. From the perspective of the concept, the park was given functions, and marketing, and a focus oriented towards target groups. The park profiles itself on the basis of a common proposition. Upsizing versus Downsizing On the one hand, globalisation leads to upsizing (mergers and takeovers). On the other, it leads to downsizing, in
One-Man Businesses Within the brutal world of mergers and takeovers, the lack of job security and the ambition to decide things for themselves are leading many employees to start their own businesses. The need to work in an environment close to other chain partners—which can lead to contacts for later business transactions—is great among this group. So they look for a location that meets this requirement. In the creative industry, for example, people seek a creative breeding ground. A place that serves the shared interests of independent businesspeople and, when the occasion arises, leads to a network organisation. The concept can be based on the view that the location should provide a network environment. The Wester Gas Works in Amsterdam, Van Nelle design plant in Rotterdam and the Pudding Factory in Groningen are all examples of such successful breeding grounds. Recently, the Binckhorst in The Hague and the former Caballero Plant were transformed from hopelessly outdated terrains to successful, innovative breeding grounds. The former cigarette plant (i.e., the cigarette brand) is leading the communication efforts to attract the desired target groups to the location—a strategic choice that is bearing fruit. As a result of past economic developments, price and location play a less important role in the decisions of
Supply and Demand Nonetheless, in the Netherlands we still often approach the development of a business park in the way it was done during its genesis in the 1970s and 80s: allocation occurs lot by lot. The attractiveness of the land is communicated through functional advantages such as accessibility, sustainability and price. This places the focus on the potential individual buyer, instead of on the added value of collective profiling. But the successful profiling of a location for this buyer lies in making the added value of the collective profiling imaginable beforehand, by demonstrating that collective success can be achieved with a chance for individual success. Demonstrating the Collective Nature Hilversum Mediapark makes use of collective profiling and does so successfully. Companies that set up business in the park become part of a larger whole. Companies with a suitable profile seek to profit from the collective benefits that the park offers. It attracts both clients and the public. Thus the park serves both business and public interests. Hilversum Mediapark is taking advantage of the opportunities that collective profiling provides by expanding. This expansion is meant to provide better services to the individual companies established there and to continue attracting the public in the future. The new Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, located in the Mediapark, will contribute to creating a positive image. This will help the park establish its authority as a regional location in the media world. At the same time, all the separate business activities will benefit from the allure of a museum in their midst. Such an approach requires the park to renovate and look for new ways to maintain the proposition. This will keep the park vital and attractive to future businesses, which will safeguard property values and the inherent quality of the park. The new economy is focused on interdependent relationships, shared facilities and cooperation. Local and provincial authorities, and developers of business parks can profit from this by including in their strategy a conceptual approach to the development of locations, and preferably as early in the process as possible so that the location is furbished in line with the concept in its urban-development structure, functions, target-group segmentation and marketing. So the question is: how do you come up with a concept? Conceptual Approach: Bringing the Future to the Present Within the context of location development, a concept is essentially a connecting pattern that inspires and 113
The Repositioning of Schiphol Airport Schiphol Airport has been transformed from an airport—a logistical, faciliatory environment—to Airport City. In the area surrounding Schiphol, there are numerous service and logistics companies which profit from one another’s presence. It is an area in which knowledge circulates and where the competition among the companies leads to innovation. The airport itself has also become an important public meeting place where retail businesses have set up shop. Schiphol has become a representative example of an airport city and is seen in the world as a way forward for airport development. Schiphol Airport City shows that this concept can be translated into target-group segmentation that works. The term Airport City appeals to the images the target groups have of ‘City’ and ‘Airport’. The combination of these two words possesses a powerful appeal to people’s imaginations. It has ensured that the translation of the concept into an urban development design, and into marketing and communication, has withstood the test of time.
many businesses. The possibility of locating a business in the right environment close to related businesses and thus of presenting themselves together has become more important. This gives a business advantages that in a stand-alone situation are much more difficult to realise and require much greater investments. The business park of the future should be about something and stand for something
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which niche propositions and specialisation become more important. In the Dutch horticulture sector, for instance, we see both of these trends—on the one hand, at Agriport A7, a business park specifically aimed at companies with large-scale production needs, and on the other, at Green Park Aalsmeer, which is specifically aimed at small-scale specialised production and services brought together in clusters. In both cases, there is an increasing interest in the presence of other (chain) partners. Their shared connection and the consequent enhancement of their identities should contribute to advantages of scale that help them compete at the international level.
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Sector Chapter Part
guides future strategic decisions. The concept introduces a pattern that brings the future to the present. The view that a city’s airport can also be an airport city is a proposition that, at the moment the decision is taken, has not yet been realised—but it does offer the promise that it will be. It is a pattern in the sense of being a commonly felt, truth-based essence about the future of the airport. A location concept therefore has a certain inherent truth about it. It represents the inspiration and the strength needed to realise the future in such a manner that the concept is actually brought to life. Such an approach requires the competency to create a potentially workable future. This future, after all, can never be predicted. However, it can be imagined. In an interview, Rudolf Arnheim, Professor of Psychology and Art at Harvard, says the following about the way in which we develop a view of the world: ‘My essential assertion [...] is that language is not the formal prototype of knowledge [...]. Our only access to reality is sensory experience, that is, sight or hearing or touch. And sensory experience is always more than mere seeing or touching. It also includes mental images and knowledge based on experience. All of that makes up our view of the world. In my opinion, ‘visual thinking’ means that visual perception consists above all in the development of forms, of ‘perceptual terms‘, and thereby fulfils the conditions of the intellectual formation of concepts; it has the ability, by means of these forms, to give a valid interpretation of experience.’ Our notion of the world is composed from our senses, our mental images and knowledge based on experiences. They feed the creation of concepts. The concept of a location is comparable to this. It is an idea, a scenario that has not yet taken shape and that reflects a notion that appeals to our senses, thoughts and experiences. It is imaginable and conceivable. It represents a valid interpretation of reality. If the concept is not understood, is not conceivable, then it is too distant from reality and it has to be explained with difficulty by means of a considerable amount of imagery and text. It is not a valid interpretation.
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A good location concept has the ability to be convincing and believable in a short span of time, and—just as important—can remain tenable during its development. The method used to come up with a concept requires rational analytic skills and creative, intuitive skills. Identifying and systematising the geography, the culture and nature, and the economic situation of an area provides insight into possible strategic directions for the development of a location. Creative, intuitive thinking then makes the most significant leap to bring us to an imagined concept.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPT: METHOD Analytic Phase 1. Geography The physical location and infrastructure provides considerable insight into the way in which the region has developed. This literally means the subterranean structure of the area. The ground can often reveal how a region was created and a lot of information about the natural behaviour patterns of its inhabitants. What (regional) function does the area fulfil or has it fulfilled? An example of this is the newly developing Business Park in Zierikzee, which will give new life to its original function as an entryway to Zeeland on the West coast of the Netherlands. The geography of a particular area largely determines the way of life there, for both nature and culture. 2. Culture and Nature Nature and culture form the basis for a region’s mentality and the personality of the region. What story lies hidden in the area? It is imaginable, for instance, that a creative breeding ground in the country does not have much appeal for the creative industry because the mentality of the creative industry does not fit in with the mentality of the introverted native inhabitants of the countryside. Of course we are dealing here with stereotypes. But it is not surprising that many creative breeding grounds take root in large cities. In line with this, it is also not surprising that Chiswick Park, which is positioned to meet the employee need to ‘enjoy work’, is located in a large city such as London. An economic dynamism has arisen from the culture and nature of a certain region, and this should not be left out of the analytic phase of concept development. 3. Economic Situation In analysing the economic situation, it is important to gain insight into the business activity and employment in a region. It is also important to know the current demographics and the general level of education. What is the current picture, and what economic shifts are taking place? What are the driving economic forces in the region? Green Park Aalsmeer, for instance, is aimed at one of the most important economic forces in Aalsmeer: the ornamental-horticulture sector. The Mediapark in Hilversum, as the centre of the media world, is another example. This forms a pyramid: the geography determines the culture and nature of a region, from which the economic dynamism arises. Taken together, these three aspects are a determining factor in the analysis that is carried out for the development of the concept. Creative Phase During the creative phase that follows the analysis, creative intuitive thinking starts. Through combinations of the three most important individual insights for each variable (key insights), scenarios are formed. Starting as rough drafts, a new concept is born through a creative
companies be placed? Are grounds necessary? Do people live in the area? Is there a public meeting place or a market?
Economics
Key insights
Key insights Location concept
Geography
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Culture and nature
process based on intuition, thinking and observation—a concept scenario that represents a connecting pattern. This concept reflects a truth and appeals to existing images that are combined anew. This was the case for Airport City Schiphol. ‘All perceiving is also thinking, all reasoning is also intuition, all observation is also invention.’ (Rudolf Arnheim). The Concept Guides The concept arose from the awareness of target groups, interaction and necessary functions. Now that the concept exists, it serves as a guide for choosing a target group, functions and a programme, the urban development/ landscape architectural design and the marketing. These are the most important constituent parts needed to bring the concept to life, to be able to make the strategic decisions for collective profiling. Choosing Target Groups Because the concept provides a framework, it differentiates between target groups. That is to say, businesses from heavy industry will probably not be attracted to Chiswick Park or Green Park Aalsmeer. So the concept provides guidance to target groups that fit perfectly in the concept (primary target groups), fit sufficiently in the concept (secondary target groups), just barely fit (tertiary target groups) and do not fit at all (‘no-go’ target groups). This produces a clear picture and gets the ball rolling for future marketing activities.
Urban Development and Landscape Design Because the concept has not yet taken shape but is an abstract scenario for the future, it helps guide the structure of the area in conjunction with the programme and functions. The ambition that underlies the concept should be reflected in the manner in which the park is designed. The urban development design reinforces, and is a concrete expression of the concept. The same is true for the landscape design. Marketing One thing that makes locations that are based on a concept so attractive is that they sell themselves to some degree. The marketing does not need to focus on square metres, facilities or accessibility; these are functional aspects that have gradually become a given and are no longer distinctive. The concept provides the prospect of profiling the business park in light of its new content or future function. This is highlighted in the communication and thus presents itself as a promise for the future. The Span of Time Perhaps the biggest benefit of a conceptual approach to business parks is that it bridges the span of time involved. Launching a project today often means actually delivering it fifteen years from now. In those fifteen years economic circumstances change, as do politics, the market and the way in which people want to live and work. In other words, what we know today can change tomorrow. The concept, on the other hand, provides a solid footing, and is less time-dependent and therefore less subject to change. What does change with time is the design in urban-development planning for a region—changes prompted by such things as new procedures and changes in technology.
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Functions and Programme Depending on the concept and the insights produced by the analytic phase, the nature of the intended business activity is determined, as well as what functions should be coupled to it. How do these functions reinforce one another and does it produce collective profiling? Is there a need for a regional function, for example? Such decisions can be made based on the concept and provide direction for the design of the location. Where will the respective
THE URBAN-DEVELOPMENT PLAN FROM GOAL TO REINFORCING TOOL
Sector
Real Property and Physical Planning
Chapter
Working Towards the Future
GREEN PARK AALSMEER AREA DEVELOPMENT Jeannette Kaptein, Senior Designer, Total Identity Saskia Dijkstra, Senior Advisor, Total Identity Peter Verburgt, Senior Advisor, Total Identity
Euro Eu ropa ro pa Stockholm Moskou
Amster Amst erdam er dam
Brussel
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Den Haag
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Rome
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Specialised Trade Cash and carry Flowers and plant-related products
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Flower Processing Industry Bouquet florists Packaging companies Suppliers
Amste Amste terrdam Almere re Schiphol Aalsmeer
Innovators Designers Lifestyle and trend watchers Agencies Service industry
Knowledge Organisations Education Research and Development Research institutes Conference room Business hotel
In Aalsmeer an antiquated greenhouse horticulture area is being transformed into a modern high-quality business park, Green Park Aalsmeer, which has its mission statement: to strengthen the commercial flower and plant sector in Aalsmeer by attracting businesses that want to anticipate future developments in the green sector. In this way, the innovative capacity of the sector will be strengthened. In the area itself, consumers are being invited to come and see the sector in person. That will introduce consumers to the ‘green experience’. The development concept ‘Green Park Aalsmeer’ is the result of choices made on the basis of four different development scenarios and was used as a guide for the urban development plan, the visual-quality plan, the communication, and the visual identity of the park.
Key Insights Key insight 1: the Aalsmeer brand should be revitalised Aalsmeer has traditionally been a strong brand that is associated worldwide with flowers and plants. Strong brands characteristically continue to lead the market and continue to reclaim it. But Aalsmeer is confronted with changing market circum-
Key insight 2: good geographic location The location of the business park is determined by the proximity of the Aalsmeer Flower Auction, which is just next door. Schiphol provides the connection to the world market. The rerouting of the N201 will be a further significant improvement to accessibility and the highway will be given an important role at the business park, running diagonally through it. In short, the location of the business park is extremely beneficial to a national and international proposition. So the municipalities of Aalsmeer and Uithoorn had a clear opportunity to grasp the specific context of the Aalsmeer brand and embrace its advantageous geographic location. But the question remained: what would be the most fruitful way for Aalsmeer to develop? Market research among stakeholders, and the parties and specialists involved, provided an answer.
Market Study The goal of the study was to ascertain what common interests there were and what shared prospect ensued from them. Discussions followed with specialists in the green sector concerning innovation, with businesspeople concerning their ambitions, with administrators concerning their policy and requirements, and with Schiphol concerning the need for space. The outcomes of the market study produced the third key insight. Key insight 3: dematerialisation within the sector From these discussions, it emerged that innovation is seen as a pure necessity to keep the sector relevant. In light of the fact that the city’s function as a logistics centre was weakening, this insight seemed to present an opportunity to Aalsmeer: to create collaboration and synergy and a position not so dependent on the Flower Auction. A trade centre had to be set up in Aalsmeer. The role of the local government would be to direct and facilitate this development. Four different development scenarios then provided insight into the consequences, for various types of user, of small-scale as opposed to large-scale management, on the business-to-business and consumer markets. 117
What followed was a strategic advisory process consisting of an analysis of the current dynamics of the location, a definition of the identity, market research, and the development of a number of area scenarios. The analytical phase resulted in three key insights for the creation of the development scenarios.
stances; production is moving abroad, and new industry centres elsewhere in the world are claiming to be more progressive. Aalsmeer’s position as a logistical interchange—and therefore its ability to determine prices in the world— are under threat. The Aalsmeer brand must be revitalised.
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Rerouting of N201 One of the busiest roads in the Netherlands, the provincial secondary road N201, will be rerouted in order to relieve the town centres of Aalsmeer and Uithoorn of heavy traffic. To finance the rerouting, the municipalities of Aalsmeer and Uithoorn have decided to redevelop a 180-hectare business park. The area-development project was set up within the structure of a Dutch BV (a limited liability company), with Twynstra Gudde assuming management of the property development. Twynstra Gudde called in Total Identity to help think up the identity, the name and the image of the area.
Green Park Aalsmeer A L AS AT ASPARK S in een groter geheel
HA HAVEN H AVEN AMSTERDAM
HAARLEM HA ARLEM TELEPORT TELEPOR T
AALSMEER IS BLOSSOMING AMSTERDAM AMSTERDA M CENTRUM
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Working Towards the Future
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BADHOEVEDORP ZUID SCHIPHOL ELZENHOF
SCHIPHOL GOLF & BUSINESS BUSINESS CENTRUM CENTRU M SCHIPHOL NOORD NOORD
AMSTELVEEN AMSTELVEEN
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DE HOEK HOEK BP BEUKENHORST BEUKENHORS T
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GREEN PA PARK RK AALSMEE AA LSMEER LSMEE R
AALSMEER AA LSMEER
In a former grower’s house, we are working with a small team to make Green Park Aalsmeer a reality. We are located in the middle of an area with a history of market gardening. Originally, many greenhouse growers were established here. They were forced to expand operations to remain competitive. Because of high land prices and few possibilities for expansion, many growers relocated. The city of Aalsmeer was confronted with having to rezone land use. What now seems so logical—Aalsmeer, after all, is at the centre of the national and international trade in commercial flowers and plants trade—was not the first idea that came to mind. With the Flower Auction and surrounding businesses, the city already had large-scale operations in the flower and plant sector. In the meantime, the neighNetto uitgeefbaar bouring city plangebied: of Haarlemmermeer was Specialistische handel in kavels van 8.000 – 20.000 m following developments with distrust. Not Bloemverwerkende industrie in kavels van 3.000 – 40.0000 m more office blocks! And in that respect they Locale gemengde bedrijvigheid Green Square were right—the arrival of an undefined industrial park with adjoining office park did not have a future in the current economic situation. 2
Rott erdam/ Den Ha ag (50km)
BLOEMENVEILING BL OEMENVEILING AALSMEE AA LSMEER LSMEE
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Netto uitgeefbaar plangebied: 22 ha. Specialistische handel in kavels van 8.000 – 20.000 m2 24 ha. Bloemverwerkende industrie in kavels van 3.000 – 40.0000 m2 10 ha. Locale gemengde bedrijvigheid 7 ha. Green Square (Cijfers zijn indicatief)
Noord
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Masterplan Green Park Aalsmeer
A theme park was considered. But we couldn’t decide what character it should have. Our thoughts soon returned to the flower and plant sector. With Green Park Aalsmeer, we provide space to companies that want to be close to the Flower Auction and are an addition to the existing infrastructure. This won the confidence of the Aalsmeer Flower Auction. A high-quality theme park would add nothing to the traditionally iron-clad strength of the Aalsmeer brand. Developing a highly effective position and profile was a real challenge. So we naturally worked with the top agencies in the Netherlands to achieve the desired result. The first ten hectares are now under development, which means that Green Park Aalsmeer will meet the pressing need for business space—for both expansion and business relocations. The enthusiasm among businesspeople is palpable. The best solution for opening the area up and other important factors will be considered in close consultation. I am convinced that the entire project will be successful—a unique opportunity for the region and an international attentiongrabber. Piet van Ruler, General Manager of Green Park Aalsmeer Area Development Ltd (above)
DESIGNING QUALITY Enno Zuidema Urban Developers and H+N+S Landscape Architects signed the master plan for presenting the development of Green Park Aalsmeer as an international benchmark. Quality and uniformity seem to be its key concepts. Enno Zuidema and Jandirk Hoekstra exchange views on their contribution.
Photograph: Rene ten Broeke
Jandirk: ‘Green Park Aalsmeer is a special assignment, a type of landscape renewal and urban renewal all in one. The Netherlands has two practices in this regard: getting undeveloped areas ready for civil engineering, and restructuring, as is done in harbour yards. Both apply to Green Park Aalsmeer. And of course this places requirements on our efforts.’ Enno: ‘The assignment is also to make this an international junction for the ornamental-plant sector that gives both the top and breadth of the sector a stage on which to present themselves. That is why we are making clusters in which they will be grouped spatially. To achieve uniformity, there is a direction document which contains statements about colour and the use of material, and about how we envisage the public space. It will be organised from a single repertoire, allowing for small differences in each room.’ Jandirk: ‘We see this uniformity as a green coat for the body (ed. the layout of green space and water management). This coat contains rules for things such as the watercourse layout and the development of existing ribbons, but also allows for beautiful gardens. I know someone, for instance, who can create Persian rugs from flowers. If you were to present this next to the N201, that would be something. I am anxious about whether things are feasible. On the one hand, you must have a clear concept to put it on the market. On the other, you must ask how strict you are when it’s time to put it together. You have to maintain the diversity of the sector.’ Enno: ‘Absolutely! Once it is finished, suddenly interests such as money, sufficient land distribution and speed come into play. This ambition of Green Park Aalsmeer must remain intact so that we continue to imbue the project with quality and identity. Identity is the pole vault stick
that enables businesses to make the leap. The direction document can play a role in this by stimulating instead of prescribing. It should open eyes, give entrepreneurs the certainty that the same requirements have been set for their neighbours. The value of a building is determined, in the end, by the value of the building next door.’ Jandirk: ‘In my view, these strict requirements apply especially to the body, in which many conditions from the zoning plan have been grouped. The local government and, later, the park management should tackle this . The rest should be set up as flexibly and as openly as possible, provided of course that a certain visual quality, materialisation and front formation are achieved. So I see a heavy regime for the body and a light regime for the rooms. In the meantime, we will try to make that body a bit more precise.’ Enno: ‘This step also applies to the direction document, which makes too many unsubstantiated claims. The initial assumptions about how the ornamentalplant sector is structured is correct, but they are averages. Having more knowledge about what businesses want exactly should mean we will be able to make a better direction document. SADC and urbanXchange are actively studying this.’ Jandirk: ‘That characterises our approach. Projects are often approached in serial fashion—first comes the concept, then the design, and so on. For Green Park Aalsmeer this occurred simultaneously and involved complete collaboration between all involved parties and firms. This approach produced quality.’ Enno Zuidema, Director and Urban Developer, Enno Zuidema Stedebouw (top, and below, right) Jandirk Hoekstra, Director and Landscape Architect, H+N+S Landschapsarchitecten (below, left)
Figure 1: Scenarios
Large-Scale Management
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Matrix Development Scenarios The criteria for the development scenario were named: 1 Strengthen the Aalsmeer brand; 2 Exploit the geographic location; 3 The wish of the sector to strive towards developing a knowledge centre in order to remain an international centre.
Basic Development Concept for Green Park Aalsmeer: Where Business Blooms The features of Green Park Aalsmeer are aimed at making it possible to differentiate and further deepen the formation of clusters. Setting trends and keeping quality high will lead to the desired exemplary role. This identity formed the commercial basis for the development of 120
‘Floriade’
Unrestrained growth: garden centres; car mechanics; leisure; etc
Small-Scale Management
Despite these criteria for the development scenario, there was still no clear statement on the proper role for the city. The comparison between large-scale and small-scale management of the effort to attract types of companies made it clear that this role had to be large-scale. Clear and precise communication would have a direct influence on the level of recognition and thus the success of the development area. The area’s name, the definition of its identity and, coupled with this, the type of ‘companies setting up business’ there made the development concept tangible and visible.
