The brand ambassador

Producing a unique and compelling marketplace identity requires that the brand message be consistently and coherently expressed through the actions of everyone in the organization.

It is a matter of business leadership to build a team of Brand Ambassadors so that each and every employee contributes towards a consistent and coherent image of the company.

Creating the Brand Ambassador calls for the adaptation of sound management and governance practices and a renewed emphasis on organization learning signature hallmarks of an effective organization.

The key to understanding this path to an effective organization lies in understanding that effectiveness is not something delivered to an organization.

It is built from the ground up by a focus on the mission and purpose the identity of the organization expressed in a consistent and coherent way the brand.

It is a continuous process based on an ideology and values system for growth, change, and renewal.

As an organization is the sum of its people, the actions, behaviors, and attitudes of each individual must align with the organization's coherent identity.

Each person contributing to the organization must be valued as a Brand Ambassador contributing to the effectiveness and growth of the organization through their own growth and learning.

These ideas are not new.

James Martin calls it Enterprise Engineering.

It's TQM.

It's stick to the knitting.

It's kaizen.

It's Kurt Lewin's legacy to management.

Even the nonprofit sector has noticed.Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), an association of more than 600 funding institutions and individuals, defines organizational effectiveness as "the ability of an organization to fulfill its mission by measurably achieving its objectives through a blend of sound management, strong governance and a persistent re-dedication to assessing and achieving results."GEO's Theory of Change articulates the effectiveness movement, describing how modifying organizational behaviors will ultimately transform the entire system.

Identity is the critical first and most difficult issue for organizational cohesiveness."Who am I?" and "What am I here for?" are not simply "to make a profit."The business has a purpose, a special contribution to society, a reason for being that can drive its personnel towards individual growth that grows the company.

This mission and purpose is not static but rather a dynamic understanding of a living and growing organization.

Brand is the expression of identity.

The purchase of a logo or a slogan is a top-down imposition of a brand component that is easily subject to commerce.

It is only successful if it meets the bottom-up expression of the business identity that the customer sees in contact with the company representatives.

This expression of the business identity by its personnel is not so easily subject to commerce.

It cannot be imposed.

It must be built and maintained and adapted and utilized.

Expressing a clear and consistent message about who you are, what you do that makes you special, and why anyone should care is the essence of the brand message.A properly branded organization conveys a strong,wellrecognized marketplace identity that acts like a magnet, attracting the full support and confidence of its employees and customers.

Effectiveness is not imposed upon an institution from outside; rather, it grows from within.

Any transformational system selected by an institution must necessarily acknowledge the value of each individual while appealing to contributions to the organization as a whole.

The traditional approach to organizational advancement and effectiveness is often to seek out commodity solutions in training, skills development, counseling, or other methods that tend to treat humans as receptacles to be filled with knowledge or otherwise manipulated.

Results are short lived but perhaps long remembered and often provide a glow of satisfaction that is personally appealing but has little impact on the fundamental problem of business effectiveness improvement and growth.

What is needed to supplement the training effort was described by Dr.Michael Hammer in his article "How to Sell Change" for Optimize magazine.

He wrote: "Education is different from, and complementary to, traditional training.

Training emphasizes 'how'; it helps people develop the skills to perform their jobs in the aftermath of the change.

Education provides the 'why' - the reasons for the change.

Both are necessary, and neither is sufficient on its own." (Optimize, issue 22, December 2001.)

Training and education lead to the third concept in developing organizational growth and effectiveness.

This is the capability maturity model of continuous development.How does a business make a habit of bringing together its mission and purpose with its employees and representatives to express a coherent identity as a powerful brand as it grows and changes and develops over time? As in any activity, things will happen.What you want is for them to happen in controlled fashion that is efficient and contributes to the health of the organization.

This means active leadership and management.

This means planning, budgeting, accountability, communication, feedback, course correcting, and a longterm outlook for short-term goals.

It is entrepreneurship and business development.

In the original business plan, the identity and purpose of a proposed business is defined as a statement.

This is the brand.

The venture capitalist will look at this but will often place more value on the management team.

This is because the management team is the core of the business identity.

The business plan is the first step in asserting control over the crucial matter of establishing coherence between identity and brand for the business.

As the business grows, so will its identity.

It must be groomed and nurtured as new people are added to the business, as new technologies influence its processes and its products, and as social change influences its customers.

All of the parts and pieces must be pulled together to focus on success and effectiveness.A mature organization builds its employees and representatives into Brand Ambassadors who can carry this process forward with effect.

Bryan Leipper, principal of Leipper Management, an association management company in Washoe County, presents the Coheridy Project to enhance effectiveness in organizations.

Contact him at bryan@coheridy.com.