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the area and was the central message in communications on the area. This identity also made it evident what type of users should be sought: businesses in the green sector with products and services that created extra value or that supplied products and services related to the green sector. The addition of a ‘WorldGreenCenter’ to the basic concept provided the development concept with an extra welcome dimension. WorldGreenCenter as an Extra Dimension of the Basic Concept The WorldGreenCenter, as the heart of Green Park Aalsmeer, will be given a special spot in the business park. The international trade centre will focus on both the consumer and trade—it will combine these seemingly separate worlds. The cities of Aalsmeer and Uithoorn have embraced the entire development concept for Green Park Aalsmeer. For the WorldGreenCenter, the name BLOOM2 has been developed by the regional development company Green Park Aalsmeer. The Urban Development Plan In collaboration with the urban-development office of Enno Zuidema and landscape architects H+N+S, the next thing we did was work on translating the development concept into a concrete
physical plan. On the planning chart, which shows a general outline of how Green Park Aalsmeer is structured, the choice was made to let the N201 run straight through the area. This provides many possibilities for good access and increases the visibility of locations for future users. The centre of the area is the spot where BLOOM2 will be located. It forms the heart of Green Park Aalsmeer. VBA Oost is one of the expansion areas of the Flower Auction itself (shown in dark grey, bottom left). The entire area is divided into various ‘rooms’, which are meant for specific business activities in the flower and plant sector in order to achieve clustering for this sector. So there is a room for the flower-processing industry and a room for specialised trade. From the master plan, the development concept has been given further shape by the visual-quality plan, in which the guidelines for the visual quality of Green Park Aalsmeer are established. It shows how the final design and architectural layout of the internal park roads, the choice of material and the architecture of the buildings in Green Park Aalsmeer can be aligned with the original development concept. Because of the underlying development concept, the urban-development design gives room to introduce interim changes. For instance, in the urban-development plan, space was initially set aside for innovative start-up companies in the so-called Bedrijvenbos (bundle of companies, which is currently seen as an extension of BLOOM2 that will enable visitors to explore the green sector in a park-like environment. The concept remains intact, so that urbandevelopment changes can be introduced without the concept losing its attractiveness or relevance. Moreover, interim changes in market demand can be worked into the plan in this way. The plan is the means by which the goal is achieved and no longer the goal itself. Thanks in part to the conceptual approach, the development remains futureproof.
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Two Spreads from the Master Plan
PARALLEL PROCESSES Dr. Ir. R.S. Wall, Economic Geographer / Urban Developer, faculty for applied economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam Prof. Dr. G.A. van der Knaap, Director of Applied Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Networks and Sustainability Cities increasingly depend on one another and thus form an extremely complex system that contains social and ecological prospects and problems. Sustainable development should be based on insight into the network character of cities and the manner in which this develops. Urban transitions reflect the interplay between the self-organising processes of the urban network and planned development. From scarcity comes demand, which brings about a causal cycle—companies produce cities and vice versa. Sustainability should be understood in this context as the formation of complex network relationships between companies and cities on a range of scales. It should also be recognised that sustainability is linked to the achievements of a city in social, economic and environmental-engineering areas. Insight into the network relationships of a city can contribute to better programming, planning and development of socio-economic functions.
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Sustainability is a normative concept that is interwoven with the processes of globalisation (social integration) and urbanisation (spatial integration). Sustainability is a consequence of the urban networks of companies and a wide range of social and ecological indicators.
Society Demand
Complexity Observation/Description Territory Proximity resource
Social Wellbeing resource
Space Supply
Global scale Regional scale Local scale Scarcity Firms
Cities
Urbanization Spatial intergration
Technological renewal and social reform are the driving forces behind economic development. Apart from meeting current needs, they also continually create new demand. In this way, they bring about the worldwide exploitation of physical space, global integration and damage to the environment. That induces a paradigm shift in which a new concept of sustainability is the central focus.
Globalization Societal intergration
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SUSTAINABILITY IN URBAN NETWORKS
Infrastructure Accessibility resource
Economic Wealth resource
Sustainability Reflection/prescription Governance and planning
The gross national product, the level of education, the density of the population and the quality of the urban environment, for example, are all part of the city’s environs. By correlating these things with one another, one can create an environmental-impact model, and ascertain what improvements are needed in order for the sustainability of a city to be strengthened. Multinational companies are crucially important because they represent the status quo in the long development process of companies. They play a fundamental role in the formation of a network society and the growth of cities.
Regional and local systems are highly dependent on the network of multinational companies. Key regions take shape on a macro-scale (in the US, the EU and Southeast Asia), which indicates that globalisation is not weakening, but being polarised. New York, Paris, London and Tokyo occupy the highest positions and together are responsible for a third of global business activities. The individual power of these cities surpasses the combined connectivity of the Randstad (multi-city urban conglomeration in the western Netherlands). In the global context, The Hague and Amsterdam are secondary cities. Utrecht and Rotterdam operate on an even lower scale. On a
between cities and companies. The empirical relationships between the characteristics of a city and its ties with the world beyond provide new insights into the programming and designing of its social, economic and ecological functions. In the end, this should lead to a marriage between the spatial sciences and the design disciplines, and to a model of sustainability that provides an effective answer to the parallel processes of urbanisation and globalisation.
So, based on the network footprint of a city, it is possible to grasp the interplay 123
Networks versus Urban Indicators: Three Examples If you compare European connectivity with the professional population of the cities, you come up with a high correlation of 0.9. This means that the more connections a city has, the higher will be the percentage of economically active citizens. Depending
on this connectivity, a city must develop a policy to stimulate regional or global business activity. A comparison between connectivity and higher education also produces a figure of 0.9. This shows just how dependent we have become on good education and how much governments should invest in it. A comparison of the number of head offices of multinationals with the gross urban product also produces a figure of 0.9. This indicates the strong connection between global presence and general economic production.
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meso- and micro-scale, the Randstad has considerable internal connections between its urban centres (40%) and links with other European centres. Most business relationships of the Randstad are therefore with the world beyond, and this underlines the importance of relationships on a higher scale
BUSINESS AND INNOVATION CENTRE
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The worldwide network of technical companies, education and research institutions, marketers and creative people needs a centre that ensures the intensity of the collaboration and that is also a symbol of the network. This centre is being created in Nijmegen, the home of NXP Semiconductors. In addition to office space, the centre will combine accommodation, and space for leisure and retailing, so that the maximum number of encounters can occur between different worlds. ICE Development is developing and building the centre together with Ballast Nedam Special Projects. In addition to some regular partners, interested parties from various disciplines can permanently or temporarily join in and inspire the development process. The network and the centre must be provided with a corporate identity and strong internal and external
Connection
Added value
Passion
Interaction
Inspiration
Insight
Alliance
Creativity
Relevance
Synergy
Innovation
Lifestyle
Meaning
Business
To take better advantage of new market developments and competition from low-wage countries, NXP Semiconductors has decided to intensify collaboration within the chain of suppliers and buyers. Because of the intensity of the collaboration and the mutual interactions among partners from the worlds of technology, business and lifestyle, solutions are developed at a faster pace, products better match market demand, and greater added value is created. The collaboration should shape the future of the development of technological products and become an impetus for the national knowledge economy.
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Aad van Dommelen, Creative Director, Total Identity Hans P Brandt, Managing Director, Total Identity LĂŠon Stolk, Senior Designer, Total Identity
Themes
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FIFTYTWODEGREES
communications, so that the centre creates sufficient support among politicians and the public, and attracts partners and investors in order to realise the various construction phases and create the internal dynamics of the network. The corporate identity brings to life the constant cycle of action and reaction among the partners, and reflects the flexibility and versatility of the network and its environment. The symbiosis among business, lifestyle and technology is seen within this concept.
A short film, the brand booklet and the sales brochure outline the ideas behind the centre and convey the need for the network, while communications about the excavation of the centre suggest to neighbours and (future) partners the perspective on the future. FiftyTwoDegrees is depicted in terms of nine elementary building blocks and their shared context. These blocks are formed by the intersection of the themes that merge within the centre: lifestyle, business and technology and the values that guide the origin, function and results of FiftyTwoDegrees.
Artist’s impression of the FiftyTwoDegrees Business and Innovation Centre, Nijmegen, Francine Houben, Architecture Director, Meccano Architects
P52 FiftyTwoDegrees is one of the largest area developments that has taken place in Nijmegen in the last few decades. To present this development publicly and provide information about the different stages of construction, there was a need for an information pavilion to welcome future tenants and concerned citizens. The mission is the design of a pavilion that is a combination of an info-box measuring 20 by 20 metres with a 21-metre high watchtower. The position of the info-box, some six metres above ground level—near the middle of the tower—creates three programmable surfaces at different heights, and a fourth, which is covered, on the ground floor. The building is oriented on the site because of the angle of the load-bearing tower, and both receive an extra dynamic. The façade of the info-box consists of a cover of glass fibres that are illuminated at night, so that the covering has different patterns. The ‘soft’ covering also contrasts with the roughness of the site, so that the pavilion becomes a refuge in a world of mud and concrete. Theo Deutinger, architect, TD architects
Model of the information pavilion (not yet built).
Stills and Text From the Filmed Corporate Story
A new Euperean business and innovation centre
innovation technology as experience and lifestyle as
in Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands,
business perspective.
We strive to achieve personal development.
offers excellent business conditions in a unique
Inspiration
environment.
We want to bring meaning to our lives and be part of the world.
FiftyTwoDegrees is an inspiring environment. Where new inventions and semiconductor
Welcome to FiftyTwoDegrees.
applications are developed and presented.
This is a world of innovators,
This gives rise to a bond between
in which future technology
commerce and meaning, cutting-edge innovation
Having insight into what fascinates people,
and business experiments are developed
connected to relevant product development
is the condition for commercial success.
and creative knowledge economy is shaped.
and the achievement of commercial succes.
forge new, more intense alliances with one another
FiftyTwoDegrees creates trendsetting content in
FiftyTwoDegrees consists of partnership.
and with their customers to develop products and
a state-of-the-art environment that continues to
Being part of this international symbol
services that mean something to the world.
develop and become more dynamic.
means being part of the commercial avant-garde
We want to create things together, experience new realities and realise our ideals.
This is why companies and knowledge institutes
The future hinges on cooperation on surprising
that holds the future in the palm of their hands.
make this possible.
connected with one another and insight becomes
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alliances. There is a growing need for a context to
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A Dynamic Brand The logo of FiftyTwoDegrees has a clear visual resemblance to the façade of Meccano’s building. The letters themselves also suggest movement. This expresses the dynamic combination of different elements: clusters of similar and different items in varying combinations. In multimedia applications one sees shapes appear and then disappear again. This even suggests a concrete technological link between the shape of the logo on a digital screen and the actual numbers and locations of the users of the high-tech building.
that the same version will appear more than once are virtually nil. The digital document is not an application but a PostScript file with random functions. It can be printed normally from Word or InDesign. This enormous pluriformity has no effect on the recognisability of the logo: it remains vertical. There are versions for use on light and dark backgrounds and in black and white.
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The logo file initially looks like an ordinary EPS. When it is opened or printed, the text of the brand appears, in three different colours, in a colourful cloud of blocks. The special feature of the file becomes apparent only after it is opened again or printed. The shape and colours are then always different. In view of the possible number of colours and locations, the odds
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A multimedia Website
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The brand booklet of FiftyTwoDegrees—on this and the following pages—depicts the identity matrix.
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MADE FOR ZEELAND
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MUNICIPALITY OF SCHOUWEN-DUIVELAND
Paul van Tuil, Project Leader of ‘Made for Zeeland’, Municipality of Schouwen-Duiveland Perry Zijlema, Urban Planner, Agency Rothuizen van Doorn ’t Hooft Saskia Dijkstra, Senior Consultant, Total Identity Tom Köhler, Area Developer, Heijmans Wim Lavooij, Director, Lavooij over vorm
The municipality of Schouwen-Duiveland is giving its economy a significant shot in the arm in the coming years with the creation of a new business park at the south-eastern entrance to the Zierikzee. The planned-out development of the business location provides the extra dynamism that the economy of SchouwenDuiveland needs. The design that was elaborated together with the municipality of Schouwen-Duiveland and Heijmans is ‘Made for Zeeland’. The ‘Made for Zeeland’ Concept The core of ‘Made for Zeeland’ is the combination of Zeeland’s entrepreneurial mentality and the joint presentation of Zeeland’s services and products in one place. This creates interaction, and a transaction occurs both among companies and between those companies and the consumers who visit ‘Made for Zeeland’. ‘Made for Zeeland’ is primarily a brand. It is the umbrella name for the location from which the joint presentation and promotion of Zeeland’s products and services takes place. Secondly, ‘Made for Zeeland’ is a meeting place: a place for the presentation and promotion of Zeeland’s products to visitors to Zeeland. Finally, ‘Made for Zeeland’ is a place that gives substance to the need for entrepreneurs to come together, and for joint profiling. The business park is in a prime location: on two important arterial roads in Zeeland, so that which use can be made of the easy accessibility and the visibility of the location.
Spatial Layout A marketplace has been devised for the northern corner, anticipated in the form of a central building that has an urban accent and that captures the attention of visitors on their way to Zeeland. Around this central building there will be business-to-consumer companies. To the south of it, space has been reserved for business-to-business activities. The products and services that are presented and promoted here are made here.
Solar cell developer Sunblind manufacturer Balcony glazing Window frame and profile developer for Zeeland’s climate (innovator) Window frame manufacturer Installation assembly of climate systems
Agricultural machines Glider construction Windmill builders All-terrain vehicles Boat builder
Assembly and meeting centre Seminar and congress area Sales area B-to-B
Accountants Bank pilot office Lawyers & Notaries Brokers Chamber of Commerce Architects with green ideas Training theatre (HR) Communication bureau Zeeland business paper/newspaper Radio Station Schouwen-Duiveland
Hotel VVV Restaurant Information centre Showroom Exhibition hall Product sales points Theatre and film area Kiosk
Sports shop Water sport accessories Outdoor(sport)/Bever Garden centre Sales points for handicraft products Residential shop with Zeeland stock Broker Sports/casual clothing shops Boat rental Camp site shop + accessories Supermarkt Builder’s merchants
Kiosk, merchandising
(Weekly) market Regular scheduling of: music, culture, new productions market, Zeeland Proof Stage Merchandising Made for Zeeland Terraces Restaurant
Den Haag
Renesse
SchouwenDuiveland
Rotterdam
Zierikzee Bruinisse
Zeelandia Packaging manufacturer Bakery machine manufacturer Household baking and cooking products manufacturer Manufacturer of catering clothing Wholesaler
Noord-Beveland
Domburg
Tholen
Veere
Walcheren Goes
Middelburg
Zuid-Beveland Vlissingen
Breskens Terneuzen Sluis
Zeeuws-Vlaanderen Hulst
Sas van Gent
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VIGILIUS MOUNTAIN RESORT
Aad van Dommelen, Creative Director, Total Identity Manuel Demetz, Senior Consultant, TITotal Identity (Italy) Peter Verburgt, Senior Consultant, Total Identity
The Vigilius is situated 1,500 metres high on the San Vigilio Mountain (Lana, Province of Bolzano, Italy), and is one of the most picturesque hotels one could imagine. With 35 rooms and 6 suites, 2 restaurants, a spa offering health treatments and such activities as archery, mountain biking, and yoga, the Vigilius is a centre for relaxation and mental and physical recuperation. With the motto ‘Stand back and give a new dimension to time’, the Vigilius eases guests away from their hectic, daily lives. In discussions with the client, it turned out that, despite the continued growth of the resort, certain aspects of its identity and market position needed to be established. In this way, the average stay could be extended to beyond the holidays and the visiting frequency of regular guests could be increased. Further research also made it clear that the core attractions of the Vigilius, namely rest, health and introspection, came more from ‘imported’ means (yoga, archery, architectural attractions) than activities developed and organised locally.
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For a clear profile to be created for the Vigilius, its identity needed to be redefined–an identity that had matured in its own context and was capable of creating a dialogue and an enduring relationship between the client and the surrounding cultural context. This was worked out by chronicling the guests’ stay in the form of a diary, which was used to determine what elements added value to the services offered by the Vigilius. By means of a chronological storyboard that was later filmed, the days guests spent were reproduced, described, and analysed. During the project it
became clear that the stimulation of communication and interaction with the clientele could be the way to go, the key idea being that the guests could give and take something of themselves. Collecting the input of all the visitors, their tales of an experience, their history or some part of it, became the strategy to profile the Vigilius as the place for narration and the development of a ‘collective memory’. The guests can leave their stories on a ‘digital’ writing desk, after which it belongs to the heritage of the Vigilius. The stories are retained for at least a hundred years and so constitute a legacy for future generations; they are published both on a Website dedicated to the project, where they are freely accessible, and in periodically themed collections, the ‘Mountain Stories’ booklets.
The complete series of booklets is archived and can be found in the resort’s library. From a communications viewpoint, the guest, who finds a ‘Mountain Stories’ booklet on the nightstand on arrival, is invited to take part in the project in a personal letter presenting the initiative. They also receive a password with which they can access the writing and archive system. To underline the narratively oriented spirit of the place, fragments of stories are placed at strategic points on the walls inside the resort. A new typographic letter type, called ‘Virgilius’ in memory of the famous poet Virgil and developed exclusively for the Vigilius Mountain Resort, is used for all written communications, such as the Web address on visiting cards and the texts on the walls, the instructions on the site, and the stories in the booklets.
HISTORICAL UNIQUENESS ‘This will come to nothing,’ said the hotel manager and the young co-worker responsible for communicationalternately shaking and nodding her head. This is what was heard and seen after the first presentation by Total Identity. The idea made me think, just like that, of my grandmother, who for over 90 years kept a diary in which she recorded all the important events of the previous century: war, work, and family. She could still remember everything she had noted down: even at 95 she could remember things from when she was a little girl. When she was 96, my grandmother asked me whether I was still so bad at school. I really should do better better—and to think that at that time I had left school 15 years earlier. My grandmother died when she was 100. The diaries were revealed within the family circle only after her death. My sister, who read every single diary entry with fascination, found an entry from 1959, in which grandmother— grandmother who had 36 grandchildren—mentioned me. My sister read aloud to me, rather triumphantly: ‘Poor Paula, Uli is so bad at school’ referring to my mother and me, respectively. Total Identity has convinced me to leave the conventional path and concentrate entirely on identity. Not only the idea of the ‘Mountain Stories’ fascinated me-just as important is the empathy with which the presenters have summarised the core of the identity of the Vigilius Mountain Resort. Ulrich Ladurner, Owner, Vigilius Mountain Resort
The writing desk (top left) The writing desk is the place where guests can add their stories to the Vigilius database. The desk is made from the same wood and has the same quality as the existing furniture. Only a ‘flush-mounted’ keyboard is visible. Wires and technology are artfully hidden. On the walls, one of the ‘Mountain Stories’ slowly unfolds. When the user touches the keyboard, a screen appears on which guests can input their personal code and then add their own paragraph to the story.
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Year book The best stories are published in a ‘hard-cover’ book, which can serve as a gift.
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What guests do during their stay is translated into a chronological storyboard—later converted into a film diary—to establish which elements and activities add value to the existing facilities. Incidentally, insight is also gained into how guests can be approached regarding their interests, and how they can become more involved in the resort.
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At the project site of the Vigilius Mountain Stories, the rapidly expanding database can be searched according to all kinds of criteria: location (with Google Maps Technology), keywords, language, period, and more substantive parameters: subjective/objective, nature/ culture, city/countryside and heart/intellectual. The stories found in this way can be read on the screen or printed out.
BEING IN A PROJECT A project is a good project if it becomes clear that it will have a unique character. It can be coincidence—or perhaps intentional—but the possibilities for development within a project do not necessarily need to be present; they can simply arise. It began innocently, a first conversation, getting to know each other, saying what you think of it, in order to gather impressions of a place, an organisation, an enterprise, an entrepreneur, a market. The phase of calm reflection on or for the benefit of a project—whichever preposition is appropriate—is often decided only in the next three weeks—and must be brief. The first exchange of opinions was brief. In such a phase the atmosphere in which the meeting is held is very important. After a discussion, the number of direct questions must be more than the number of direct answers. Precipitate actions block the generation of creative thinking, and creativity is indispensable to the character of a project. ‘Why does this place seem so closed in?’ was such a question that was ultimately decisive for the concept. ‘Why should it be open?’ follows in the solipsist tradition. Viewing the Vigilius Mountain Resort as a place where stories are told—was the opening that had to be achieved with this project. The narrative is an appropriate instrument for creating meaningful dimensions and making them accessible. The reader of and listener to a story can penetrate this significant dimension by opening themselves up and trying to understand what the story actually means, by trying to understand the essence and forgetting the conventional—the empty, exterior— the narrative for the time being. Forgetting... so as to allow the narrative to unfold. Manuel Demetz, Senior Consultant, TI Total Identity (Italy)
ZUIDAS BACKS DIVERSITY
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ZUIDAS AMSTERDAM
Julius van der Woude, Design Director, Total Identity Saskia Dijkstra, Senior Consultant, Total Identity
The Zuidas area can turn Amsterdam into a top international economic location. It also has a housing function and the creation of a living environment that is appealing to the international Amsterdammer. The ambitions for Zuidas Amsterdam are therefore great; a top location that makes an important contribution to the image of Amsterdam as an international economic, cultural, and tourist centre. With a mixture of high-quality activity, urban housing and public amenities that creates a multiform and international atmosphere. And all this has to be combined in one logo.
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The analysis forming the basis of the new design of the signposting for the area showed that the existing logo was not in line with the underlying ambition. The logo evoked primarily associations with tourism, which is at most only a partial aspect. The lettering (like Rembrandt’s
handwriting) was also not seen as distinctive, even if it was recognised. The provocative can be recognised in the mercantile spirit of Amsterdam, but situated in our time and in its diversity, in the many roles that Zuidas Amsterdam has for many players and other individuals. Zuidas Amsterdam comprises several areas, each with its own atmosphere and users. Through the radiation of an urban dynamic with the appropriate allure from within a coordinated position, an awareness comes about that the strength of Zuidas Amsterdam lies precisely in its diversity. This diversity is the DNA of the area, translated into various functions—a DNA structure where there is no functional hierarchy. Each entity or function is equally important and determinative of the individual’s perception of Zuidas Amsterdam, whether it concerns living, working, or recreation. This DNA concept is the basis for the design of the logo.
The notion of the DNA makes the logo interesting and unique and expresses the ambition for the area. Each building has its own code, which is created by colour and size and with which a specific pattern arises that is unique to each area. The map describes the different functions of the buildings without being intrusive. The string of DNA for Zuidas Amsterdam is created by positioning the individual buildings on a horizontal axis. The images shown are from a study.
Each building has its own code, which is created by colour and size. This generates a specific pattern that belongs to Zuidas Amsterdam.
The DNA String as the Basis For the Logo
The DNA string of Zuidas Amsterdam is created by positioning the individual buildings on a horizontal axis.
zuidas amsterdam Image and Text in One Logo
For the final logo, the DNA string was simplified and the name was placed on the axis of the largest circle in black, so that a clear and powerful image was created.
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PROFILING UNDER ONE’S OWN STEAM ON THE PROFILING OF HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL HOSPITALS
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Dmitri Berkhout, Senior Communications Consultant, Total Identity
Positively distinguishing oneself from other providers for the highly professional hospital is not a question of publicly oriented marketing or communication. Instead of a strong orientation toward the wishes of the environment (the current trend), the hospital should make its own qualities the reference point for effectively positioning itself. Hospital and Market The main feature of Government policy is the transition to a demand-driven care model. This means in the first place that hospitals are expected to provide the highest-quality case. Cost-effectiveness is the domain of the Government, while health insurers focus on the accessibility of healthcare. The mission of hospitals is thus to optimise healthcare. Meanwhile, there have been many fundamental developments in the healthcare sector that complicate the task considerably, such as the integration of first-, second- and third-line care, whereby other healthcare providers, such as general practitioners, take over tasks that have been fulfilled by hospitals. Regional centres for basic hospital care are springing up, and specialised centres are providing high-tech care, which forces hospitals to distinguish patient flows more sharply into emergency and non-emergency treatment. Much is also demanded of hospitals at the managerial level. Managers and directors must have a good understanding of political relationships; effective management alone is no longer sufficient. Management must focus more on entrepreneurship, in order to operate in a more marketoriented and competitive manner via decentralised management. Hospitals are also being confronted with the task of going more deeply into segmentation. Strategic choices have to be made for each group of services. Within the sector, hospitals are becoming more self-sufficient. Just the funding form makes it difficult to achieve the common goal of optimising care through mutual collaboration. Mutual solidarity, which led to spontaneous collaboration and exchange (and thus to higher-quality care), is disappearing. Strictly speaking, hospitals are currently more isolated than ever. If there is collaboration it occurs institutionally, via a merger or formal collaboration. Fortunately, we see pressure arising to achieve forms of collaboration looser than
rigid mergers, driven by medical specialists who wish to develop further from the viewpoint of their own professional ambitions. Finally, there is market pressure to distinguish oneself from other hospitals. Important boosters on this level are nowadays the various lists of ‘best hospitals’. These lead—and this is a benefit—to a greater awareness of one’s own qualities. An important disadvantage, however, is that they reinforce the impression that a hospital is good only if it is at home ‘in all markets’. This is misleading: even the top 10 hospitals achieve lower figures than other, lower-placed hospitals for some components. Distinguishing qualities are thus glossed over, and this considerably diminishes the positive effect of the top 100 table. Hospitals will therefore have to make independent strategic choices in order to profile themselves more effectively. Distinctions As Regards Value A demand-driven healthcare model presumes that hospitals will more clearly concentrate on the demands of patients, and thus focus on delivering: optimal care. To distinguish themselves in this field, three strategies—socalled value strategies—are available to help hospitals distinguish themselves here: 1. Operational excellence Streamlining of internal processes, including automation and HR policy. Core values: efficiency and cost awareness. An example is the Dell computer company, which, because of streamlined business processes, is able to supply every computer tailor-made at an extremely competitive price. 2. A close relationship with the customer The development of services based on really detailed knowledge of the clients, whose needs are paramount. Core values: accessibility and customer orientation. An example of this is Unilever, which adapts its foodstuffs to trends in society. 3. Product innovation Investment in constant improvements in healthcare products and treatment methods. Core values: quality and creativity. In industry there is Apple, for example, which
What demand-driven is not: an oft-seen strategy, whereby we organise our services by looking at the client’s wishes. Innovation is driven by changes in the client’s demands. The internal processes—automation, work processes, HR policy—are secondary.
product innovation
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not only launched a new product, the iPod, but also kept working intensely on innovations for it. All three are significant for every organisation or company. Distinctive capacity with all three at the same time is virtually impossible, however. One always dominates, although there is a link with one of the other two, and this reinforces strategy. It is remarkable that in many hospitals at the moment, the demand-based models, driven by calls from politicians, the media and the citizen, primarily tend towards the closecustomer-relationship strategy, linked to product innovation. Patients are the focus, and the relationship with them is crucial. They are, after all, our clients, and you have to know the clients and bind them to you, or they will go to someone else. We must thus get to know them well. If their needs change, we shift the emphasis of our communications. Given the way in which our hospital and its processes are organised, operational excellence comes last. There are, however, several factors whereby a hospital that already performs above average (a ‘top-50 hospital’), is not exactly comparable with business in this area. First, the number of patients is a given. People do not need to be seduced into becoming clients; after all, they do so only after becoming ill, something that nobody wants. The supply is guaranteed. Moreover the hospitals focus like nobody’s business on patients. Nowhere are clients taken so seriously as in the healthcare sector. The specialists, nurses and paramedics make healing their life goal—one could not ask for more. Companies can learn from this. There is certainly room for improvement—in personal communication and treatment, for instance, which, according to a series of newspaper articles and wellattended discussion forums, could often be better.
But as far as the actual task of healing goes, their expertise and commitment are undisputed. It is almost insulting to encourage these highly professional hospitals to concern themselves more with the wishes of the client. This conceals a misunderstanding on the intellectual level. The client of the hospital is not unambiguous, but has three roles: those of citizen, consumer, and patient. The citizen is not exactly interested in the provision of healthcare but much more in health and happiness. The consumer above all wishes to pay as little as possible in health-insurance premiums. The patient has an entirely different interest: in becoming healthy. The bond with such a changeable, and actually unreliable, ‘client’ is thus quite complex. Furthermore, there is the geographic factor. A hospital is active in its own region, and patients always choose a hospital in the neighbourhood for basic healthcare. The focus on a close relationship with the customer is not high on the list for a highly professional hospital. Innovation and medical developments are, however, important factors. They provide a distinctiveness that transcends the hospital’s own region, motivates its people on a professional level, and strengthens its reputation in the medical world, and this in turn makes it easier to attract top care providers. The hospital organisation must create the conditions for this: operational excellence is the driving force that makes innovation possible—and that may even bring it to the forefront. Together they lead to the main goal, the optimisation of the quality of healthcare. Thus not from the patient but from the services. Paradoxically, the best way to achieve more demand-driven care is investment in the services. The quality of healthcare improves, and thus the patient is ultimately better served. Conclusion Focusing on the client is for highly professional hospitals the wrong answer to the call for more demand-driven care, because this perpetuates the misunderstanding between patient and hospital. The hospital develops distinctive capacities by assessing its own qualities and making choices based on them. If this turns out to be cardiology and orthopaedics, for example, the hospital can continue to develop them, open special treatment centres, create increases in scale to allow for even more specialisation, profile itself in the scientific world, and so on. The hospital creates its own clients in addition to the supply of patients for generic care, because of an efficient and cost-conscious organisational infrastructure that creates the necessary space for quality and creativity.
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What demand-driven means in the care sector: ideally, the organisation professionalizes the processes and thereby stimulates innovation and development. A close relationship with the customer is the bottom line.
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CAREFREE LIVING A SUSTAINABLE PERSPECTIVE
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Bas van Eijndhoven, Sector Manager, BM managers of the building process Tom Guthknecht, Architect, Lausanne Health & Hospital Group Victor de Leeuw, Architect/Partner, EGM Architects
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The challenge facing the Board for the Construction of Care Institutions: to develop a view of the spatial implications of changing healthcare in 2025. Take a fictional city of 160,000 residents and show its facilities for future healthcare. There are also challenges. The affordability and accessibility of care for all are very important but are under pressure, and chronic illness is determining the nature of healthcare. The aging society is confronted with growing multimorbidity and the resulting growth in demand for care. Furthermore, freedom of choice in relation to the place, form, and manner of the healthcare provided must be maximised. The effectiveness of medication could be improved by better guidance to patients.
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Informal healthcare was introduced in answer to this: a social organisation and volunteer services that unite and collaborate closely as one organisation
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with the providers of existing first-, second- and third-line healthcare. Informal healthcare involves care at the neighbourhood level. This will be achieved by ‘CarePoints’, as they are called, each of which is the first point of contact for about 500 people. Informative and educational programmes about carerelated topics, health and prevention are also provided. Through CarePoints it is easy to add small-scale accommodation at the neighbourhood level, whereby a ‘CareHouse’ is created. Rehabilitation after hospitalisation can then take place in one’s own neighbourhood. Some of the (lighter) residential functions for mental healthcare, for patients with dementia and for the handicapped, also fit this concept. The patient’s social network or family can thus be close by, and there is no need for institutionalisation. Informal healthcare does not require new kinds of
buildings. For CarePoints and CareHouses, existing buildings can be re-used and new buildings such as apartment complexes can be built sustainably. Most tradition medical consultations and treatments can also take place. However, there will be fewer demands on these functions, they will become more accessible, albeit in a more compact form and at a higher premium. In short, CarePoints can reinforce the social network in the neighbourhood and form part of the systems that focus on social support.
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THE VITAL BEING ON THE PROFILING OF INSTITUTIONS IN CARE, EDUCATION AND THE PROVISION OF SOCIAL SERVICES
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Dennis Glijn, Director of Client Services, Total Identity
Service institutions in the care, education, and socialsecurity sectors can no longer deny the consequences of market effects. Government is shifting more responsibilities onto the individual, and thereby, the initiative from the service provider to the client. Because of the strong emotional component of the services in this sector, which are focused on making people more vital, institutions must not only acquiesce to the new demands, but must also incorporate the idea of the vital being into their communications. Ultimately, people want not care but to be healthy; not to be prescribed to, but to participate.
Care, Education, Work and Income Are Emotions Many service organisations in the care, education, work, and income sectors have a unique context and dynamics. The provision of services is focused on the primary life needs of vulnerable people: people without jobs, who are in poor health and who are not well educated enough to participate fully in modern society. More often than not there is a combination of these problems. We call this a lack of vitality. This fact ensures that the services of the organisations in question have a strong emotional component. Maslow’s pyramid makes it clear how deeply this emotion is rooted.
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Maslow Maslow’s pyramid has for decades been standard teaching for students of industrial engineering and marketing. It shows people’s motivations and prioritises them. Only when their physiological needs are fulfilled are people able to focus on the fulfilment of the need for security and, ultimately, to develop further. In that case, they are fulfilling all their motivations. We call them vital people. Despite the fact that the model has become outdated, it serves as a good mental model to make clear that unemployment, ill-health and inadequate schooling negatively affect all these motivations. They ensure that people at all levels cannot participate and they thus create a pool of emotion.
Tilting Business Chains in Care, Education, Work and Income In imitation of other sectors, the client is emphatically becoming the boss in care, education, work, and income. The Government delegates more and more responsibilities in these areas to the individual, who thus takes control. This trend is expected to increase in the coming years. Market effects are and remain the magic words. This has consequences for organisations in these sectors. The relative luxury of enforced procedures and a focus on the primary process is making way for the uncertainty of market-oriented operations, which actively, and as a matter of policy, achieve and maintain a good market position. Among other things this is done by putting the client at the centre and from that perspective giving form and content to the identity and communications of the organisation. This change will not take place overnight. It is a gradual process and thereby offers huge opportunities to organisations that take advantage of it in time. From Patient to Client Reports of the growing impact of the market on the care sector fill newspaper columns daily. Patients are gaining more and more control. They select their own health insurer and can more freely select the care institution where they want to be treated, because the waiting list is shorter, the care is better—or just…because! Undergoing treatment at a foreign institution or at one of the many private initiatives will no longer be an exception, either. The patients are calling the shots: there are more choices and they are exercising them more and more. In our society, choice is actually normal. Modern Education In education, families and individuals also choose where and how they will be educated. Selections are made based on the quality and accessibility of the institution and the affordability of the training. At the same time, technology is exerting more and more influence. With the advent of the Internet, the classic distribution of education is changing, and following a study programme is less tied to a location. This increases freedom of choice.
Maslow’s Pyramid Need for self-development Need for recognition Social needs Need for safety Physiological needs
Classic Service Providers All these developments attract new organisations: companies that take advantage of the opportunities created by these market impacts and that can optimise their internal organisation accordingly. Existing organisations in the care, education, work, and income sectors do not have this luxury. They are forced to formulate another vision, define their own position, and change their existing methods and culture. This requires much more than just integration of a customer orientation into their mission statements and in their policy documents in the areas of organisation, innovation, HRM, marketing and communication. It is actually easily arranged. The challenge is then to give it decisive and distinctive form and content.
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In Conclusion ‘Market impact’ is a sexy term, but it is not the result of some passing fancy. It is a fact that the business chains of the care, education, work, and income sectors are tilting. The Government shifts more responsibilities (via the employer or otherwise) onto the individual. And in the slipstream, the initiative in these business chains shifts from the service provider to the client. Because of the emotional content of the services in these sectors, people were initially uneasy about this phenomenon. They reacted passively to new developments and sat back and waited. By now, however, they have become more accustomed to it: they see its advantages and are making more active and more independent use of the new freedom to choose. These developments represent a huge opportunity for organisations that are active in care, education, work, and income. Those organisations that make it possible for customers to direct these important elements of their own lives will win out over these market impacts. Those that do not will quickly lose their right to exist. The mission for the future is thus: make the customer, who is already nominally the king, the king in reality.
THE POWER OF LISTENING Are new media taking the place of traditional media? There is a lot of discussion of this question worldwide. It is increasingly looking as though new and traditional media actually go together perfectly. The new media, however, provide a range of new possibilities for disseminating a message. Because of the wider range of media, however, it has not become any easier to communicate with the rank and file in the traditional way. The quantity of information is growing at such a pace that it has become the fastest-growing product ever created by humanity. The rank and file have changed from being passive recipients to becoming active partners in the discussion. This means that organisations have to look critically at the ways in which they communicate with the rank and file. Clearly, they must use a combination of different media—a cross-media mix. During the quest for the ideal mix, the message to be conveyed must be approached from the perspective of the recipients. Who are they? Where do they get their information, and how? Cross-media communication is no longer concerned only with transmission but also with reception, with ‘listening’, and the art is to set up an organisation in such a way that the right message is conveyed to the right people at the right time. You no longer have to shout at the rank and file, you can just whisper.
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From Passive Benefits to Active Reintegration In the area of work and income, the initiative also lies more clearly with individuals, who are brought back into active life more specialised and goal-orientated, according to their own insights, preferences and capacities.
Classic Model Mentality Official communication, what do I do? Process communication, how do I do that?
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Making the Customer King The classical organisations are currently still the dominant players in the care, education, work, and income sectors. They should take the initiative in the area of market impacts. They should give true form and content to customer-oriented operation by defining the conditions that make it possible for the client to make a considered choice from among the alternatives. There must be a transparent range of services, clear price-quality ratios, and market-oriented communications. The client will then really be able to take charge—and the institution will retain the initiative. By thus taking advantage of the inevitable trend towards market impacts, institutions create competitive advantages and are less vulnerable to institutions that operate in a market-oriented fashion.
Clients are also not really interested in who the organisation is, what it does, or how it does it. They are primarily interested in what this means to them, what it produces for them. Nobody wants care, for example. That is no motivator. What people want is to be and remain healthy. Sometimes, care is necessary for this. In this line of thought it is not about education, work and income but about counting, participating, being self-reliant and independent—and about self-actualisation. Effective communication in care, education, work, and income is based on the motivations that underlie the service. The range of services is thus a clear and comprehensible answer to these questions. People identify themselves 154
Attitude Mainspring communication, what moves you? Official communication, what solutions do we offer? Process communication, how does it work precisely?
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Changing the Communication Perspective One obstacle to effective market exploitation is that many care, education, and income service providers still communicate with their customers from within an outdated perspective. They still tell them who they are, what they do, and how they do it. Product-oriented and process-oriented communication is often too technical, specialised, and complex. This ensures that clients do not understand, let alone being able to base a preference on what they are told or enter into a dialogue (or relationship) with the sender. What is communicated makes them unsure. It is crucial that the communication with the client be stripped of jargon and other abstruse elements. The provision of services is too valuable to shroud in mist.
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with organisations that communicate from this perspective. These organisations should put them at the centre and know what inspires them in these areas that have such a strong emotional component, and also provide concrete solutions in clear language. More Transparency In order to make independent choices in the areas of care, education, work, and income, the client needs insight into the nature, quality, and distinctiveness of the service provider and the services on offer. These must be concrete, measurable, and should include independent benchmarks, thus preventing information about the services from becoming ‘shrouded in mist’, That is too often the case, and it makes it difficult to take the right decision. The emotional content of the services is thus reinforced. Internet A good Internet site is an ideal instrument for providing more transparency. Through it, information about the organisation and its services can be made quickly and easily accessible to customers. It is also possible to provide an extra dimension through blogs, quality ‘polls’, and interactive dialogue with hands-on experts. The classic media, however, remains indispensable. The Internet is not yet fully accessible to the more vulnerable groups in society, such as the growing elderly and lower income groups. Correct use of the medium, however, forces organisations to pay attention to the topicality of its information, and at the same time they enter into a dialogue with the client. Such dialogue provides more knowledge about the target group and increases awareness of customers within the organisation. Value for money Through communications focused on the motivations of the client, and through active work on the accessibility of essential information, ‘the mist is lifted’ and individuals can really take charge. They can then independently select organisations and services. The last thing that is lacking is insight into the prices. When this last item is resolved, freedom of choice will become a reality.
Vitality Pyramid
Priority
Discovering yourself yourself, self-actualisation Counting Participation Need for peace of mind
The axes of the model Amount of time/money/energy
Need for defensibility
Communication Theme: the vital individual The most important theme of service organisations involved in care, education, and income, when it comes to communication, is the vital individual. People who can optimally participate in today’s society healthily, autonomously, and independently. Organisational Value: Capacity for Caring It is therefore all about human values—not rational, remote, or cold, but recognisable and warm. It is not about products but motives, not about processes, but concrete results. A different View of Maslow’s Pyramid From the philosophy of the vital individual, another pyramid arises—a pyramid with the same priorities but seen from a different viewpoint. Allocating Time In our democratic welfare state, it now takes less time and money to meet one’s basic needs. This means there is more time and money left over for higher needs, such as recognition and self-actualisation.
Added Value: Stronger Positioning on the Labour Market From time immemorial these sectors have been vulnerable on the labour market. Certainly now it is shrinking, it is important that enough employees be attracted, and that their attention be captivated and held with labourmarket and internal communications. Integrating the ideas behind the vital individual into these communication programmes makes them more distinctive and provides more arguments for working, or continuing to work, for the organisation. Added Value: Innovation Focusing on people instead of services, products and processes makes people explore different routes. We are entering the variable area of human motives. The organisation thus becomes a dynamic world that always takes advantage of external changes and that, in order for this to be done well, is forced to reinvent itself continually, innovating from the soul.
Priority The priority of the needs remains the same. The needs for food, drink, and security are first defined before we strive for recognition and start to work on self-actualisation. Other Themes Maslow’s themes are outdated. It is time for a definition that does justice to the modern era and takes account of the vision of the vital individual: the vitality pyramid.
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Vitality Pyramid Themes Physiological needs: resistance/health Need for security: peace of mind, confidence Social needs: participation Need for recognition: respect Need for self-actualisation: self-actualisation
JOINT ENTREPRENEURSHIP
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ROTTERDAM HOSPITAL / ROTTERDAM HEALTHCARE BOULEVARD
Arend Jan Eshuis, Senior Consultant/Chairman, GITP Academy Edwin van Praet, Senior Designer, Total Identity Erik Fokkema, Architect/Partner, EGM Architects BV Geert Kampschöer, Director, Joining Minds Jarno Nillesen, Director/Partner, Wiegerinck Architects Paul Smits, Director, MCRZ Stijn van Diemen, Corporate Development Director, Total Identity
Asking Dutch hospitals in the Netherlands to respond to the advent of market impacts in a traditionally highly-regulated sector is demanding a lot. Relationships with insurers, financiers, authorities, chain partners and associated institutions need to be re-established—not to mention the nature of the supply of patients. In many hospitals the expectation has arisen that these questions must be answered by a professional marketing-oriented approach. The inherent danger is that the hospital will lose its own character. Often, it is simply assumed that the quality of the medical care given dominates perceptions. However, apart from the question of whether this can actually be assessed by the environment, it is unsure that this assumption is justified.
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The Medical Centre Rijnmond South in Rotterdam is a large general hospital with around 3,200 staff and a catchments area of 400,000 residents of Rotterdam and its adjacent municipalities to the south. The hospital was formed in 2001 as a result of the merger of the Zuiderziekenhuis and the St. Clara Hospital, established names in the city with their own histories and locations. In 2010 the hospital will move to a newly built location near Lombardijen Station, where the two institutions will be merged. The moment is being seized to consider the present problems of the hospital in terms of positioning, profiling, and internal culture. At the new location there is more space than is needed for the hospital. The Medical Centre Rijnmond South (MCRZ) seized the opportunity to develop the location into what it is calling a ‘healthcare boulevard’—a cluster of medical and healthcare providers that could provide
benefits to participating institutions, stakeholders, and patients. The development of the identity of the hospital and this healthcare boulevard was approached in an integrated fashion. From MCRZ to Rotterdam Hospital The MCRZ has a strong Rotterdam-based character. Not only is the history of the hospital highly interwoven with that of south Rotterdam, but it has also been solidly embedded this long in its environment, which is in turn characteristic: folksy, mixed, and multicultural. Conversely, the staff feel highly committed on the one hand to the environment and the patients coming to the hospital from them, and on the other, they fulfil that commitment in a highly individual manner. There are actually hardly any common values and themes. It is precisely this problem that provides an opportunity for the hospital. Research has shown that the values embodied in the identity of the MCRZ are viewed as important, but that there are doubts about implementing them. Highlighting the responsibility of all members of staff to achieve better results with their colleagues allows them to strive for a form of collective entrepreneurship that is easily recognised in the environment of the hospital. The MCRZ is thus striving for a perception of ‘our hospital’, where ‘our’ refers to the personnel and the environment of the hospital. The mission was ultimately formulated as follows: ‘The MCRZ is our hospital in the South, and we can be proud of it’. This is on the one hand an operational guiding principle and, on the other, a communications reference point.
WHISPERING Architecture is a form of cultural expression by a community. It is the foundation of the community’s history, customs, and nature. At the beginning of 1900, H.P. Berlage dreamed of a new architecture that would arise from the identity of a homogeneous community. A new ‘style’ would be born. Berlage was wrong. We live in a time in which heterogeneity and individuality are central themes, and in which the need for identity is greater than ever. While we have all the means at our disposal, the goal sometimes seems to have evaded us. This makes the design of a public building no less problematic. Wiegerinck Architects is looking for the key in a sustainable, durable architectural concept. We are interested not so much in the particular but much more in the general. The site of the new building for the MCRZ in Rotterdam Lombardijen displays all the characteristics of the post-war city: amorphous and with little coherence. The master plan for the MCRZ strives for a stable and compact urban tissue. The hospital has a double cam structure with enclosed courtyards and thus refers to historical types of urban building such as the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan. The new hospital has a distinctly recognisable form but nonetheless blends into the total structure. It is a building that does not shout its story but whispers it. There is a tension between the city on the one hand and, on the other, the place where sick, often uncertain people stay. That is why a clear distinction has been made on the inside between public and private domains, with the atmosphere varying from businesslike to chic. Jarno Nillesen, Director/Partner, Wiegerinck Architects
MEDIMALL ROTTERDAM The design of the Medimall is a clear departure from traditional designs for healthcare facilities. The healthcare real estate will—aside from the care function—be much more anchored in its social environment, and that can lead to collaboration with other parties and is more focused on acquiring customers. All care functions, including those involving care, differ in scope and make different demands on accessibility, commercial image, and logistics. At the same time, the healthcare boulevard must be a multi-tenanted building that can undergo changes in the future, with possible changes in tenants. Generally speaking, the care providers develop and build their own real estate. This means they are able to establish their own ambitions and images. The real estate therefore becomes part of their identity. They can thus distinguish themselves, and the distinctions are easily recognisable to the user. In this case, the principle of limited physical reconcilability has been taken as a reference point for the design of the Medimall. The building has a commercial ‘plinth’ of two stories with a mass above it that consists of identical volumes in terms of image. The plinth is transparent, so that the public is attracted to the various tenants in the building. The total volume is divided into five sections, which are placed at right angles to the hospital. Between these sections are gardens that are allocated to the tenants. Because of this layout, a rhythm arises that is supported by the entrances of the largest tenants. These have a high entrance hall at the heads of the sections, with a void that extends forward from the wall line. Between the entrances are the shop windows of the leased spaces. Erik Fokkema, Architect/Partner, EGM Architects BV
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To express this character, the hospital received a new name: since 1 January 2008 it been known simply as ‘Rotterdam Hospital’—a name that expresses a firm ambition in its simplicity: it is precisely this naturalness that should be lived up to. In the visual environment the desired character is pleasant, pleasurable, and recognisable. Rotterdam Hospital is a pleasant place to stay—despite the often less pleasant reasons for the stay. Rotterdam Hospital is a meeting place, between doctor and patient, between patient and visitor, between independent people who are taken completely seriously and make their own choices and are advised and inspired by the environment that has been created. In this manner a clear proposition and an understandable profile are created. Social organisations such as hospitals should be supported by their employees. In addition to the symbolic aspects, therefore, communicative support for the desired identity is also provided through the use of a series of corporate publications: a corporate story, a management philosophy, a project plan, a product catalogue, and an approach to the hospital expressed in
numbers. In this way, everyone is informed of the character and functions of this hospital. Finally, there is an intervention on a behavioural level: through the joint drafting and implementation of a code of conduct and a re-evaluation of the internal and external labour-market communications, expectations are sketched out and guidance is given for conduct in terms of the desired identity of the hospital. A Healthcare Boulevard as a Habitat The Rotterdam Healthcare Boulevard, which was initiated by the MCRZ, must be a place where everything in the field of healthcare is obtainable—where medical care, the related retail trades, service providers and schools are available to patients and visitors: a pleasant area that is not about ‘vulnerability’, but about ‘reliable care’ and good health. The site will be home to providers of medical care but also of healthy nutrition and preventive products. Sport is also a possibility, and there will be a maternity hotel. There will also be providers of psychological care and suppliers of medical appliances. The adjacent
educational institutions will offer part of their study programmes on the site via start-ups and projects. Participants in the Rotterdam Healthcare Boulevard should see a challenge in the concept, which involves the joint development of new products and approaches. There is certainly no template for this: starting from the assumption that the best collaboration is spontaneous in nature, they are striving to stimulate cross-overs between the various participants, without forcing this. In this way, innovative services can arise that are recognised and supported in the environment and that can stimulate entrepreneurship among the participants.
HOSPITALS AS MEETING PLACES We see an increasing simplification of diagnostics because of improvements in technology. Moreover, it is questionable whether we will perform many operations in the future. For the building, this means that there will be an increase in the number of technical systems but a decrease in the number of operating theatres, for example. At the same time, the period in which care is offered is shorter. Patients go home sooner, and that means that fewer beds are needed. In 25 years’ time, if a patient is ill, in the first instance they will have to announce this online. The subsequent diagnostics will become much more technical and industrial. This means that the nature of the encounter between doctor and patient will change. It will be a discussion about the significance of the complaint and a decision about the method of treatment. The human aspect will play a greater role. Doctors will of course also need to see their patients. There will be more decision models available based on the ever-increasing knowledge available online. Ultimately, however, the doctor will have to decide whether the decision matches what he/ she sees. The expectations of patients will consequently also change: they will be better informed. In this sense, the hospital will also become a meeting place: the doctor must fulfil these expectations. The role of a hospital is to provide treatment, and that will not change. A hospital will be better able to assess an opinion because the collocutor, the patient, will become more equal and a genuine dialogue will thus arise. But we shall above all continue as normal, treating and intervening as necessary.
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Paul Smits, Director, Rotterdam Hospital
THE CREATION OF IDENTITY IS A JOINT ACTIVITY There is increasing openness about the ‘behaviour’ of organisations. Care providers and management teams can no longer fall back on intentions and mission statements or refer to past behaviour and performance. Patients and visitors form their views based on what is delivered in the here and now. Their opinions are determined to a significant degree by the extent to which the attention and care they receive corresponds with the promises that were made. The interaction between service provider and patient has become more important and more vital to the image. The identity of the hospital is formed by its actions and develops over time. It is established by the sum of the behaviours of the staff. Organisations that are successful over the long term are able to innovate while retaining the values and skills that are locked ‘in their genes’. These organisations must invest not only in the development of the knowledge and competencies of their staff—they must also know how to organise meaningful and pleasant collaborative relationships. Moreover, they stimulate responsible behaviour by communicating the codes of conduct linked to underlying values. Finally, mutual trust is important, so that staff feel invited to share knowledge, seek collaboration, give each other feedback, and take pride in the performance of their colleagues. Trust is also a condition for daring to experiment, getting innovation going, and learning from mistakes. A climate of trust promotes self-confidence among the staff, and self-confidence is an important condition for competent functioning. The social capital of the organisation is built up from these elements: the stimulation of collaboration, the transfer of values, of codes of conduct, and knowledge, and the strengthening of feelings of selfworth and competence. It is this social capital that makes and supports the hospital and thus determines its identity. Arend Jan Eshuis, Senior Consultant/ Chairman, GITP Academy
IDENTITY AND THE PRIMARY CARE PROCESS Patients go to the doctor with a problem or a complaint. Or they might go to a hospital. This complaint is always personal and often requires particular discretion. Furthermore, almost every patient is unsure and sometimes even fearful: What will happen? Is it serious? Will it hurt? They therefore seek security and trust, preferably from a trusted doctor whom they know and who cares about them. Like it used to be, they say. The hospital has in the meantime developed into a large company with all kinds of specialists. On arrival, it is not clear where they should go, and the reception they get is often cool. Exchanges are brief, and they are suddenly in a mill that they do not understand. The primary-care process is supported by many hands and systems. You become smaller and more unsure, and feel insecure: Are they doing the right things? Don’t they exchange information? Are they going to make any careless mistakes in the operating theatre? Where is the one trusted doctor who knows me and cares about me as a person? This is the big challenge for current second-line care or rather, specialised medical care in hospitals. The creation of an identity for the primary-care process so that the patient goes to one care provider who radiates security and trust and with whom the patient feels safe. No monotony of well-intentioned ‘I’ll do my best’ groups of three to five thousand people in a building, but an identity that represents the trusted doctor. And the trusted doctor has a colour, his or her own character, and his or her own will: a full identity.
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Geert Kampschöer, Director, Joining Minds
CORPORATE SOCIAL NETWORK RED CROSS GERMANY BLUTSPENDEDIENST WEST
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Vanessa Bandke, Managing Director Bandke+Klank I Branding+Design
Blood donations are still essential for hospitals. Thanks to blood donations, patients receive blood products during major operations, serious injuries or acute diseases. There is still no artificial alternative. The blood donation branches of the German Red Cross (DRK) are tasked with supplying the demand for blood products. The blood donation branch Blutspendedienst West is a subsidiary company of the Nordrhein, Westphalia-Lippe, Rhineland-Pfalz and Saarland branches of the German Red Cross and thus, part of the DRK in the Federal Republic of Germany. As a binding connection between the volunteer blood donors and the patients who need the blood, the service follows the ‘Ethical codex for blood donation’, which is followed by both the Red Cross and the Red Crescent organization and the World Health Organization (WHO), the Council of Europe, the international organization for blood transfusion ISBT and the international umbrella for blood donor organizations (FIODS). The Blutspendedienst West has had to contend with declining figures for years. Both the number of active, regular blood donors and the number of blood donations are steadily declining. Various operational and communications measures were unable to reverse this trend. This is why it was necessary to set up a new communications strategy, which was worked out in collaboration with the PR departments of the institutes, the International Marketing Chair of the Private Fachhochschule (Private University of Applied Sciences) Göttingen and the market research bureau IfM, in Cologne.
Social change n general, willingness to donate blood is still high, but the motivation has clearly changed. The changes in standards and values and the development of new social structures, in particular the increasing individualization, the pursuit of adventurous ‘kicks’ and globalization, complicate the recruitment and the retention of blood donors. Particularly in urban regions, the effects of this are clearly noticeable. The flexibility of life patterns, new forms of social integration (network society), competing forms of time use, increasing anonymity, the preference of one’s own interests above communal social structures: is all far distant from the traditional rural population, where most blood donors are found. In that sector of society, ‘doing something good in the public interest’ is anchored in their culture and identification with their own community. Blood donation via a corporate social network is consequently an obvious theme. However, the increasing urbanization is leading to a decrease in the populations of rural areas, particularly in the numbers of young people. Blood donation as a social fraternization ritual The goal was to derive specific, communication-oriented images of society, which would appeal to the modern urban citizen, from the rural mechanisms. An important
factor became collective blood donation, ‘donating with each other, for each other’, via a corporate social network. This is because in the cities, motivations inspired by social considerations are also the most appealing. Campaign ‘We’re Giving Blood – Today’. The new campaign emphasized that blood donors are part of a larger social group. Donating blood together via a corporate social network strengthens public spiritedness. By appealing to authentic target groups and giving an emotional charge to blood donation as a positive group experience, a convincing framework of identification is created. The communications resources for the campaign were established in advance: 18/1 poster campaign, information stands, direct marketing, internal communication, PR and the Internet. During the Football World Cup in 2006 in Germany, the core message of the campaign was communicated during a special campaign: ‘With our Lifeblood’, here too, this was supported by successful communication methods.
FUTURE ASSURED ROC MIDDEN NEDERLAND
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Guido van Breda, Creative Director, Total Identity Jeroen Veldman, Senior Interaction Designer, Total Identity Marcel Jiskoot, Copywriter, Jongens van de Wit
Secondary Vocational Training (MBO) constitutes a crucial link with the labour market. ROC Midden Nederland has in the past few years grown into one of the largest providers of this type of education in the Netherlands. It has about 28,000 participants, 2,000 staff, and 50 locations. The Profile ROC Midden Nederland is a knowledge network that knows what is happening in society, now and in the future. In joint entrepreneurship with clients, and based on this knowledge, they shape the training with which their clients can face future challenges. ROC Midden Nederland offers its students a solid perspective on the future and offers organisations up-to-date personnel, specifically trained for the future. They therefore do not stand apart from society, but help to shape it. The Context The dynamics of the training are huge, certainly in the metropolitan context of ROC Midden Nederland. There is talk of increasing market exploitation and a changing role for the Government. Similarly, there is an increasing focus on continuous learning and the linking of training to the labour market.
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The Identity ROC Midden Nederland stands for life-long learning, an issue that is at the centre of attention. The continuous development of knowledge is after all a precondition for participation in our knowledge-intensive community. It is the only way to be vital and remain so for individuals, organisa-
Bunschoten Baarn
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Culemborg tions, and society in general. Because of the relatively large impact of the training, it is evident that ROC Midden Nederland is characterised by an honest and open personality which meets the challenges that characterise its professional field based on its passion. It is an organisation that sees potential, stimulates entrepreneurship, and creates growth. Positioning ROC Midden Nederland has ensured its own future by ensuring that of its students, the business community, and its staff.
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Identity-Driven Communication Programmes Within the theme ‘Future ensured’, the positioning of ROC Middel Nederland is translated into communication programmes. The result is an integrated communication system that provides space for the provision of tailor-made work for each target group. ‘Future ensured’ has in fact a value for a student that is utterly different from that, for example, for the business community or a teacher. Because all programmes originate from one central strategic source, namely the identity of the organisation, and because they are all characterised by a design programme that has one voice, they are all connected in terms of content and image. This ensures that the communication programmes reinforce each other, that the wheel does not have to be constantly reinvented, and that the stakeholders receive a reliable and consistent image of the organisation. Student Recruitment One of the most important communication programmes of ROC Midden Nederland
is the recruitment of new students. The thematic approach is clear. If you wish to get the most out of yourself, you will follow a course at ROC Midden Nederland. They are actually high-quality courses that closely match what happens in the field. In this manner you are certain of a good future, in which you will participate and count, something that, in the profession, means that you are the best: future ensured. Creative Reference Points Student recruitment is a multimedia and identity-driven communication programme. Authenticity was an important creative reference point in this regard. The models used are therefore senior-year students at ROC Midden Nederland itself. They were photographed at companies associated with ROC Midden Nederland. Besides these printed messages, radio commercials were developed in collaboration with the Dutch Pop Academy (NPac). The study programme of ROC Midden Nederland launched a competition among the students. The ultimate winners, two hip-hop talents
from Utrecht, heard their recruitment rap on all kinds of radio stations that had a young audience. Besides print and radio, banner advertisements were placed on specific Websites, and free cards were distributed at relevant contact points. All the messages invite young people to visit the Website of ROC Midden Nederland and, ultimately, the open day. After all, their future is at stake.
AUTHENTIC ARTWORK The ambition of this organisation obviously plays a huge role in the recruitment of new, young students to ROC Midden Nederland. The appropriate identity is therefore found not only in the design of the media or texts that refer to the motives of the organisation. They can also be heard in commercials on your people’s favourite radio stations. This identity can also be found in the artwork that is used to create communications resources, such as the photography used for printed materials or on the Internet. There are no professional models featured—rather, we see a number of students at ROC Midden Nederland in the leading roles. The communications unit of the ROC organised a casting session, where the creative directors selected the students. Moreover, no sterile locations were staged in a studio: the photos were taken in the working environments of a number of business associates of ROC. To make the radio commercials, we asked the Dutch Pop Academy, one of the many subjects of ROC Midden Nederland, to work with us. They subsequently launched a competition among the students: ‘Whoever makes the best commercial, will hear it on their favourite radio stations’. The result was an inspiring study assignment that led to a 30-second recruitment ‘rap’. This method made the communication not only powerful, but above all authentic, recognisable, and captivating. The artwork was given an extra message and became recognisable as ‘from us, for us’ instead of the impersonal, well-worn route of the staged approach. This was not only a good signal to the media-savvy target group, but also a direct, positive boost for a large number of internal and external stakeholders in ROC, who jointly work for a good future for the ROC, its students, industry and society in general. Dennis Glijn, Director of Client Services, Total Identity
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Volwassenenonderwijs 2008/2009
SPEAKING ABOUT OR LISTENING TO…
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There is probably no group of people in the Netherlands that has been so freely and unsubtly judged by the politicians and newspapers in the past year than students. The decriers and the protagonists of the new learning fell over each other to launch even a parliamentary inquiry, where all kinds of specialists and responsible people could again have their say. The students were only heard from once with a cautious protest about an hours norm. For an education conference for around 1,200 teachers at ROC Midden Nederland, the opening was organised by a number of young people. They stood on the stage chilling out to fine lounge music. When all the visitors were seated, one of them spoke. His outfit made it obvious that he was a genuine rapper. He said: ‘People, it’s great that you will talk amongst yourselves all day about how education could be better, but bear in mind that I’m a bit lazy. I therefore need someone to chase me. Because otherwise I won’t do my homework.’ A female student took over: ‘No,’ she said ‘I’m not lazy, I can easily fulfil my obligations. What I think is important is that you make very few schedule changes, because I am starting my own company and it is annoying if I have to keep cancelling appointments for school.’ Another female student went on: ‘That doesn’t apply to me. I have plenty of time and I like it at school. What I think is important is that I have real contact with the teachers. So when you enter the classroom, please don’t just begin, make genuine contact first. Because only then can I learn anything from you.’ And thus they each had their own story. As I see it, worrying about whether everything will be all right with the next generation is pointless. I am one of the Lost Generation and we aren’t doing so badly. The Einstein generation that now populates the schools and universities is probably the most aware generation ever. They will be fine if we are prepared to listen. The education conference was a great success and proceeded flawlessly, despite—or thanks to—the indomitable energy of the students who organised it for the school. Eric Mandersloot, Web Designer Pentascope
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THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE Government and Non-Profit Working Towards the Future
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THE NEED FOR INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS TO BE LEGITIMATE
Barbara Brian, Senior Consultant, Total Identity Saskia Dijkstra, Senior Consultant, Total Identity
The contours of this era are gradually taking shape. The individualism of the end of the twentieth century has made room for more collective communal thinking, where every person in a community has their own responsibilities. Strengths are combined to call to account players who do not stick to the unwritten rules of decency. With the withdrawal of government, society has taken charge.
and industry will have more responsibility over their affairs and will often appeal for communal funds. Human beings are responsible for their own behaviour. The consequences are tangible. The abolishment of early retirement, extra employer’s costs for sick employees and a stricter policy for the unemployed will thus lead to a more pragmatic society. We must produce and innovate more, work harder and more creatively and save in a more focused manner. The question is, what will the Cabinet do in return?
Deregulation The years of consensus are over. The Government wishes to create clarity through decisive action, fewer rules, and more responsibility for the citizen and the entrepreneur. Under the denominator of deregulation, the Government also wishes to look more critically at its own works. It must be different and better. The irony is that this round of modernisation is directed mainly at the citizen, such as the Cabinet’s plans concerning cutbacks and pay restraint. Citizens need to become more vocal and more intense. The public demands accountability, transparency, and integrity. The age in which understanding and acceptance could be imposed has gone for good and has been replaced by continuous dialogue and teamwork among Government, the market, and society. Borders are fading. The identity of organisations and institutions can no longer be used as an autonomous management tool to affect their image, but is created through continual interactions with the environment.
Neocentralism? The discussion about the efficiency of autonomous government institutions illustrates the point that the Government is considering taking more responsibility itself. This discussion therefore poses a potential threat to autonomous government institutions. There are calls for the retention of decentralised government. Less government interference demands a drastic division between policy and implementation. This is now in danger—no matter how contrary to the Cabinet’s policy—of coming to an end. The Cabinet advocates more supervision of the affairs of autonomous government institutions. The survival of these institutions is thereby put at risk.
Different Government The Government’s new decisiveness and the teamwork with market and society are being further shaped in the ‘Different Government’ programme. In it, the Dutch Government presents four goals: – the improvement of services to citizens; – fewer rules and different ways of doing things; – better organisation of central Government; – renewing the relationship with the provinces and municipalities.
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The programme makes it clear that the Cabinet wishes to accomplish a self-regulating society, where citizens
Efficiency Under Discussion In addition, citizens also speak out if it concerns spending communal funds. With the enormous media attention paid to failed government projects, society is questioning the efficiency of such spending and by association the right of the perpetrators to keep their jobs. Moreover, digitisation means that it is easier for citizens to express themselves. Sites such as that of the Ombudsman are full of complaints about poor accessibility and the sluggish functioning of government services. In short, the efficiency of policy implementation is widely under discussion. Such developments do not give these government institutions a good reputation and return like a boomerang to hit the overall image of the Government itself. Every day the talk in the media is of how big the gap is between policy and execution. The perceived ‘democratic gap’ between policy and execution must in any case be resolved, and the sooner the better.
Other Reasons for the Existence of Autonomous Government Institutions The report ignores other reasons for obtaining autonomous status, namely: – executive management and improvements in efficiency; – less taxation for the administrative core (including the minister); – more attention for the environment (citizens and other involved parties). These goals focus on more customer-oriented and efficient operations. It is exactly in these areas, with an eye to the future, that work needs to be done by autonomous government institutions. They must clarify their goals, make their importance clear, and demonstrate that they will function more efficiently if they enjoy autonomy. Goals, Mission, and Ambition If these institutions clearly set out their goals, the reasons for their existence, the ‘democratic gap’ will be closed and clarity will result. Without goals there can be no legitimacy. The goals explain why an organisation does what it does, and what function it has or sees. Again and again studies have shown that organisations (profit or non-profit, fast mover or service provider) that have existed for a long time have a clear goal or mission.
The New Role of Communication Gaining legitimacy requires a view of the role of communication that is different from that held by the autonomous government institutions. The age in which that communication primarily served to inform the public is gone forever. Autonomous government institutions must portray themselves as learning organisations that are continuously seeking to connect with changing norms and values in the market and society. It must constantly be clear what the issues are and why it is necessary to provide better services and products. The intelligence, innovation and creativity of the organisation are severely tested, and communication— internal and external—must be a central issue in this permanent and dynamic process. This will be new for many government institutions. Communication departments can no longer be purely supportive, but must assume a much more active role. Communication is required for the development of an antenna that can detect needs and opinions, interpret them, and on that basis internally make strategic choices subject to constant reflection. The organisation is thereby encouraged to be constantly pro-active and to collectively scrutinise and further develop its own identity. Organisational and communications policies are actually inseparably linked; the development of a communications policy based on an established organisational policy is too static and no longer suffices in these changing times. Monitoring, scenario development, concept-driven creativity, and a very good antenna with which to pick up signals from society—preferably even before society itself has crystallised them—and give them a place within the identity of the organisation, are skills in which autonomous organisations must invest.
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The Need For Legitimacy What challenges will face autonomous government institutions in the coming years? What discussions must be held, and more importantly, how can they ensure that autonomous functioning remains accepted and understood? To legitimise their existence, they will have to eliminate perceived uncertainties. They will have to work hard to communicate their identity and ambitions very clearly. The advice in the report is: those autonomous government institutions that demonstrate that their autonomy is necessary to provide a counterbalance to the Cabinet and to counter special interests have a reason to exist. Other motives, such as social participation and the desired separation of policy and implementation, are no longer relevant.
Without a shared mission there is no direction to, or focus on, the activities that must be developed. It makes the identity visible and tangible, and establishes a connection with its environment (customers, financial relations, the organisation’s own staff). From the mission follows ambition. This is the motor that drives the organisation. Without ambition there is no perspective: What do we wish to achieve together and in keeping with our environment? How do we subsequently translate this into products and services, into changes in the behaviour of the staff and the image of the organisation? What focus (positioning) do we impart? Autonomous government institutions can rediscover their public identity by developing goals, a mission, and an ambition through interaction with the market and society, instead of acting as though it is above them. They can thus work on building trust, on creating a strong reputation, and on developing the desired image. That is how we can guarantee their right to exist.
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Report To obtain better insight into the route for autonomous government bodies, first of all the arguments against the existing structure must be examined. A report on autonomous government bodies, entitled ‘A Recognisable State: Investing in the Government’, makes it clear where the biggest bottleneck lies: there is too much uncertainty, and what is more, there is uncertainty about the exact nature of the problem. It is certain that this cannot continue. Under public and political pressure, there is a risk that the lack of clarity will make the most drastic solution the best: the reversal of the separation between policy and implementation. There will then in any case be clarity, and a political statement will be made. Whether this will be true in the long term remains in question.
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NETHERLANDS COMPETITION AUTHORITY
Edwin van Praet, Senior Designer, Total Identity Stijn van Diemen, Director, Corporate Development, Total Identity
The Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa) was established to make the economy of the Netherlands work more effectively. In a very cleverly formulated mission, the mandate is in brief ‘Make the markets work’—clever, because the mission is at the same time its mandate and motivation, and because the mission does not say how this must be implemented and thus leaves plenty of room for changing opinions. The public environment knows the NMa primarily from sanctions and restrictions. It is systematically dubbed the ‘cartel authority’ or the ‘competition watchdog’, and is usually reported on in the press in connection with what is prohibited or penalised. In the market itself, however, the NMa has a completely different image, and appreciation is expressed for the role that the organisation plays in allowing markets to function within the Dutch economy.
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The NMa lives by the grace of its interaction with its environment. Not only to signal possible abuse, but mainly because effective operation is only possible from genuine knowledge. Only when it is clear how a market really functions can it be seen whether it has sufficient safeguards in place to ensure fair competition, does not have access thresholds that are too high, does not permit the abuse of economic positions of power, and so on. This is why the NMa constantly studies its environment by engaging in dialogue, allowing its opinions to be tested by those involved,
consulting, and so forth. The environment in the NMa is dynamic and by definition under development. It may be expected of the NMa that it develops in tandem, but even better: has a vision of the future of the market in question. Where is it headed, and what is the scenario? How much latitude can there be, and what intervention may be needed? The NMa looks years ahead. It is thus also interesting to look back at what the NMa has done and, above all, at how it has communicated this. The annual reports of the NMa give examples of its insights, growing knowledge, and experience. But above all, they provide insight into the mentality of the NMa, into its expectations regarding the market, and on what these expectations are based. The annual report for 2004 focuses on the dialogue with its environment, whereby it is made clear how the NMa procures its information and positions itself within its environment.
The annual report for 2005 dealt with the reflection of the environment on the actions of the NMa, and on the effects of those actions. The annual report for 2006 tells the corporate story of the organisation as a theme for its actions and vision. In all communications, the scenario is consequently the central issue: what will happen if we allow the market to operate freely, what is the effect of this intervention or of no intervention, to what extent must the efficiency of a regulated market such as the energy sector be stimulated, how can we guarantee effective and affordable public transport? We are constantly allowed a behindthe-scenes glimpse of the deliberations of a government agency with a specific mandate, the effects it has had, and what has been learned. The communications of the NMa demonstrate the value of scenarios.
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GOVERNMENT, SAY SOMETHING!
Working Towards the Future
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SCENARIO COMUNICATION AS A FLEXIBLE POLICY INSTRUMENT
Clara Ormeling, Consultant, Total Identity Inge Sijpkens, Consultant, Total Identity
For years there has been talk about the gap between Government and the citizen, and ways have been sought to bridge it. Ideas such as ‘engaging in dialogue’, ‘transparency’ and ‘trust’ as well as terms such as ‘reducing administrative pressure’, ‘providing better services’ and ‘decisiveness’ are to be found everywhere in policy planning. Yet the gap has never actually been bridged. What is going wrong? Or better still, what is missing? It is time to reveal what has up to now been invisible, and to make a plea for pro-active communication on the part of the administrative machinery of central Government. Openness and Dialogue The last few decades have been characterised by big changes in the relationship between citizens and the administration. In particular, the advent of the (new) media has had a great influence. In earlier times, managers and politicians could formulate policy in relative secrecy. Because of the extensive presence of television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet, this has become impossible. Citizens can and do follow what is happening in The Hague.
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Perhaps the most important change that the advent of the Internet has led to for central Government is the possibility of a two-way street, the opportunity to engage in dialogue with society. Ministries can introduce themselves, communicate their policies, and set out their positions on the Internet. Citizens can then respond directly, by initiating contact with central Government and each other. They can thus not only form an image of central Government, but also adjust this image at any time, because of new information that reaches them via the Web. This has an enormous effect on the formation of images. After all, it is no longer just central Government itself and the traditional media that central Government must keep informed. Society itself—individuals, organisations, campaign groups—also express themselves and disseminate information. It is impossible for central Government to retain control over what is said and written about it.
Trust Many citizens therefore form their own opinions about policy and public business and also regularly express this opinion trenchantly. Citizens have become critical. With such citizens as an audience, it is very important to be open about policy, choices, and the reasons for these . After all, if there is anything that society asks from central Government, it is not just to listen to them and tell them that the Government is doing all it can for a better Netherlands, but to show it as well. If central Government only says something, does it believe in it and does it do it too? How does it do it? The possibilities for dialogue introduced by the new media create expectations in the area of accessibility, speed, and capacity. Therefore, in all kinds of ways the Government is increasingly striving for openness and dialogue. That is also necessary, as shown by studies by the Social and Cultural Planning Office, because for years the level of trust that citizens have in the Government has declined, and their opinion about its actual performance has become more negative. It is notable that the civil service has for a long time had a very limited role in communication with society about what the central Government is doing and how it does it. Even now it is mainly the ministers, secretaries of state, and members of parliament who are given the task of reducing their distance from the citizen by engaging in dialogue. The civil service is less prominent in this. The communications of the civil service machinery are limited to providing information about policy that is already formulated and putting out feelers to test policy intentions. The civil service is consequently a passive object about which much is said, but that does not speak for itself. It is rarely visible, especially in relation to its role in the formation of policy. The civil service does not get the chance to form an adequate relationship with society. The invisible bureaucracy is at odds with what citizens want from the Government (to be heard) and with what they want to see (evidence). ‘Trust is the basis of a properly functioning government,’ says the new Government programme, but trust must first be earned as proof that it is deserved. Isn’t the administrative machinery of the ministry, with its substantive knowledge
Solution Recognition Policy Formulation
Management
Degree off Dissent Figure 1 The policy life-cycle, by Dr Pieter Winsemius
In other words, make sure that you are not only spoken about, but that you speak up for yourself too. Significantly, the Committee also added a number of stipulations, including that information on policies that have not been accepted may also be provided, particularly if that information is factual in nature and businesslike in tone, and if the content of the policy is the central issue and not the administration. Therefore, this essay advocates scenario communication via the official machinery. Not only can the official machinery show how it operates in an efficient, structured manner by means of scenario communication, it can also present facts and background information, without the minister’s being rolled out to take a position. The Primacy of the Politicians It is possible to explain the invisibility of the official machinery through the primacy of the politicians, which is characteristic of the Dutch form of democratic government. This concept means that it is politicians and not officials who determine the direction of policy (Dr F. Hendriks ‘Representative Politics in the Network Community’, Public Administration Journal, year 11, number 7, November 2002 pp. 266 – 277). Politicians also decide what the public may hear. The official machinery is therefore forced to remain cloaked in silence, and the ministries are hardly in the picture. Not only is their contribution to policy formation consequently unclear—it works in favour of a secondary role for the actual substantive debate. Before politicians reach a decision, there is always a phase of deliberation in the policy process. We do not see these deliberations, however. In other words, the predominantly normative and decisionmaking discussion that takes place in the political arena overshadows the actual, exploratory discussion at the official level.
To positively influence how the image of central Government is formed, and to develop an adequate relationship with society, it must not only be politicians, and the debate that has by now become tainted, that can communicate about policy. The official machinery has the power and the opportunity to show what precedes the decision-making and what the (unvarnished) substantive deliberations are. They can thus show who they are and what role they play in the formation of policy. The officials thus give central Government the substance and the character it needs, as well as a human face. Political primacy does not in fact detract from the qualities of the official organisation. The Policy-Making Process If the official organisation makes visible what precedes the decision-making, policy communication takes on a new dimension. In that case it is not the decision-making that is the central issue, but rather the process itself and the substantive considerations that are entered into. The wider context of the process of policy formation becomes visible. The above model, the policy life-cycle of Dr Pieter Winsemius (former VVD minister of Ministry for Housing, Regional Development and the Environment), clearly shows how the division of roles between politicians and officials shifts as the policy process advances. Winsemius developed this model (derived from the product life-cycle in industry) in the 1980s (Dr P. Winsemius, ‘A Guest in One’s Own House: Considerations in Environmental Management’, Alphen aan den Rijn, 1986). On the horizontal axis are the various phases of policy; on the vertical, the amount of political weight. The cycle shows that, as officials in the ministries make progress in finding solutions (policy formation), the political weight increases, whilst the degree of discord among the players involved gradually decreases. After the policy is established, the solutions phase begins, after which the problem is brought and kept under control in the administrative phase. The political weight then decreases again. From the Inside Out Communication now actually takes place at the end of the policy formation and at the beginning of the solutions 179
‘In the opinion of the Committee, citizens have the right to know the substance of the intentions and the motives of the Government. Where citizens are generously provided with counter-information by critics of policy through news services and paid information, it is only fair that the Government should also be allowed to use all information channels at this stage of policy development.’ (‘In the Service of Democracy’ report by the Committee for Future Government Communication, 2001, pp. 41 and 42).
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Policy is also communication In 2001 a report entitled ‘In the Service of Democracy’, by the Committee on Future Government Communications, appeared. The committee, under the chairmanship of Jacques Wallage, was mandated to chart developments that influence the communications of the Government with citizens. They were also asked to make recommendations for the future. An important position the Committee took was that the Government must also actively communicate about its policy intentions.
Political Clout
and enduring role in policy formation, exactly the place to do this—right where the evidence is?
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phase, when the political weight is greatest. Why not from the beginning of the policy process? Communication would then no longer be limited to information about already-formulated policy or to sending up a trial balloon about policy intentions, but would also involve the process preceding it, or better still, ongoing policy. By showing the complex connections between policy areas, what choices are presented, and what the advantages and disadvantages of the various choices are, citizens’ trust can slowly be regained. Solidarity and credibility are in fact achieved not only by presenting solutions, but above all by also providing insight into the dilemmas, the choices, and the consequences of making them. There is then a completely different view of the added value of the official machinery. The ministry should therefore no longer put the emphasis on the outside world, but above all on bringing the inside world out. Show what is happening at the ministries, how choices A, B, and C were made, and what advantages and disadvantages each of these choices entails. Scenario Communication We call the above, presenting the dilemmas, possible choices and the consequences, scenario communication, derived from the already much used scenario analysis. Scenario analysis is a process by which various possibilities for the future (that is, scenarios) are considered so that possible future events can in turn be analysed. It does not involve predicting the future, but projecting a future that can be created from the past and the present. Scenarios contain many uncertainties and much unpredictability, but that is precisely the goal: to make the variables visible. What role can developments in the fields of economics, demographics, and technology play in the future? That is the question that is answered in the different scenarios. By analysing possible scenarios, better, well-considered policy formation can often arise, and strategic choices can often be made more easily. Scenario analysis is thus an important instrument for preparing policy.
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Memo On Information Scenario communication is not an entirely new concept for central Government. In the reports of the 20 to 30 consultant bodies of central Government, there is a great deal of scenario communication. The Consultancy Council on Government Policy, the Council for Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, the Institute for Spatial Research, and the Consultancy Council for the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, to mention just a few examples—all are familiar with scenarios. The scenarios are, however, not very prominent, and communication always occurs afterwards, in the consultancy report. In the Memo on Information there is a recapitulation of the process of consideration and analysis from which the final recommendation originates. The autonomous consultancy bodies can also contribute to bridging the gap precisely
by pro-actively elucidating dilemmas and choices at an earlier stage. Internal and External Functions In the context of scenario analysis, scenario communication involves presenting possible scenarios and related dilemmas. Via scenario communication, the official machinery can show how it works in an efficient, structured manner. A central issue is the substantive knowledge that underlies the development of the various choices and the internal dialogue that takes place to this end. Scenario communication gives the official machinery the chance, both internally and externally, to show where it encounters problems, where dilemmas arise, and how it copes with them. It provides for good internal policy preparation and, externally, the chance to foster understanding among citizens, because they see the internal workings of the ministry and are consequently confronted with the complexity of the process of policy formation. This is why scenario communication is a policypreparation instrument for central Government and a way of involving citizens in the creation of policy. Working for the Government In ‘Working for the Government’, the umbrella government recruitment campaign, a cautious start has been made by outlining the choices and dilemmas encountered in various policy areas. Socially important questions in the fields of care for the elderly, childcare, or policy on asylum seekers are very briefly referred to in labour-market communications. They touch on ‘matters that concern us all’ and ‘jobs with substance’, with which the reader is in fact told that the strength of the official machinery lies in its substantive knowledge and its analytical capacity, and that it has great added value for society. The proof of this is, however, lacking—a deficiency that can be made up through an expansion of this form of communication and through a practice of addressing society as a whole. Politicians Versus Officials What is the difference between communication about the dilemmas and choices behind policy by the official machinery of a ministry, and a debate on the dilemmas and choices behind policy in the Lower House of Parliament? The difference lies in the roles of politicians and officials, a division of roles that will be seen more clearly through the use of scenario communication. What is crystal clear is that communications from the official machinery of the ministry are factual and exploratory, and that the debate in the Lower House is normative and leads to decisionmaking. How can this role of the official machinery be placed within a form of government where there is such a clear primacy of the politicians? In the first place, a civil servant is not elected like a minister, and thus their keeping their job does not, in principle, depend on political change. Officials are not answerable to Parliament like a minister, but they are responsible to their own organisation, the
ministry. The big difference between politicians and officials lies in the fact that the official machinery is—again, in principle—politically neutral and has a more consistent composition than the Cabinet. Consistency is also the strength of the official machinery. Because of this, it can further expand and deepen its substantive professional knowledge. The process of scenario communication is thus not a process of political compromise, but an unvarnished, factual, and substantive representation of a range of values, choices, and related dilemmas and consequences. It shows the process of consideration, and not just the decision-making process. The Role of the Minister Whether officials step out of the shadows through scenario communication has no effect on the primacy of politicians, provided that it is the minister who gives the official machinery the space for this. It is up to the minister to recognise the added value of making visible what has until now been hidden. And although the official machinery will now be seen and heard, scenario communication certainly does not imply that the officials will interfere with the political debate or become a party to the decision-making. They will provide insight into what they are doing, without proclaiming an opinion or assigning value to certain choices. It is up to the politicians and the officials to acknowledge added value and make use of it. It is up to the minister to realise that the thought processes of the official machinery can be used to bridge the gap between citizens and the administration. Politicians and officials will not get in each other’s way, but provide added value for each other in achieving a common goal: closing the gap between central Government and the citizen.
the Government. What we want to see and hear is what the Government is actually doing for us, and how and why it is doing it. We want to see what is taking place in the ministries, and the quality of policy preparation. The official machinery is the appropriate site for this task. The initiative lies with the Cabinet, which must choose to give the official machinery the space to step out of the shadows. The Cabinet must see that communication from the official machinery is not restricted to the elucidation of already formulated policy; the process that precedes that stage must be visible. An entirely different and more complete picture of the added value of the official machinery would then be created. The ministry must no longer put the emphasis on bringing in the outside world but, above all, on bringing the inside world out. Show what is happening in the ministries. This can be achieved with scenario communication. It provides good policy preparation internally and the chance to increase understanding externally, because a view is obtained of the complexity of the process of policy formation. Scenario communication is thus an instrument for central Government as it prepares policy, and an instrument to narrow the gap between central Government and the citizen.
Mobility or Continuity? The Senior Civil Service Office (BABD) was established in 1995 to promote the mobility of top officials and, later, ensure the succession of crucial positions in the Government.. The goal was to get past the fragmentation among the ministries and to invest in the development of management in the civil service. Although this initiative was positively received by many, there has also been criticism. There is talk of a loss of substantive knowledge because of the rapid changes in function and the heavy emphasis on achieving concrete results instead of on neutrality, precision, and continuity. The criticism is relevant to the strategy of scenario communication, because it is precisely focused on the substantive knowledge of the official machinery, of which continuity is the foundation. It is, however, not clear to what extent mobility at the top reduces substantive knowledge throughout the organisation. Who says that responsibility for the creation and communication of scenarios cannot lie lower down in the organisation?
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Conclusion We live in age marked by critique and in which there is a wish to see proof of the correctness of the actions of
CONNECTION WITH SOCIETY Government and Non-Profit Working Towards the Future
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THE SENIOR CIVIL SERVICE OFFICE (BABD) Jeannette Kaptein, Senior Designer, Total Identity Inge Sijpkens, Consultant, Total Identity
The Senior Civil Service (ABD) was established in 1995 to improve mobility at the top and ensure the succession of crucial positions in the Government. The goal was to get past the fragmentation among the ministries and to invest in the development of management in the civil service. As a management-development organisation, the Senior Civil Service Office (BABD) supports the ABD in the areas of recruitment, selection, and development. Ambitions The commotion about the renewal of the government prompted the BABD to reformulate its ambitions. After all, not only its contribution to the quality of central Government but also its role in and for society, are important. The BABD does not want to be an organisation that trains managers from within some ivory tower. Rather, it wants to link its primary process to the social context in which it operates. It wants a clear position in society. Identity The identity matrix of the BABD is the point of departure for a new communications strategy. In the matrix, the themes and values of the BABD outline its identity and show how the agency can give definition to its mission and strategy.
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Communication In the strategic-communication recommendation, distinctions are made among input, output, and outcome. The input is the products and services of the BABD
and how they are made transparent. The output is the results of these products and services, namely better leadership through the individual development of managers and the organisational development of their departments. The outcome is the effect on society—the effect that individual and organisational development has on the overall functioning of government and society. Two Target Groups, Two Channels A separation has been made of the resource mix of the BABD. On the one hand it uses resources to inform its members about its services and products, and, on the other, it uses resources to communicate the effects of its products and services both to its members and society. It is not only the BABD but also its members, the managers within the government, that thus have a communications task. After all, they are the ones who can demonstrate the results of the work of the BABD in the functioning of the Government and its effects on society. The information function thus remains with the BABD. The communication function is a task for the BABD and its managers. Thus an initiating, stimulating, and facilitating role is reserved for the BABD. In the ABD Journal, for example, the BABD provides managers with a platform to make the connection between the functioning of the Government and its effects on society.
THE CANDIDATE PROGRAMME ‘You can teach a person nothing. You can only help him to discover the person inside himself.’ Galileo What started as a way in which to ensure the succession of the top management has, after five years, expanded into a concept for government. The ABD Candidate Programme has become so popular that the ministries do all they can to get their talented potential managers into it. The success of the programme lies in its genetic code. In 2002 there were no leadership courses for sale that fulfilled all their desires, and the Candidate Programme was therefore specially developed for this purpose. The emphasis is not on cognition but on learning through experience. The participants themselves determine to a great extent the content of their own courses. Every year this is tailor-made. The basis of the programme is the three pillars ‘Know your subject’ (compass), ‘Know yourself’ (oasis), and ‘Know your world’ (desert). Inspiration is the key word. This means, for example: no conference resorts, few professors, but (international) lecturers from different companies and disciplines, in surprising locations. The metaphor for the journey is reflected in the route names for each year. Names like ‘Silk Route’, ‘Abel Tasman Route’ and ‘Cerro Victoria Route’ put a particular gloss on a special programme for special people. Stephanie Colenberg, Programme Management Consultant, Senior Civil Service Office
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Anniversary Yearbook of the Candidate Programme; about the learning experiences of civil servants regarding their subject, themselves, and the society they work for.
Good teamwork between politicians and officials is needed in order for social themes to be tackled. This journal holds up a mirror to politicians and officials.
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ASCENDING THE STAGE
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THE CONCERTGEBOUW
Aad van Dommelen, Creative Director, Total Identity Jan Steinhauser, Senior Communications Consultant, Total Identity Aatjan Renders, Photographer
The Contemporaries concept, which arose at the beginning of 2006, is the result of a series of meetings that began about identity and sponsoring, and ended with the identity of a music series. The Concertgebouw, opened in 1888 and quickly becoming one of the leading stages in the world, now has a reputation as a bastion of culture. Formerly the ‘home of innovation’ where later giants like Mahler and Bruckner made their debuts, the Concertgebouw is now a monument that stands above post-modern innovation. It is hardly interactive, and is not really contemporary. It also hosts top-quality modern music. This reputation was built up through ten years of solid programming for a fixed group of visitors. But the music programme is elitist and remains little known. Then there was the experiment to which the Concertgebouw, the Asko and Schönberg Ensembles, and Total Identity were committed: how to win a contemporary reputation with a wider audience? Communications from the Concertgebouw assumes values such as quality, knowledge, involvement, and a level-oriented recipient. What is famous in the established order takes priority. The current themes are composition, interpretation, and performance. Communications that arise in the isolation of the desired new audience and avoids interaction remain immured in the bastion of more than a century ago. In order for a new audience to be reached, there must be a shift to influence, to radicalism, to topical significance, and to giving concrete expression to that significance.
There must be a new level of ambition with a different direction. The letter that conductor Reinbert de Leeuw wrote, before the start of the 2006 – 2007 jubilee season had inspired this new direction, that in the history of the Concertgebouw, the fact that Gustav Mahler found a home there is more determinative than any performance by the greatest start performer. With the Contemporaries series, we hope to add another episode to this history. The experiment consists in themed concerts with a reading beforehand and a poster on which the theme is depicted. This provides the basis for the publicity approach. Music (performance), reading, and poster were offered jointly. The theme is an attempt to give the concert relevance to a wider audience. As a reference point for the themes, the consequence was accepted that the introduction would not be about the music and the composer—for this there are, after all, the foretaste gatherings—but about the theme of the work in the spirit of its time, translated, as it were, into the person of today by the topicality of the speaker. To this end, leading poets and thinkers were selected who in their introduction bring the audience to a highly receptive level for the complex music that follows. The theme thus set out and the description of the music constitute the briefing for the designer. This leads to a poster that is always new. A serial nature is consciously avoided. Music performance, reading, and poster reinforce each other in their effect on the audience.
NO MUSIC WITHOUT A COMPOSER My suggestion to Martijn Sanders, now ten years ago, to bring a series of new music to the Concertgebouw with the Schönberg Ensemble and the Asko Ensemble was based on one reference point: the composer. In everything that the ensembles do, the composer is always central. Without a composer no music can exist and no ensembles either. The programmes were compiled in close collaboration with the composers and in an intensive interaction during rehearsals, in sound, the musicians try to form a world just like the composer has in his mind. Performances of works by Andriessen, Carter, Goebaidoelina, Kagel, Kurtág, and Lindberg thus arose. In this jubilee series we pay homage to the great post-war generation: Berio, Stockhausen and Boulez. The monumental Pli selon pli by Boulez is an accolade to, and puts an exclamation mark after, post-war composition. Oliver Knussen, one of the three conductors who conducted my Carte Blanche series Gruppen, produced a Stockhausen monograph, and Frans Brüggen brought Schubert and Berio together. The series was opened with Messiaen, a composer who ignored all trends, but composed exclusively what he wanted to. His spirit hovers over the big three. He is perhaps the embodiment of the Contemporaries series: we worked with him on his phenomenal scores. Messiaen is no longer alive, but his pieces are now some of the classics of the twentieth century. In the history of the Concertgebouw, the fact that Gustav Mahler found a home there is more determinative than the greatest performing star. We hope to add an episode to that history with the Contemporaries series. I gladly dedicate the tenth edition of the Contemporaries series to Martijn Sanders, without whose open mind this series could not have been made. Reinbert de Leeuw, Conductor, Schönberg Ensemble
WHY TOTAL IDENTITY SPONSORS CONTEMPORARIES The Concertgebouw marketed the Concertgebouw brand with great success. Even though it is in the Concertgebouw, the Contemporaries concert series is not a brand. It is insulated by the strong Concertgebouw brand. Organisation according to templates diverts the quick reader from meaningful associations and can at best lure him to the familiar. The Contemporaries series must communicate differently. The Schönberg Ensemble was created to play the works of composers who (since Schönberg 100 years ago) break free from the familiar idiom and little by little no longer compose for an audience. The composer is completely free and left to his own devices. This often makes the concert exciting: high-level, innovative, creating new layers of meaning, as conditions for successfully appealing to the audience. The communications for this series of unscripted modern musical performances must tell the story every time and so make the series itself into a narrative. This is completely different from marketing the Concertgebouw brand. Therein lies the challenge for Total Identity—a challenge that in itself is a reiteration of the challenges in all parts of our professional field. Our effort with Contemporaries is thereby a visible contribution to the clarification of our working methods. Jan Steinhauser, Senior Communications Consultant, Total Identity
TOWARDS A NEW STANDARD
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Bart Van Cauwenberge, Project Manager, Gramma Jan Dries, Senior Consultant, Gramma Jan Hendrickx, Art Director, Gramma Marc Huyck, Web Designer, Gramma
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The results of the identity scan clearly show the difference between the current and the desired identity of this organisation. The message was clear. Management decided to close the gap between the current perception and the desired identity.
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What is more a more obvious typification of an identity than a name? The processes involved are often complex. There are ‘grey’ names that with a little luck and many years’ association with the organisation still obtain colour and significance. On the other hand, the name itself can have qualities that help to establish an image. That was the goal of Sirris, which was formerly called WTCM-CRIF. WTCM? CRIF?
To repeat the old name one last time: WTCM-CRIF was established by the then Fabrimetal as a centre of scientific and technical expertise for the metal industry in Belgium. In the meantime, Fabrimetal has become Agoria, and Sirris has expanded its range of expertise to include a broad spectrum of innovative technologies not necessarily associated with metal. Sirris is the collective centre for the Belgian hi-tech industry. It advises and guides companies in the implementation of technological innovations. In this way, they are able to reinforce their competitive position in a sustainable manner. Sirris does this with more than 120 highly qualified experts working in six units in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels.
They sometimes search for a balance between the internal regional orientation of the branches and national collaboration across regional borders. Sirris had thought profoundly about a change in strategy. This had to do, among other things, with the expansion of the target group and widening the range. The following steps in the tale were the components of corporate image, marketing and sales. Among other items, the marketing and communication needed to be more professional. There they came up against the limitations of the old name. It was unappealing. The fact that there were of course two versions of it, WTCM in Dutch and CRIF in French, did not make things easier. They therefore wanted a new name.
ONE STEP OUT OF MANY The naming project was only one part of an extensive programme, the various aspects of which concerned the identity of the organisation, marketing strategy, the name (including its launch), the new logo and house style, the implementation of the house style and, linked to this, the production of a new corporate brochure and a renewed Website. Specialists were engaged for a number of these aspects. Because of the tight timingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;certainly at the end of the programme when the deadlines loomed eerily closeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it was absolutely necessary that they be able to properly and quickly respond to each other. That was done successfully. Guido Kuppens, Editor Facetten
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In Search of the Essence The first step in the naming process was creating clarity about the identity Sirris desired for itself. The semanticdifferential method was used to discover what sort of organisation Sirris wished to be. This exercise provided insight into the earlier Sirris of then and the direction it wanted to take. Among the members of the general management board there was a strong common vision. From the semantic differential came a number of keywords that summed up the desired identity.
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These keywords were modern, lively, provocative, stirring, challenging, industrious, and serious. They were used on the one hand to give form to the new
corporate identity and, on the other, to serve as touchstones for the new name. Taxonomy In the search for a new company name you can roughly create a four-part taxonomy: descriptive, communicative, associative, and abstract names. The recommendation was to search for an abstract name with a strong sentimental value. It must moreover sound good in the languages of both regions of Belgium and in English. The process started with brainstorming sessions in which all of the staff could participate. That yielded as many as 1,300 suggestions! Ultimately, a short list of seven names remained. These were ranked, and the name Sirris turned out to be the favourite. The management committee thought it was a very good
choice. Moreover, the involvement of the staff in choosing the name was very intense. Guidance and Filtering The enthusiasm of the Sirris staff was guided down the right track through the use of a number of techniques. A copywriter supervised the brainstorming sessions in the so-called divergence phase (generate as many suggestions as possible, but then in a directed manner). Then came the convergence phase, in which filter techniques were applied to come up with a short list of realistic name suggestions that fulfilled a number of criteria. Each name on the list was then exhaustively checked to find out whether it had already been used in a URL and whether it had been recorded in the EU and Benelux brand registers. Finally,
Identification In the beginning, the programme made slow progress, probably because Sirris needed to gain insight into what was involved in such an identity process.
not many in it. Everywhere at Sirris, partly thanks to the new name, people have a stronger feeling that they belong to one organisation.
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Since the name ‘Sirris’ does not describe the activities of the organisation, a baseline would have to generate clarity about this. This baseline was found by using the identity matrix. The themevalues matrix led to the baseline ‘driving industry with technology’. Anything more succinct than that would have been difficult to come up with.
Because of its structure, with three regions, it was essential that all common decisions be taken by consensus. At the end of the programme it was tense for a while, because everything had to be finished before the event at which Sirris would present the new name to the stakeholders. An events agency worked out a high-tech multimedia show, which revolved around the introduction of a new planet: Sirris. The staff was also present, although they already knew about the name. The event delivered only positive reactions, not only to the show, but also to the name itself, the freshness of the logo, and so on. The process of identifying with the new name was quickly started. In the Louvain branch it was agreed that whoever accidentally used the old name would put a euro in a tin... but there were
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a semantic check was done: Was there, in a number of target languages, an identical or similar word that for any reason makes the name in question ‘impossible’?
A PERCEPTUAL EVENT
Working Towards the Future
Government and Non-Profit
Chapter Part
III
Sector
FLORIADE 2012
Mark Schuijt, Design Director, Total Identity Saskia Stolz, Senior Designer Aatjan Renders, Photographer
The Floriade was originally a world horticulture exhibition organised by the Dutch Horticultural Council every ten years. The last Floriade was held in Haarlemmermeer. In 2012, the Venlo region has that honour. The 2012 Floriade will be a different event from that in Haarlemmermeer: the Floriade will go from being an exhibition to being a perceptual event, a platform for innovation, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. Sustainability of products is an important part of society and is therefore one of the spearheads of the 2012 Floriade. With their concept and work ‘Cradle to Cradle’, or C2C for short, William McDonough and Michael Braungart take a special approach to the re-use of raw materials that makes products 100% recyclable—not ‘from cradle to grave’, but ‘from cradle to cradle’. The Floriade in the Venlo region also embraces the principles of C2C.
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The central theme of the 2012 Floriade is ‘Be part of the theatre in nature, get closer to the quality of life’. The programme of the Floriade (Theatre in Nature) will thus be linked to the desires and wishes of the visitors (Quality of Life). This central theme is divided into five subthemes: 1 Relax and Heal: the importance of horticulture for a healthy life 2 Green Engine: horticulture as an
economic engine and provider of green energy 3 Education and Innovation: the interactions among horticulture, education, and innovation 4 Environment: the importance of a sustainable community, of a green (work) environment, and of gardens for the health of humanity 5 World Show Stage: horticulture as a source of inspiration for art, culture, and entertainment. The following five archetypes belong to them: the hero (Relax and Heal), the idealist (Green Engine), the entrepreneur (Education and Innovation), the scientist (Environment) and the explorer (World
Show Stage). All visitors experience the green sector in their own way, and the idea is that, as a result of visiting the 2012 Floriade, develop a different view and handle it differently in their daily lives with more awareness.
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House-style manual CD with its pentagonal cover. The shape of the cover refers to the five subthemes of the 2012 Floriade and the five performances of the Theatre of Nature.
IMAGINEERING AND THE 2012 FLORIADE: A NATURAL CONNECTION Imagineering is a combination of imagination and engineering. In the mid-twentieth century Walt Disney started putting together imagineering teams in which people from various disciplines collaborated. Storytelling was the tool he used within these teams of technicians, engineers (emphasising the left side of the brain), storytellers, and designers (emphasising the right side), to visualise and communicate his dreams. Switching between the left and right sides of the brain, between analysis and imagination, is pivotal to the development of meaningful experiences. Through our focus on deep-rooted values in the development of experiential concepts, a sustainable frame of reference is created where visitors and consumers can be moved emotionally, and challenged to search for their own values, passions, and talents. That is what our interpretation of imagineering is about. In our prosperous community most of our material needs have been amply fulfilled. We therefore no longer allow ourselves to be seduced into buying products: we already have everything. Our attention shifts to psychological needs. We seek inspiration, interpretation, and a meaningful society to belong to. We have now gone from a service economy to an experience economy, which makes use of experience marketing. The difference between experience marketing and imagineering is that the former departs from instruments of the standard logic of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;mass production for mass consumptionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, while imagineering takes into account psychological needs and values, and a creative, integrated, and holistic approach. Moniek Hover, Lecturer in Imagineering, NHTV Breda International University
COMMUNICATING ABOUT THE UNCOMMON
Consumer Goods Working Towards the Future
Chapter Part
III
Sector
Stephan Steins, Publicist Hans P Brandt, Managing Director, Total Identity
In most cultures and societies, conceptual marketing of dayto-day consumer goods, via the communication of the unique attributes of those goods, has developed into a central factor in socio-cultural orientation. The communication is thereby focused on the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that steers consumers and, at the same time, provokes their emotional reflexes. Consequently, next to its purely utilitarian value, a product also takes on a communicative content: this is how brands are created. In the interaction between the message that the brand communicates and the reaction of the consumer to it, the image of both the product and the recipient consumer is formed. Because of the image of the brand, its consumption helps redefine the cultural status of its consumers, as long as it is appropriately embedded in a specific cultural context. Society Because of rapid developments in media technology, branding and brands have become more and more socially relevant in recent decades. Whether we realise it or not, brands have become strongly entrenched in our daily lives. It has become almost impossible to avoid them; commercial messages have been present everywhere for a considerable time. Brand communication is intended to generate trust in, and recognition of, the product. The perception by the consumer takes place in the rational, objective consciousness and the subjective feelings and reflexes of the subconscious. On the one hand, consumers assess the value of a product very rationally, considering, among other things, shelf life, functionality, price, and availability. On the other hand, the emotional perception plays just as important a role. Branding must therefore appeal to the different aspects of human perceptions if a product is to address the consumer. If you define the purchase of a product as the moment of identification, branding plays a very important role.
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The American brands guru Kevin Lane Keller defines a brand not as a static concept but as a ‘relationship between product
and consumer’. He adds: ‘A brand is a package of practical values with specific attributes, which ensure that this package, from the perspective of the relevant target groups, is convincingly different from other packages that fulfil the same basic needs.’ Put another way: the power of a brand is the result of the positive associations of the branch and the consumers, who over the long term associate them with the items or services on offer. The strongest brands are thus those that have succeeded in anchoring themselves into the feeling of cultural identity of society. Coca-Cola is a prime example: the brand communicates not only the product, but also the cultural orientation, the lifestyle, of the society that produced it. International Brands Brands with worldwide positioning have the special quality that their utility, value, and image transcend cultures. Internationally targeted marketing exudes as far as possible a universal symbolism and emphasises above all the utility value of a product to the client. Careful attention must be paid to specific regional traditions and customs. Conversely, the worldwide presentation of a brand can also lead to loss of the original distinctive and unique attributes. That is the case if the special value of a product has arisen from tradition and culture. A Japanese knife, for example, represents the centuries old metalworking art of great masters. While the extreme sharpness of the knives is an important selling point outside Japan, the product and the brand cannot easily be internationalised because of the close link with its own culture. There would be no point in having such knives, with the same product method and properties, made in Sweden for example and trying to sell them via international marketing. From a cultural-historical viewpoint it can be critically remarked that the success of international marketing leads to a fading of the differences between cultures and thus contributes to the demise of old structures, of cultural versatility and of trust in one’s own capabilities and creativity. Top Brands The brand phenomenon has for a considerable time no longer been enough to emphasise the unique and distinctive
Successful branding makes both a higher selling price and higher sales figures possible. Assuming almost equal production costs, the communicative power of the brand generates considerable effects on the profit margin. Positive association patterns and the preferences of the target groups lead directly to a greater readiness on the part of consumers to buy the product being marketed. For technically equal products with the same price, the preference for the brand is decisive. However, the following problem arises: price and quantity effects constitute a dialectical process. The brand has a positive effect on the price and, as a result, a negative effect on the quantity. The price-quantity relationship is to an important extent determined by the price-sales relationship. Under certain circumstances, the price can also rebound for the brand. This is often seen as an indicator of the quality of the product and can contribute to upgrading the image in accordance with the widespread motto: ‘if it’s expensive, it’s good.’
Ad
ded of value Pri b ra of ce as nd the an qu ind alit ic ato y r
Brand
th e of ras d Ext bran top
attributes of a product in the correct manner in every market situation. This has led to the generation of a transcendent level of the brand concept: the ‘top brand’. Top brands must be seen as a brand-management answer to the loss of the objective identity of brands and products through the globalisation of production conditions. In the 1990s, in the Nummi-car plant in Fremont (California), the technically identical Toyota Corolla and GM (General Motors) Geo Prism were produced for the American market. Despite its higher selling price, Toyota succeeded in selling more cars of this type than its competitor, GM. The most important reason for this is in the different perception, reputation and market positions, because of different presentations of the brands. This makes two dimensions of the ‘brand’ concept clear: price in relation to quantity.
Price
Quality Price-sales relationship
The product anticipates the needs of individuals, who in turn transfer their identity to it. My product exists, therefore I exist. Enriching the mundane with the extraordinary: that is what creative brand management strives for. A key challenge for branding is to give this process a permanently meaningful form from a humanistic perspective. The precarious balance between demands set by the market and efficiency requirements on the one hand and social needs on the other, makes it necessary to focus our attention on a holistic approach. Only that which contributes to cultural development preserves and creates the conditions for its own survival in the future.
Future The trend of ‘multi-sensual branding’ is becoming stronger. This involves to a large extent appealing to the consumer’s sensual side. All the receptors of potential customers must be stimulated to achieve an integrated ‘consumer experience’ that expands to become a total experience. The German BMW slogan ‘Freude am Fahren’ (in English: ‘Makes driving superb’) can be understood in many ways. In addition to the design, the image of the company, and advertising, the conceptual design and the branding relate to the sound of the engine, the smell of the car’s interior, the exact balance of the speed, and the sound the doors make when closing and opening.
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The perfection of product and brand as conceptual cultural objects goes farther and farther, and their influence on our society is increasing. Branding and marketing, as components of the media and communications profession, must nowadays be seen in the context of the cultural self-awareness of our society. The product and the human intellect seem to be striving for a symbiosis that questions the dualism between subject and object.
NOODLE CULTURE SING-LIN FOODS
Sector
Consumer Goods Working Towards the Future
Part
III
Chapter
Jay Chang, Designer, Proad Identity Jennifer Tsai, Managing Director, Proad Identity
Sing-lin Foods distributes two brands of noodles on the Taiwanese market: Wu-Mu Noodles and Shiang-Chwan. The former are leading among ‘modern connoisseurs’, while the latter are rather unknown. Sing-lin Foods also wished to put the products of both brands on the map abroad. They started with the creation of foreign brands and redesigned the packaging. Gradually, it turned out that the existing brand messages were pretty chaotic because of the overlapping segmentation of the two brands. Values such as ‘cultural heritage and promotion’, ‘innovative and tasty’ and ‘noodle culture’ criss-crossed each other. Moreover, the identity of the packaging did not fit the desired image. The company thus decided to transform the original programme into a project for brand reconstruction and restoration. To facilitate brand positioning and market segmentation, a division was made on the basis of the taste, qualities, and character of the noodles. Wu-Mu Noodles were therefore depicted as Japanese, innovative, and good for the health, while Grandma Noodles, the new name for Shiang-Chwan, were characterised as ‘having a typical local and really distinctive flavour’. Furthermore, it turned out that design elements and product claims in the past had contradicted each other.
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Wu-Mu Noodles Wu-Mu Noodles makes noodles for the modern connoisseur. The focus is on health, a longer life, and a new kind of taste. Core values are tasty, organic, and having a rich diversity of flavours. The packaging was
given a simple and modern design. The design suggests that the idea of ‘healthy food’ need not be at the expense of the flavour. Grandma Noodles Putting Shing-Chwan on the worldwide market under its original name turned out to be impossible because the name in Chinese has a very specific significance that is lost in translation. The name was therefore changed to ‘Grandma Noodles’. Secondly, all products with traditional Taiwanese flavours were assigned to this brand. This combination of values— traditional flavours, cultural essence, and tastiness—formed the core values of this brand from that point on. The logo is a grandmother with a bamboo hat, which strongly evokes local colour. In addition, the packaging was given a
simple and modern design. The packaging shows images of traditional flavours such as Chinese angelica and seafood, which are used to convey the wonderfully full and special flavour of the noodles. Wu-Mu Noodles has positioned itself as the ‘practitioner of life’, whereas Grandma Noodles stands for the ‘practitioner of traditional Taiwanese noodle culture’. To increase the brand value and access new sales channels, in addition to the usual packaging for supermarkets, a gift-box set was designed that would impart the necessary added value to the products for the gift market in department stores, five-star hotels, airports, and shops. The special gift box is more appropriate in a segment where the prices are higher.
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ON BEER AND LOVE GULPENER BEER
Working Towards the Future
Consumer Goods
Chapter Part
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Page
III
Sector
Martijn Kagenaar, Director, Vermeulen | Total Identity Pierre Hupperts, Strategy Development and CSR Consultant
Since the Gulpener Brewery opted in 1999 for sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as guiding principles in its dealings, this text has adorned the label of the Limburg brewery. The same mission statement is also on the six-packs, the Website, and many other communications. The brewery has chosen to adapt all its activities to its sustainability aspirations. This 360° sustainability branding has brought the company a lot of success. ‘360° sustainability branding’ stands for the implementation of CSR principles in the three basic domains of branding: corporate identity, products, and distribution, including retail distribution. The Corporate Identity Heineken, InBev, Grolsch and Bavaria have 95% of the Dutch beer market. A family firm such as Gulpener (with a market share of 1.5%) can only survive when it strongly sets its branding alongside others. What the company achieved in the eighties with a (Belgian) special beers strategy was copied by the multinationals in the nineties. And because not quantitative growth but ‘keeping on earning money’ was the motive of the family firm, in 1999 it was decided to forge a sustainable link with nature. All the staff endorsed the mission statement, and slowly but surely the Gulpener Brewery developed a new corporate identity. Not only was the
production process drastically re-evaluated, but also the social solidarity of the staff with their immediate environment was given a new form. Each employee received an individual sponsor budget in order to make a contribution to ‘low-profile’ activities such as walking and cycling trips, music clubs, cultural and gala nights in Limburg, and so forth. In this way the corporate sponsoring of the company was entirely focused on reinforcing the social, ecological, and cultural capital of Limburg. The Product The whole company and production process was scrutinised and, where necessary and possible, changes were implemented to improve its social and ecological performance. The essence of the acquisitions policy is that Gulpener wishes to brew genuine Limburg beer. All the ingredients should eventually be derived from the rolling Limburg countryside. A cooperative farm cultivates the barley and wheat needed. Gulpener also reintroduced the hop, which had vanished from the Netherlands, to Limburg. The company runs entirely on green electricity, some of which comes from Limburg water mills and its own solar panels. In 2007, it planted its own forest to partly compensate for CO2 emissions. Gulpener’s organic beer, called Limburgs Land, is the first climate-neutral beer in the world. In the Netherlands, 12 pubs have been fitted with a solar panel with which the Gulpener logo is illuminated. Retail and Distribution The company is constantly looking for links with its brand and its sustainable positioning. Consumers, but also catering
companies and institutional users such as municipalities have therefore developed a brand preference for Gulpener. This small brewery from the south of the Netherlands, which brews and sells its beer with love, is favoured as a provider. Customers want more and more to buy a product with a story, and Gulpener provides it. It is remarkable that Gulpener is doing well in innovative catering concepts where the dark, smoke-filled pub is replaced by a trendy, modern setting in which the consumer is offered a new and pleasant experience. For the ‘branding’ of these locations, a beer with a human face and a story is needed, and Gulpener fits this perfectly. The Gulpener Brewery is the only one that has increased its turnover in the declining Dutch beer market. Socially oriented groups such as environmental organisations like working with Gulpener. In short, its choice for sustainability has delivered good business relations with external stakeholders who are relevant and important to the company. Yet there is one factor that is very important to this distinctive brand positioning: the flavour and quality of the beer. Sustainable and responsible beer:this does not evoke any aesthetically pleasant associations. Gulpener is the only Dutch brewery that does not pasteurise its beer. According to the Consumers Association, Gulpener Korenwolf has for years been the best white beer in the Netherlands—this from the jury report: ‘you can taste that it is made with love.’
SUSTAINABILITY TANGO SUSTAINABILITY AND BRANDING: HOW DO THEY REINFORCE EACH OTHER?
Working Towards the Future
Consumer Goods
Chapter Part
III
Sector
Martijn Kagenaar, Director Vermeulen | Total Identity Pierre Hupperts, Consultant Strategy Development and CSR Marketing
Among those in marketing, including the marketing of food, the stubborn cliché prevails that sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and branding are difficult to combine—but the combination turns out to be exactly the condition and the basis for effective and successful marketing. Urgency The brand is an indispensable instrument for the marketer, because a strong brand is a guarantee of economic success. Since the eighties, brands have also been valued in the financial sense. Moreover, the brand is valued for its power to provide meaning. The psychological value of the brand has in the meantime evolved so far that brands such as D&G, Apple, and Diesel are building blocks with which consumers can express their own identities. These days, however, brands no longer come without baggage. We have seen that brands can receive a serious blow as a result of social or environmental abuse. The negative effects of out-and-out economising and globalisation, of which brands are a part, are becoming more important every day. The sustainability theme has so-called ‘momentum’. Our theme seems to be a dilemma: the paradox between economic interests and sustainability. Doesn’t sustainability cost money? We see the struggle with this Gordian Knot, for example, in companies but also in hospitals, schools, and housing corporations. And the struggle also appears in our day-to-day consumption. The tide will unquestionably turn. We no longer have a choice. The future will win over the present. What for a decade appeared to be a minor undercurrent only relevant to a group of culturally creative types, has in no time become massively mainstream.
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Where does this collective (for some, suddenly) interest come from? Many believe that ‘concern’ is the common theme. However, we think that ‘zest for life’ is the common denominator. The current generation loves life and wishes to see it guaranteed for a long time. Because they know
its power, they accept the responsibility themselves and take action. Even if that conflicts with their own interests of ‘now’. Tomorrow will win out over today. We love to live well and long. Innovation = Communication = Positioning The new generation of entrepreneurs knows like no other that the key to success lies in communication. It is constantly engaged in telling and writing down stories. They know the gossamer-thin game in which behaviour, communication, and symbolism determine the reputation of an enterprise. Now that many young entrepreneurs have embraced sustainability as part of the scenario for the future, they also see what innovative strength hides within it. The focus on the future makes them eager and effective. They know that the products they put on the market will in time be assessed for their social relevance. Sustainability therefore makes entrepreneurs innovate. And because innovation not longer occurs in a secret laboratory but ‘on the market’, the successes of tomorrow are found in products that ‘really count’. Innovative products and services are created thanks to communication. An important reason to ‘wait for a while’ with the marketing of sustainable products is, however, still often the limited force with which sustainability is communicated. Better marketing of existing niche products delivers only an expected and thus superficial improvement. To put it even more strongly: we advocate the reverse. Sustainability must become an essential part of the marketing function of organisations and not just of products, because it is the motive for continuous innovation and for that reason will bring success on the market. Sustainability is thus an integral responsibility and a challenge to the company as a whole. Social, ecological, and economic aspects are viewed in their mutual cohesiveness. They are not a layer that is added to the company, the brand, or the product, but the core of the concern.
Most companies that integrate sustainability at the corporate level are still niche players at this point, but through their growth they are beginning to make those niches larger. They are shifting, as it were, to the quadrant on the top right. Large mainstream companies in the Netherlands leave an opening for them.
Corporate Product
Rabo Klimaathypotheek Mainstream
Niche
Tomorrow Satisfiers New Technologies – Eco-effectiveness – Sustainable technology – Closed circuit – Systematic thinking
Sustainable Development – Solving world problems – Inclusive society – Transformation
More With Less – ISO 14001 – Reducing waste – Risk management – Eco-efficiency
Corporate Sustainability – CSR – Stakeholder management – Life-cycle analysis – Eco-design – Transparency Dissatisfiers Today
A company speaks more easily about sustainability than about a product or a separate brand. On the other hand, a niche brand is more quickly primed than a mainstream brand. It remains necessary to make the transition from company and corporate marketing to sustainability, because, as the diagram shows, there will be opportunities in the coming years. In consumer terms you could say that the quadrant on the bottom left is a ‘dissatisfier’ for consumers, while the one on the top right is the great satisfier. Developing products and marketing services that fit into the quadrant are huge challenges for the company and its marketers, who face the major task of anchoring sustainability in their organisation, and serving the consumer with products and services that really matter. 207
The diagram shows that many companies are absent from those parts of the axes that link the corporate and the mainstream to each other.
Toyota Prius Verberg GREEN lease
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Actually, it is about dancing the tango and seduction. How do I dance with consumers such that they are seduced by these new products and services? Few companies use the opportunities at the corporate-marketing level to genuinely distinguish themselves in the market. Mainstream companies in particular are absent. They often launch one or more sustainable products or services onto the market but limit sustainable branding to the product or brand and associate it less, or not at all, with the company. The product drifts, as it were, and has no ‘parent behind the brand’.
Philips Lighting
External
Tango Marketing Perhaps the biggest asset of CSR is that it prepares companies for the markets of the future. The markets for sustainable and responsible products are growing rapidly worldwide. The niches of now are the mainstream of tomorrow. Companies that wish to be ready must develop and enter this market now.
To gain ground in the Netherlands – Whole Foods (USA) – Patagonia (USA) – Natura (Brazil)
Gulpener The Body Shop ASN Triodos Kyuchi
Internal
Contextual Awareness Whereas ‘branding’ now usually begins from a product that has been developed entirely in the laboratory, a sustainable brand can never be ‘complete’. In fact, no one is sustainable—you can only wish to be sustainable. But this score below 100% is no reason not to communicate at all. We are thus served by the laws of communication: a brand must be distinctive, visible, accessible, clear, credible, suitable, and relevant. We know the weaknesses of sustainable brands all too well. The sustainable marketer translates the context of his company into new products and services that can put the company on the market. At the same time, it helps solve the social and ecological problems that have been signalled in this context. A unique marketing quality of sustainability and CSR is that they have great distinctive power. First of all, they make it possible to tell a genuine, authentic story about the company as a brand. Moreover, they promote the connection between the company and innovative social themes (what product or service can I develop to do something about climate change?) and the development of new knowledge and networks or business relations. Sustainability and CSR reinforce the identification of internal and external stakeholders with the company and the brand. Moreover, employees feel more at home with responsible brands.
CHINESE CHARACTERS
Working Towards the Future
Consumer Goods
Chapter Part
III
Sector
Jennifer Tsai, Creative Director, Proad Identity Jerry Wang, Designer, Proad Identity Justin Chiu, Photographer
The Hong Kong International Poster Triennial is a huge event focused on the development of poster designs. Not only are there a competition and a symposium, but the best posters are exhibited in Hong Kong, and the Guangzhou Museum of Art and the Shanghai Library in China, to strengthen the relationship and cultural exchanges with mainland China.
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Proad Identity sent the posters to Hong Kong. The wonderful structure of Chinese
characters is depicted in them. The calligraphic characters have no specific significanceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it all has to do with their aesthetic aspect. Each brush stroke is unique and enchanting, like a flower. The Asiatic flowers depict the beauty of the components of the characters. Together, they create an indefinable universal beauty. These authentic posters appealed to the jury of the German IF Design Awards. Proad Identity won the prize in the category Communication Design, which shows that authentic design, in a world that has for decades been flooded with Western, and above all
American products, still has an appeal. Major brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonalds, and Nike have by now penetrated almost everywhere. This creates conflicts with local cultural customs and values. Just as every time modern influences make their presence felt, there is a tension between rejection and adoption. The popularity of these brands and their successful international marketing leads to the fading of cultural diversity and creativity. Authenticity is a value that underlies these posters, which constitute a response which can be understood all over the world and which is an utterly original to the challenge posed by international marketing.
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COMMUNICATION IN IMAGES ENZA ZADEN
Working Towards the Future
Consumer Goods
Chapter Part
III
Sector
Rosemarie Leenders, Stylist, Total Identity Aatjan Renders, Photographer
Enza Zaden, established in 1938, is a successful vegetable-seed distribution company in Enkhuizen, which over the years has expanded into one of the largest players on the world market for seeds. Enza Zaden currently (2008) has eleven research-anddevelopment locations, eleven commercial locations, and 60 distributors all over the world. Where at first the direct purchaser, the grower, selected the strains, there is more of a consultation between grower, trade, and retail regarding the choice of strains. The trade is concerned with various qualitative and logistical factors which play a role in serving the consumers, who always demand innovative, fresh and tasty vegetables that are pleasing to look at. To take proper advantage of future demand from worldwide consumers, the retailers will require more-specific products from the growers. Roles change, and the market chain is becoming shorter: the retailer comes directly to Enza Zaden.
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This new reality is expressed in photographs of the product. For the promotion and sales of the product, specific images are made for each component of the market chain, from grower to retailer to consumer. Thus, on photos for the grower, the vegetables are not photographed hanging from a plant or in the greenhouse but on a monochrome background. A yellow paprika on a yellow background, a red tomato on a red background. The exact colour of the product is always used. The monochrome
photography emphasises and reflects the intrinsic quality of the vegetables. The controlled growth of the plant, disease resistance, and high yields, ensure that, with relatively little work for the grower, a good harvest can be taken to auction. Enza Zaden presents its products to the retailer by means of photography in which the preparation of the vegetables by the consumer is central—not the cooking but sliced vegetables in, for example, a glass jar. There is a lot of white, which enhances the image of the product. The white dishes and containers depict the eating habits of different cultures. Enza Zaden thus
depicts in pictures what they stand for; the development of seed for vegetable produce with a high nutritional value and a sensational flavour that is a feast for the eyes in colour and form, taking into account different cultural backgrounds the world over. Product photography will also grow in the coming years, along with the further development of Enza Zaden.
WATER: ELEMENT OF SUCCESS GEROLSTEINER
Working Towards the Future
Consumer Goods
Chapter Part
III
Sector
Erich Sommer – Total Identity
Mineral-water producer Gerolsteiner Brunnen GmbH and Co. KG has big ambitions. In 2015 the company wants to be the largest German producer of natural alcohol-free soft drinks for the international market, and wishes to take a dominant position on the domestic market. Since last year, the Gerolsteiner brand has been on the market not only in the Baltic States, but also in Japan. It now has a presence in 34 countries around the world. It is thus the most heavily exported German mineral water. Important indicators in this development are brand image, sales figures, marketing and market share. Because of its organic and external growth, Gerolsteiner partly determines the market itself. To realise its ambitions, Gerolsteiner formulates concrete goals every year and takes steps to assure the continued growth of the company. It is essential that market developments and new trends are anticipated. A forward-thinking view is needed in order to know today what the client wants tomorrow. What trends are developing and which products will be successful tomorrow and in the months and years ahead? Gerolsteiner wishes to know exactly: it develops new concepts based on detailed market analyses.
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The company has succeeded in appealing to new groups of consumers with product and packaging innovations. In 2006 the Gerolsteiner range reached 12%
of the consumers of alcohol-free drinks in Germany; in 2005 this was 8%. Sport sponsorships: fans become customers, and customers become fans The success of Gerolsteiner as the most popular brand and market leader in Germany is partly because of its involvement in international cycling from 1998 to 2008. From the beginning the company worked with new image concepts in the elaboration of the communications strategy for the Gerolsteiner cycling team and, in 1998, the emphasis was on the dynamics of the sport. To begin with, an ‘action photo’ was created that not only showed the familiar image of the cyclist but also brought to the fore the dynamic and sportive aspects of the whole concept. The basic motives of the sponsor were thus communicated and made visible. In later years, the cyclists were featured in photo reports and image-building items were always shown in the context of the whole team and thus as part of a community. This
strategy, which emphasised that cycling is a team sport, opened new possibilities for sports photography and thus also for the communication of basic human values in top sports. After work had been done primarily on increasing brand awareness in the first years of the sponsorship, in 2004 a communications plan covering a period of three years was developed. It aimed to focus attention on the actual product of the main sponsor. With the slogan ‘Ins Wasser, im Wasser, unter Wasser’ (‘Into the water, in the water, under water’) Gerolsteiner—in contrast to almost all other sponsors—underpinned its involvement in cycling by very successfully establishing a link between the ‘health product’ mineral water and the qualities of a healthy team sport. Because of its product range, for Gerolsteiner it was a logical choice to act as a sports sponsor—a choice that resulted in a positive image and good market results.
DOPING IN CYCLING—HARMING THE REPUTATION OF THE SPONSOR
Fabian Wegmann
The developments in the doping scandals of the past few months and years are still being followed intently by the public, the cycling teams and their sponsors. For example, the TMobile team1991—then still called Team Telekom— one of the best known and most successful international teams since the beginning of the contract with its sponsor in 1991, has experienced dramatic highs and lows. At first, the team achieved spectacular, lucrative successes. However, since the large-scale doping scandal during the Tour de France in 1998, when a car full of prohibited substances caused the Festina team to be sent home, cyclists and sponsors have suddenly been swamped with criticism. In 2007, cyclists and insiders came with revelations and apologies. Several members of the TMobile team were prominent among them. The confessions ultimately led to a wave of openness in the media. And yet the threat to the sponsors involved was by no means averted. The future of cycling as a commercial top sport remains uncertain as long as those responsible— people, organisations, politicians and doctors, point the finger at individual sportsmen. As long as they do not open the wider framework of the sport to discussion, nothing will change. Critics in the know point out that with new doping methods, such as genetic doping, only evidence of doping use can be provided and the offence itself cannot be eliminated. For as long as the personal lives of cyclists and their sponsors and consultants depend on the top performances of their teams, people will presumably be found who are prepared to systematically perpetuate the fraud. In November 2007, Deutsche Telekom finally ended its 16-year engagement as a sponsor of cycling. ‘We have opted to take this step to distance ourselves and the TMobile brand from the recent doping developments in sports and in particular, in cycling’ was the official explanation. Stephan Steins, Publicist
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identity are sophisticated instruments capitalising on the emotions of the public and making communications more intense. The presentation of the cycling team was modernised, and new norms were introduced for the design whereby the ‘experience’ of Team Gerolsteiner had clearly grown. The success of Gerolsteiner proves that their involvement with cycling, in combination with the strong positioning of the brand, was a very valuable investment for the company.
The central assignment was the further consistent elaboration of a recognisable and unique corporate design for the cycling team, which expresses the identity of the Gerolsteiner brand. It is precisely by sponsoring sports that a brand also acquires sentimental value. Design and an integrated corporate 215
Ultimately, in September 2007, Gerolsteiner opted not to continue its engagement with cycling because of the explicit connection of the ‘health brand’ with the image of a pure and honest sport, Gerolsteiner has a great interest in openness, in combating the use of drugs and the rehabilitation of international cycling. The recent events in relation to doping are not the only reason for Gerolsteiner’s decision. However, they have partly contributed to the fact that cycling has temporarily fallen in value as a platform for communication.
Corporate design The reference point for the design was that the individual cyclists would be clearly recognisable within the team. A new colour scheme was derived from the presentation of the Gerolsteiner Brunnen brand: several subtle shades of light blue. The striking appearance of the cyclists has been gratefully used for the marketing since 2004 (and the relaunch in 2007). The cyclists’ jerseys won a public award and, in the year in which it came onto the market, was the top-selling jersey. The readers of the German cycling magazine ‘ProCycling’ voted Team Gerolsteiner the most popular team of the year in 2005.
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From the very beginning, Gerolsteiner implemented an anti-doping policy that was strictly complied with by the team and which has turned out to be the only correct way. More than ever, it is required throughout cycling that the cyclists always and everywhere can provide a credible explanation for their honestly earned performances.
PROFESSIONALS WITH THE ABILITY TO BOND
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Aad van Dommelen Creation within established reference points and thereafter making the translation into workable solutionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; that is the challenge he has accepted in his 27 years as a designer. Originality thus remains of paramount importance. Aad is a controversial designer who has a strong command of the many disciplines in the field. As Creative Director at Total Identity, since 1999 he has been responsible for a large number of corporateidentity programmes and house styles. He studied graphic and typographical design at the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague, where he now lectures for the parttime study programme. He has won various awards and has published a book on design in communications, in collaboration with C. W. Coolsma.
Aatjan Renders The ability to bond is seen by Aatjan as drawing objects closer to him, filtering out the surrounding noise and evoking tension in the image. In combination with composition and technology, this should deliver a good photo but that is not always the case. There is also something indefinable, something that cannot always be evoked, but for which Aatjan strives. This is why he likes to photograph people. They have an ineffable quality. His goal is to invoke and strengthen this quality. Whether this should be called beautiful is not relevant, according to Aatjan. Beauty is not the reference point. You can make wonderful photos that no one can use. What he strives for is to deliver more than he is asked for. They are portraits with a twist. Twists are fine with Aatjan.
Alexandra de Bruijne Has worked for Total Identity since 2006 as a trainer and researcher. She studied social psychology in Amsterdam and Rome. She did an intervention-skills course and graduated with research into the occurrence of bullying in children. After her studies she moved to Portugal, where she was involved in the setting up of community-based intervention programmes for parents and children in schools. Back in the Netherlands, she studied the effectiveness of local security programmes and did research for various clients in the non-profit sector. The emphasis has always been on studying the way in which individuals and organisations can be motivated to change, including behaviourally. Alexandra has also worked as a freelance trainer.
Dennis Glijn Graduated from the School for Higher Education in Business and Administration (HEAO) and at the Netherlands Institute of marketing (NIMA C) and subsequently worked as a communications strategist for various national and international communications consultancies, clients in the business community, government and the non-profit sector. The emphasis has thus been on repositioning, on giving advice on communications strategy, on brand management and on the supervision of processes associated with change in the field of communications. Since 2005 he has worked as a Senior Consultant for Total Identity, where, among other things, he focuses on the changing motives of people and the consequences of those changes for the identity and target-group communications of organisations.
Dmitri Berkhout After graduating in Dutch Language and Literature at the University of Leiden, Dmitri worked for various communications consultancies for clients in business, government and the non-profit sector. The accent was on longrunning communications programmes. Since 2003 he has worked as a Communications Consultant for Total Identity, where, among other things, he focuses on positioning issues in the care sector.
Erich Sommer After a traineeship with Anton Stankowski in Stuttgart and a year as Creative Director for a graphics company, Erich started at Total Design in 1994. After a training period in Amsterdam he worked in the field of corporate identity until 1999 at Total Design Maastricht for Dutch and German clients. After the foundation of the German office at the end of 1999 in Cologne, he was a Project Leader and General Manager there until the end of 2002. Since 2003 he has been an autonomous partner within the Total Identity Group. At the beginning of 2006, he moved his office from Cologne to Bremen. In 2001, 2003, and 2004 he was a jury member for the ‘Red Dot Award’ of the NRW Design Centre in Essen. Erich studied graphic design at the Braunschweig University for Graphic Arts.
Evert J. Weide Works as an independent consultant for HRM Strategy in Doorn. The companies he works for need expertise at the strategic level. Evert therefore often functions as a sparring partner for management, supervisory boards, or owners. He has worked for the Government as a Personnel Manager, in business-services provision as P and O Manager, and until 1 January 2007 he was HR Manager at GITP International.Evert is also Chair of the Network of HR Directors and Managers of several Amsterdam Regional Bodies (ROAs) and Vetron Agencies and DGA of the Docentenbank in Zaanstad. Evert studied, among other things, Roads and Hydraulic Engineering at the Institute of Technology (HTS) and obtained an MBA in Strategic Human Resources Management. He is also a Member of the Order of Organisational Experts and Consultants and of the Dutch Centre for Directors and Commissioners.
Frank Kessel Studied Medicine at the University of Amsterdam. During his studies he worked as a reporter and editor for the Noordhollands Dagblad newspaper. After obtaining his degree in medicine, he opted for journalism and for ten years was one of the city editors of De Telegraaf newspaper. After being Editor-in-Chief for De Telegraaf he was Editorin-Chief for Sp!ts, News. nl, and a number of periodicals. At Capita, the agency for newsmakers, he was Client Services Director and, among other things, was involved in the introduction of ‘Generation Einstein’. Since 2006 he has worked as a Senior Publishing Consultant for Total Identity, where he advises organisations on publishing strategy.
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Edwin van Praet Studied graphic and typographical design at the St. Joost Academy of Graphic Arts in Breda. After completing his studies, he worked as a Designer for Tel Design in The Hague. Since 2003 he has worked as a Senior Designer at the Total Identity office in The Hague, where he is responsible for the development of corporate-design projects and the creative development of the branch itself. Among other awards, Edwin has won the Silver Lamp, was nominated by the Cannes Lions and had an annual report for the NMa honoured by the Graphic Culture Foundation.
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Edmond N. Wolff van Ravenswade Many organisations feel that the world is slipping through their fingers and from that perspective request a diagnosis. As an independent consultant, Edmond often performs a competitors audit. Ronald uses ‘evidencebased’ methods and focuses on professional management, the rational delegation of responsibilities, and a healthy economic business model. Ronald worked from 1985 to 1995 for the government and business as organisational and IT consultant. Since 1996 he has been an Interim Manager for companies, including start-ups, that wish to enter new markets. He graduated cum laude in organisational sociology, obtained an MBA and a post-doctorate in Artificial Intelligence and Telecommunications from the London Business School.
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Guido van Breda After completing his Graphic Design and Publicity studies at the Academy for Graphic Arts in Maastricht, Guido worked for various agencies as a Graphic Designer. In 1999 he came to Total Design as a Senior Designer. He is currently a Design Director at Total Identity, specialising in the translation of house style into cohesive and complete design and communication programmes. He is also Head of Tactical Design. He has won various awards, including the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Red Dot Awardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in 2002, for the revitalisation of the house style of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment.
Hans P Brandt Studied Visual Communication at the Berlin University of Art (UdK). Even during his studies, he was appointed as a teacher. In 1984 he was on the staff at the Institute for Visual Communication (Berlin). Between 1986 and 1988 he worked as a Designer for Gottschelk+Ash International in Zurich. He came to Total Design (currently Total Identity), in 1988, where he is now a Director/Shareholder. Under his leadership the agency has changed from an agency that was primarily engaged in design, into one that works on corporate identities. Underlying the activities of Total Identity are strategic investigations in the fields of identity, image and positioning and their communications and visual implications.
Hink Huisman Studied graphic arts and techniques at Minerva Academy Groningen and psychology at the University of Groningen, furthermore, visual communication at the State Academy for Fine Arts under Prof. Jan van Keulen. He started his first creative company under the name of Inter Design. After various large projects in the Netherlands, he entered into a joint venture with Minale Tattersfield in London, where he was involved with industrial design, packaging and the development of corporate creative strategies. His fondness for travel and other cultures brought him to, among other places, Africa and the Middle East. In Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, he steadily accrued clients but after constantly flying back and forth, he decided to settle in Riyadh in 1982. Later, he moved to Dubai, started his own company Image Creators and joined the Total Identity Network.
Inge Sijpkens Has worked since 2006 as a Consultant for Total Identity, where, from within the Government and non-profit market group she advises clients on the development of their identity and how to express it in their communications. Inge studied Communication and Public Administration at the Hanze University of Groningen and Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. She graduated after research in interactive policy formation in municipalities and studies in communications on the future accession of Turkey to the European Union.
Jan Dries Before Jan co-founded Gramma NV in 1989, he was a Psychology Teacher and Research Worker at the Centre for Applied Psychology. As a partner in Gramma NV he is responsible for the strategicidentity programmes of the agency. He advises companies and organisations in a broad spectrum of sectors, from power companies to government organisations. Moreover, in recent years he has been asked more and more to be Project Manager for internal and change communications. He focuses primarily on the motivational components of corporate identity. He is also a teacher in House Style with Kluwer Education and the Plantijn Association in Antwerp. Jan studied organisational psychology and then cultural anthropology at the University of Louvain.
Julius van der Woude Studied graphic design at the University for the Arts in Utrecht. After his studies he worked as Senior Designer for UNA Designers, where he gained a great deal of experience designing and implementing small and medium-sized identity programmes, Websites, and various communications resources for clients such as F. van Lanschot Bankers, Asko Ensemble/ Schönberg Ensemble, Koninklijke Swets, the National Archive, and the Ridderzaal. Since 2005 he has been a Design Director for Total Identity, where he is responsible for the creative quality of various publicity communications, such as corporate and sponsored media, newspapers, brochures and annual reports.
Jurriaan Fransman As Editor of the Financieele Dagblad newspaper he assisted at the birth of the cultural section and introduced sponsoriship of the arts to the Netherlands as Director of the Sponsors for Art Foundation. Jurriaan has also worked as Communications Manager for, amongst others, the Interior Ministry, Windesheim University, and the Municipality of The Hague. He has also been a consultant to politicians and management. In the eighties, Jurriaan was already writing about corporate image and identity. He currently publishes regularly and is attached to the University of Amsterdam, where he teaches the ethics of communications. He also gives guest lectures in the Netherlands and abroad. Jurriaan studied musicology and then communication sciences, majoring in media law.
Manuel Demetz Was born in Bolzano, Italy. He worked for Linklaters and Alliance in Germany, where, among other things, he was involved in mergers and takeovers. The first international gathering of Total Identity was the beginning of a close relationship. Manuel is responsible for corporate development in Italy, and works as a Strategic Consultant within the group. He currently also works as an academic researcher. He is engaged in corporate social responsibility and posttraditional ethics, among other things.
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Jennifer Tsai Jennifer is an expert in the field of branding. She has won fifteen awards in her field, including the iF, the ‘Red Dot Award’, and the Taiwan Design Award. Her passion for branding is reflected in her work not only as Vice President of the Royal Balibay International Centre, but as the Director of the Taiwan Graphic Design Association, where she is also involved in many successful and less successful brand experimental designs for the Asian market. Also, as founder and President of PROAD IDENTITY, she has designed the identity of top companies such as TWTC, LITEON, and NOVA. Jennifer is married and has two children. In her spare time it gives her great pleasure to be a member of the jury for various international design competitions.
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Jan Steinhauser Since November 2000 Jan Steinhauser has been Head of Total Communication, the PRand PA agency within the Total Identity Group. Research strategy development, public affairs and financial public relations are his most important areas of focus. He was formerly a Partner at Van Rossum and Partners and, from 1989 to 1994, he was Director of the ‘action programme’ of the Amsterdam Financial Centre. He previously worked for a considerable time with the Nederlandsche Bank in various positions. He has published on the fields of banking stock law, corporate law and communications. Jan also wrote economics columns for the newspaper Het Parool.
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Martijn Arts During his industrial design studies at the Technical University of Delft, in 1996 Martijn founded the Internet company ZaPPWeRK. In four years time, ZaPPWerK grew into a company with over 25 staff and took a new direction. It developed a contentand communicationsmanagement system in 1999, and launched it on the market separately, set up an organisation engaged in narrow casting in 2000, and launched a platform that communicates cultural locations using multichannel methods in 2001. Since 2006, ZaPPWeRK has been a full component of Total Identity, and the name has changed to Total Active Media. Martijn Arts is Director of this new organisation. Within Total Identity, Total Active Media provides services involving new media, such as the design and construction of Internet sites and concepts.
Peter Verburgt Studied political science and philosophy in Amsterdam and Warsaw. Peter worked as a journalist for several international newspapers. He also makes documentaries and films. He writes prose and drama and directs theatre pieces. His work is performed at home and abroad. In recent years he has been active as a developer and consultant on various spatial projects.
Renaat Van Cauwenberge As a partner in Gramma NV, Renaat is responsible for general policy and the marketing and sales activities of the agency. He co-founded Gramma NV in 1989. He is now a Delegated Manager. He is a master of philosophy and oral sciences, having graduated from the State University of Ghent. In addition, he holds a Masters in Management Training from the Vlerick School for Management. Renaat is responsible for general policy development at the agency and for the construction of knowledge with regard to corporate identity.
Rob Vermeulen Studied Graphic Design and Publicity at the Breda Art Academy and later in Maastricht. During his studies, he already started as an independent graphic designer (1976). Later, his design office was derived from this: Design Office Rob Vermeulen in Heerlen, which over the years has grown into one of the larger design offices in South Limburg, with 25 staff. His primary activity consists of concept development in the fields of graphic and packaging design. From 1982 to 1990, besides his activities within his office, he also functioned as an Applied Arts teacher at the University of Sittard. From 2004 to 2006, he was Chairman of the European Design Association, the PDA. Since the merger with Total Identity Maastricht in 2005, Rob has been General Director of Vermeulen Total Identity.
Ronald Wall Graduated in 1998 as an Architect from the Academy of Architecture in Rotterdam. He then graduated in Economic Geography from Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Ronald works as Scientific Coordinator for the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Studies (NWO). The relationship between scientific and design studies forms the basis of his work and is above all characterised by its theoretical and scaletranscending nature. He is also a teacher at the Berlage Institute and the Academies of Architecture in Rotterdam and Amsterdam and is a Guest Lecturer at the Ashridge Business School in London.
Stijn van Diemen Studied Dutch and philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. Stijn then worked as an editor and designer for various cultural and government institutions, and in 1988 founded the design agency and publisher Plano, which he led for almost ten years. He then held various positions at Tel Design in The Hague and lived and worked for two years in Spain. From 2003 he led the Total Identity branch in The Hague, focusing on supervising corporate-identity assignments for a wide market. Since 2007 he has been Co-director of Total Identity Amsterdam, where he focuses in particular on the international market.
Theo Deutinger Give an architect a board and four sticks and he will build a hut, while a joiner will make a table. The connection is what you see in it yourself. As an architect, Theo sees connections or combinations more as instruments of design. Combining elements as a method is eclecticism—a conscious mixture of styles. For him, it is not about this. In architecture, combinations present themselves, one makes use of the environment and reacts to it. What Theo finds interesting is friction, introducing something contradictory, perhaps even something that disturbs or irritates people. Because if there is consensus everywhere, then according to Theo, the conversation is soon over. He therefore seeks as many yes’s and no’s as possible. That is probably the ability to bond.
Vanessa Bandke Studied political science, media and communications sciences and sociology at the Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf. During her studies she already started her strategic consultation work at the communications advice bureau Deekeling Arndt Advisors (the former PLEON/BBDO Group). Here,she guided nationally and internationally operating clients with complex business changes and identity processes. In 2007 she moved on to BB&G+Klank Design in Hamburg. There, she was the driving force behind the transformation and sharper profiling of the company as a strategic branding agency for packaging & corporate design. She is a Director at Bandke+Klank | Branding+Design as of 2008.
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Stephan Steins Is a Publicist and Art Manager in Berlin. Since 1972 he has been intensely engaged with art and philosophy. Between 1979 and 1990 Stephan was active in the catering industry. Among other projects, he has worked on the development of the world- famous artist’s café ‘Restaurant Paris Bar’ in Berlin. From 1986 to 1990 he ran his own restaurant in Frankfurt am Main. After studying philosophy at Humboldt University in Berlin, he worked from 1992 to 1996 for the News Agency MediaPress in Berlin. Since 1997 he has been a freelance publicist and art manager, primarily for the legacy of the German Photographer Max Baur (1898 – 1988). He is engaged in the organisation of exhibitions and in journalistic work, marketing, and various media-design projects. Since 2004 he has worked as a freelancer for Total Identity, Amsterdam.
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Saskia Dijkstra From the market group real estate and spatial planning, Saskia advises clients of Total Identity in the development of their identity and on how to express it in their communications. Before this, at SCAN Management Consultants she was engaged in brand identity, positioning and communication for, among others, the Benelux Brands Agency and the Reprorecht Foundation. Saskia studied Communications Science at the University of Amsterdam and then worked for various advertising agencies on market research and communications strategy.
COMPANIES WITH THE ABILITY TO BOND
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Total Identity makes use of diverse disciplines and works when necessary in different ways together with other professionals. The network of Total Identity includes partner agencies abroad, subsidiaries of the Total Identity Group, and experts in subareas. The mutual exchange of thoughts proceeds both incidentally and structurally. Together, the contacts in the network of partners, contacts, and clients inspires us to new insights. The connection is: achieving ambitions. The ability required to bond for this is achieved through the selection of companies.
TOTAL IDENTITY
TI TOTAL IDENTITY
www.totalidentity.nl
www.totalidentity.it
Economic and social developments force organisations to constantly innovate and change. From a strong orientation towards their context, and based on a keen analysis of their identity and ambition, Total Identity supports service organisations with change processes and transitions. Total Identity functions as a think tank for diverse specialisations and we work from scenario development up to and including guidance at the project level. We provide an integral service, in which we link strategic advice to creative solutions. We approach positioning and communication issues from market research, knowledge of service provision, and the conceptual capacity that has long characterised the agency. We are continually investing in the development of innovative communications solutions in the field of design, issues management, multi-channel publishing and identity management, in keeping with the needs of organisations that recognise the dynamics of their market. Total Identity is part of the Total Identity Group, with branches in Amsterdam, The Hague and Heerlen and network partners in Antwerp, Bolzano, Bremen, Dubai, Lisbon, Seoul, and Taipei.
The Italian branch of Total Identity is located in Bolzano, Hermagor, where the agency has concentrated on organisational development, strategy and identity for many years. It also focuses on communication and design. From the beginning of our business activities in the province of Bolzano, there have been possibilities for growth. With the establishment of TI Total Identity GmbH in Hermagor, Austria, we have anticipated this growth and have taken the first step towards a new business infrastructure. Austria is an attractive location with access to the Alpine markets in Italy, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland; areas with a similar cultural identity. The primary team partners of GmbH are Manual Demetz, Managing Director, and Professor Oswin Maurer, Marketing Expert. The focus is now above all on the development of GmbH into a network company that makes optimal use of different areas of expertise within one brand: Total Identity, which will be a reliable partner for the development of change programmes for management, market positioning and business concepts.
BANDKE+KLANK www.bbgundklank.com
Total Active Media, the former ZaPPWeRK, develops and implements communications solutions for the Internet and does this from the viewpoint of ‘innovation in functionality and vision’. Since 2003, the company has been a knowledge partner of the Total Identity Group and is fully integrated as Total Active Media. Total Active Media devises, designs and implements communications solutions that use the active media, such as the Internet but also AV and mobile channels. Total Active Media does this while striving for ‘innovation in functionality and vision’. This requires the continuous influx of new talent and experienced colleagues.
The world is becoming digital. All forms of communication nowadays have an Internet variant. It seems obvious that organisations will also expand their own communications via the digital highway. However, choosing the right partner is tough. There are countless companies that can provide advanced technology and at least as many that understand communications. The combination is rare, however. AllCommunication Software provides it. The products and services it supplies arose from the collaboration of a communications agency and a Web-technology agency who subsequently developed their own technology. The basis for these products and services is the online communications toolbox MARK. It is not only technically stable, modular, versatile and very accessible—it has been exclusively developed for the problemfree management and maintenance of online communications resources. Another product of AllCommunication Software is i-Base. The house style, besides being the graphic representation of the organisation, is primarily an agreement: about use of colour, dimensions, printed matter formats, and so forth. To manage this, an online approach is much more effective. The agreements are accessible and updatable in one central place. The house style becomes transparent and orders and stocks of available resources are better organised.
Periods of economic hardship, financial resources becoming increasingly scarce and strong competition confront brands, and those responsible for them, with immense challenges. Distinguishing yourself is really important. Those who wish their brand to survive must, in the minds of those towards whom it is directed, call up a concrete image, an unambiguous promise of performance, a story supported by the core values of the company or product. Bandke+Klank see the key to success as follows: formulate simple messages and highlight these through design and communication. Insightful. Authentic. Compelling. Bandke+Klank is a successful German branding and design bureau from Hamburg, which has advised and guided national and international clients in the field of product and corporate brand design for more than twenty years.
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ALLCOMMUNICATION SOFTWARE www.allcommunication.nl
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TOTAL ACTIVE MEDIA www.totalactivemedia.nl
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GITP
GRAMMA
H+N+S LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
www.gitp.nl
www.gramma.be
www.hns-land.nl
GITP’s ambition is to create a productive interaction between people and organisations. Its knowledge of the assessment and development of people, which it has built up over 60 years, is used to allow individuals to function optimally. Individuals can never be seen separately from the context in which they operate. GITP has extensive knowledge of human nature, based on thousands of assessments and other studies that have been performed annually, it has a sharp eye for the organisational context in which people function, it is founded on a solid scientific basis in psychology and organisational theory, and it ensures innovative and qualitative HR solutions thanks to continual investments in research and development. GITP is heavily involved in the social sphere, and this is emphatically manifested on a number of different issues. LIFE is about age-conscious career policy. THE POWER OF BEING DIFFERENT is about the added value of multicultural diversity, while special products are also developed in the field of ENTREPRENEURSHIP. GITP currently provides international services via European branches and partnerships.
Enterprises that create (more) value are respected. The greater the respect, the easier it is for an enterprise to be successful. Positioning from identity is to clarify what ‘(more) value’ means. Together, we develop scenarios that focus on identity and translate it into a visual and substantive statement. Such issues are not resolved from within one single competence. They require a multidisciplinary approach and the integrated provision of services, in which strategic advice is linked to creative solutions. As a network partner of Total Identity, Gramma offers a multidisciplinary team of specialists and generalists: designers, psychologists, historians, philosophers, and production managers. We possess the necessary knowledge, experience, and expertise to resolve identity, design, and communication issues together with you. You can expect a large amount of dedication and a cooperative attitude from us. Our field of expertise requires this. Together with Total Identity, we constantly invest in the development of innovative communications solutions. In this way, we constitute an interesting alternative to advertising, PR, design, and marketing agencies.
H+N+S is an agency for landscape design, established in 1990. The agency operates on the front lines, seeks studies and experiments, and is always ready to make new discoveries in projects. In the work of the agency, beauty and utility are tied to each other. In many of the design issues, a balance is sought between a solid framework and more-flexible components of the design in which the use varies and the form has a temporary character. The work package is versatile, but has until now had a clear emphasis on spatial visualisation and strategic planning for the long term and on a large scale. Currently however, the proportion of implementation-oriented assignments is increasing. Thereby H+N+S is faced with the challenge of concretising and applying the ideas it has developed. Clients are market players; state, provincial and municipal governments; various interest groups, and private individuals. We often collaborate with other agencies that specialise in urban construction, forestry, ecology, hydrology, or public administration for example, as required by the type of assignment.
PENTASCOPE www.pentascope.n
Image Creators focus on local and regional companies and organizations in the Middle East that wish to obtain a larger market share in the region or on the world market. The company has been engaged in marketing, communication and design for 25 years and represents Total Identity in Dubai. Since July 2008, the company has been extended with an events and entertainment department, which concerns itself exclusively with local events and the booking of international artists.
Lavooij over Vorm is a young urban development bureau. The bureau originated from SAB Consultants, with which it collaborates closely in the elaboration of their plans. The company operates within a knowledge network with other consultants, including Total Identity. Lavooij over Vorm is engaged in concept development in the urban development field, as well as activities such as coaching and supervision. The bureau has extensive experience in housing planning (reconstruction, structuring and expansion), concepts for centres, business parks, office locations, shopping centres and locations for stations. Their customers are private developers, housing associations and municipalities. Concept development is seen by Lavooij over Vorm as an intensive process with the client, where the programme, image and local qualities (history, landscape) are united in a powerful and appropriate plan.
Pentascope specialises in implementation. Together with its clients, it makes changes, improvements and innovations. It supervises projects, contributes knowledge, or fulfils interim functions. Its network of professional staff is active throughout Europe. In the Netherlands it has nodes in Amersfoort, Amsterdam, The Hague, Eindhoven, and Groningen. Pentascope is a network organisation — that is, a flat organisational structure in which the communication lines are short. Networkers can quickly link up, unhindered by functional or hierarchical boundaries. At Pentascope it is about who you are. No secrets, no politicians, and speaking one’s mind is the order of the day. ‘Sincere’ and ‘honest’ are keywords.
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LAVOOIJ OVER VORM www.lavooijovervorm.nl
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IMAGE CREATORS FZE www.imagecreatorsme.com
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PROAD IDENTITY
SOMMER - TOTAL IDENTITY
STROOM
www.proaddesign.com.tw
www.totalidentity.de
www.stroomviainternet.nl
Since 1987, Proad Identity in Taiwan has been a multidisciplinary company that offers solutions in planning and implementing corporate identity, multimedia and websites, brand image & packaging design. Proad Identity also organizes events. It has been a partner of the Total Identity Network since the end of 2005.
The Sommer-Total Identity agency in Germany derives from Total Design Cologne, which has been active in the German market since 1999. Sommer-Total Identity focuses on the development of corporate-identity scenarios from the design, publishing, communications and identity-management disciplines. w
In this information era, attention is one of the scarcest commodities. Brands must also make more efforts to reach the right target group at the right time via the right channels. Insight into the potential of the target group and its media behaviour is also crucial to make the advertising efforts more effective. As a media agency, Stroom helps its clients to make the right choices by carrying out tailor-made studies into the motives of the target group and by deploying the most effective media in a distinctive, creative approach. All this comes from the knowledge that everything revolves around contact, where our experience and our sincere attention to our clients and their customers make the difference. In 2005, Stroom was proclaimed â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Media Agency of the Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.
TD Architects is an agency that produces and elaborates ideas and concepts for architecture, urban organisation, and global planning. To this end, the agency explores the boundaries of architecture. A great deal is involved in the creation of a building. Architecture must therefore be more than just the design of a certain programme. We sincerely believe that an architect must understand the whole process of creating a building, from the moment the architecture begins as an idea in the mind of our client, until the end of the lifetime of a building. Curiosity is the fuel that stimulates us. Everything is worth looking at and is equally important for the design and construction of a building, a city, or a new world map. As architects we are trained to simplify. We are experts in the creation of order in complex processes, such as the construction of a building or the organisation of a city, and in providing insight into contemporary global complexity. We call this combination architectureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the architecture of buildings, society, economy, and culture.
Brands move us. They inspire choices, behaviour, and a way of life, just as people inspire brands by their choices, behaviour, and way of life. This mechanism applies not only to products and services, but also to the originating customer, the companies themselves. Against this background, Vermeulen is part of the Total Identity Group and is developing into an integral provider in the fields of design and communication.
WALL DESIGN RESEARCH
Cities and their networks constitute the apogee of human ability and have at the same time radically changed the relationship between humanity and its environment. Cities are also highly dependent on each other and make up the integral components of an extremely complex worldwide system. Wall Design Research approaches sustainability issues from this philosophy. Via Ronald Wall, Wall Design Research is attached to the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and to the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Studies (NWO). Wall Design Research is an expert in the field of urban development and sustainability. It focuses on social, economic, and environmentally-sustainable development in urban areas.
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VERMEULEN www.vermeulen-totalidentity.nl
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TD ARCHITECTS www.td-architects.eu
CONTACT DETAILS OF TOTAL IDENTITY
The Netherlands www.totalidentity.nl info@totalidentity.nl TOTAL IDENTITY Challenging ambition Amsterdam Paalbergweg 42 P.O. Box 12480 1100 AL Amsterdam ZO Telephone +31 20 750 95 00 The Hague Mauritskade 5 P.O. Box 221 2501 CE The Hague Telephone +31 70 311 05 30 VERMEULEN Corporate, product and retail branding
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Marconistraat 13 6372 PN Landgraaf P.O. Box 6039 6401 SB Heerlen Telephone +31 45 531 90 90 www.vermeulen.eu info@vermeulen.eu
ALLCOMMUNICATION SOFTWARE Software development
Italy www.totalidentity.it info@totalidentity.it
Mauritskade 5 P.O. Box 221 2501 CE The Hague Telephone +31 70 311 05 43 www.allcommunication.nl info@allcommunication.nl
TI TOTAL IDENTITY Grieserplatz 6 Piazza Gries I-39100 Bozen Bolzano Telephone +39 348 1421 381
PARTNERS
Taiwan R.O.C. www.proaddesign.com.tw proad.design@msa.hinet.net
Belgium www.gramma.be info@gramma.be GRAMMA Gijzelaarsstraat 29 B-2000 Antwerpen Telephone +32 3 230 42 70 Germany www.bbgundklank.com info@bandkeklank.com BANDKE+KLANK Hans-Henny-Jahnn-weg D-22085 Hamburg Telephone +49 40 220 16 16
TOTAL ACTIVE MEDIA Creative Web development
www.totalidentity.de info@totalidentity.de
Paalbergweg 42 P.O. Box 12480 1100 AL Amsterdam ZO Telephone +31 20 750 95 00 www.totalactivemedia.nl info@totalactivemedia.nl
SOMMER â&#x20AC;&#x201C; TOTAL IDENTITY Blankenburger Strasse 26 D-28205 Bremen Telephone +49 421 43 733 16
PROAD IDENTITY 3F, No.42, Sec 2, Zhongcheng Road, Shilin District, Taipei City 111, Taiwan R.O.C. Telephone +886 2 2833 1943 United Arab Emirates www.totalidentity.com info@totalidentity.com IMAGE CREATORS FZE PO Box 4404 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Telephone +971 4 224 0135
TOTAL IDENTITY STAFF, DECEMBER 2007
Rik Hoving Rob Fabriek Rob Vermeulen Rob Walter Rosemarie Leenders Sascha Teschner Saskia Dijkstra Saskia Spier Sieds de Boer Solange Schlösser Sonja Greven Stan Heijnen Stéphanie Heijman Stijn van Diemen Susan Derks Susan Kruijer Sylvia Spel Thijs Dekker Tom Mittemeijer Tristan van Alphen Willemijn van der Houwen Yu Zhao Yvonne van der Wal
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Jeannette Kaptein Jeroen Veldman Jim Rutten Joachim Mädlow Joop Kaatee Jorg Kuijl Jorge Jordan Jos Castricum Julius van der Woude Kate Dobell Karola Grösch Kiauwke Kwee Krista Lahaye Kristel van den Boom Luc van Woensel Manfred Roosenstein Marc Lips Marcel Schuitevoerder Marco Bakker Marion Greve Marius van Zwijndregt Mark Lindelauf Mark van der Schaaf Mark Schuijt Martin Scholtz Martijn Doctor Maureen Raktoe Maurice Cuijpers Michael Greenler Michelle Castermans Mieke van der Wilt Mike Jungschlager Mohamed Moussaoui Nathalie van den Akker Niels Illem Noël Theunissen Paul Gadet Paul Monster Paul Wolfs Peter Feijts Peter Hovius Pieter Ritzen Pim Lorjé Remy Blom
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Aad van Dommelen Alexandra de Bruijne Annakathrin Nordt Anne-Marie Kaandorp Ardy Heijnekamp Arjen Firet Arnout Janssen Arthur Visser Arvid Smit Ashley Fisher Bart Janssen Bator Engelsman Bert de Wit Bill Wolters Brian Bibi Chantal Kirkels-Nouwen Chantal Slettenhaar Cindy Frencken Claudia Heijnen David van ‘t Westende Dennis Glijn Dmitri Berkhout Edo Visser Edwin van Praet Elisabeth Kroon Emanuel Wiemans Erik Olde Hanhof Erik Zwiers Etienne Wolfs Frank Kessel Frans Naus Fred Verburg Gery ter Velde Guido van Breda Hans P Brandt Hélène Søpnel Hub Knuth Hub Leclaire Ine de Vries Inge Sijpkens Irma Vermeulen-Ritzerfeld Jan de Groot Jan Steinhauser Jeanett Visser
COLOPHON
Editors in Chief Alexandra de Bruijne, Hans P Brandt, Sieds de Boer Design Aad van Dommelen, Julius van der Woude Image Processing Rik Hoving Project Management Alexandra de Bruijne, Kiauwke Kwee Photography Aatjan Renders Lettertype Oneliner Publisher Bis Publishers Het Sieraad Postjesweg 1 1057 DT Amsterdam Š 2008 Total Identity Paalbergweg 42 1105 BV Amsterdam It is unfortunately not possible to name everyone who has worked on these cases and articles. The final results came about thanks to the input of everyone at Total Identity. We have made every effort to arrange any copyrights in accordance with the legal provisos. Nonetheless, anyone who feels they have any valid rights can still inform us.
IDENTITY 2.0
is the step taken from being distinctive to being connected. The ambitions of organisations can only be realised by the grace of the world beyond, not solely by the efforts made within the organisation itself. To be successful, organisations must harmonise their ambitions to what the market and society consider legitimate. They must be able to predict what this means for their organisation, what it will require of it, and how it can anticipate this as it defines its ambitions. The better the organisation is connected to the world outside, the more successfully it can create its identity in parallel with this environment and continue to develop. Total Identity is a creative consultancy firm that focuses on issues of identity: working with clients to make the connection between ambition and context in order to translate this into the positioning and profiling of the client. The firm provides an integral service in which strategic advice is linked to creative business and communication solutions. Total Identity approaches positioning and communication challenges from the perspective of market research, its knowledge of services and the conceptual talents for which the firm is famous. Identity 2.0 consists of a collection of thoughts.Thoughts about organisations in their context. Thoughts about making connections. Thoughts that were conceived in conversations with clients, business relations and partners of Total Identity. The book focuses on realising ambitions, on personal experiences in this area, and on the development of these ambitions in positioning and profiling. Total Identity P.O. Box 12480 1100 AL Amsterdam Telephone +31 20 750 95 00 Fax +31 20 750 95 01 info@totalidentity.nl www.totalidentity.nl
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