09.03.2022, Guest article in the entrepreneurial handbook.

Change through the Power of the Brand

How owner-managed companies can use their own brand as a compass and catalyst for their own transformation during periods of personnel upheaval.

How do we manage digitalization? How do we operate successfully in a labor market characterized by "New Work" and a shortage of skilled workers? And what can we do to combat climate change?

We are currently experiencing a phase of fundamental upheaval - technological, social, economic and ecological. Transformation is the order of the day. This is a particular challenge for companies in particular. Of course, every change always brings with it opportunities, but also risks and imponderables. However, we know from our daily work as brand consultants that, especially in these phases of transformation, a company's own brand can become a valuable design tool.

Because brands can provide an essential lever to support or even initiate a necessary change process in a company. After all, a new and convincingly positioned brand helps a company to define its own future goals more clearly and to realize them more quickly. Because a brand can emotionally "grab" the people of an organization. Because it can convey and mobilize confidence.

The brand as a compass and catalyst
When undertaking a major corporate change project, those responsible should always think about developing their brand further in order to use it as a compass and catalyst for their own company transformation. Because brand management is ultimately always the connection between origin and future. The transformation of a company must take place in this field of tension.

The transition from the origin to the future is often particularly critical for many founder- and owner-managed companies as well as family businesses. This is because the founder or owner often represents the company in one person. Their personality, their values ​​and their spirit shape the company culture and thus also the brand - both internally and externally.

But what should be done when these influential figures leave the company, e.g. for reasons of age? How can the company personality be decoupled from the person of the founder and sustainably transferred into the future?

Confidently into the post-founding era - the example of iteratec
The software and technology company iteratec faced exactly these questions. The successful medium-sized company with headquarters in Munich was founded in 1996 by Klaus Eberhardt and Mark Goerke. When, after 25 years, the two thought about a medium-term succession plan that would suit the company culture, they ultimately decided on an approach that was as unusual as it was clever: Firstly, Eberhardt and Goerke founded a cooperative together with interested employees, which gradually takes over the shares of iteratec GmbH - the employees thus become co-owners and the long-term independence of the company is thus ensured. And secondly, they specifically focused on the role and relevance of the company brand.

The goal: to permanently maintain the special spirit that has established itself in the organization and is viewed internally as a key success factor.

A binding brand identity should condense this spirit, the lived values ​​and sometimes unspoken principles of the company and institutionalize them independently of the person: as a memorable and binding compass of values ​​and attitudes that gives employees orientation. And this also signals to the outside world: Even if the formative founders are no longer on board one day – iteratec will remain iteratec.

Because thanks to the branding process that was initiated, a cultural identity exemplified and lived collectively by the founders became a clearly described and intensively communicated brand identity – as a permanent and motivating orientation framework for all employees and a fixed star in the context of the corporate transformation as well as for future changes. And also for people who will only join the company in the future and will never get to know the founders who are still very present and shaping the culture today.

From "Competence that relieves the burden" to "Developing Digital Champions" We were able to support iteratec in the development and formulation of this brand identity, which was ultimately "translated" into a new, modern and independent corporate design. The old claim "Competence that relieves the burden" was replaced, both internally and externally, by the much bolder and more progressively formulated ambition "Developing Digital Champions".

This also sets the direction and self-confident tone for the newly defined brand values: the basic attitude of "constructively independent", the performance promise of "permanently excellent" and an "inspiringly bold" style - a pointed and future-oriented expression of both the lived culture and the clear orientation towards customer benefit.

On this basis, the brand can have a strong guiding effect in the future and help to maintain and further expand the company's attractiveness and innovative power. Because even if the personal expertise of the two founders will be missing in a few years, the brand values ​​and ambition still offer those responsible at iteratec clear guidelines for decisions.

In addition, the brand identity was also interpreted specifically for the role as an employer in order to transfer this "spirit" noticeably and purposefully to success-critical topics such as recruiting, personnel selection and further development for potential and existing employees.

The iteratec example makes it clear to us: The brand can effectively contribute to capturing the spirit of a company and its founders or long-term owners without being trapped in the past. Because correctly formulated, the brand is not only an expression of the status quo, but also an important source of inspiration for the future.

Especially for a company in a transitional situation at the top, it can be worthwhile to bring unwritten "laws" and lived values ​​to the point in a binding way and to keep an eye on where the journey should go next. This gives an organization stability and security on the one hand, and inspiration and confidence on the other.

»Brand makes it possible« – a branding guide by practitioners for practitioners
We have compiled further background information on the iteratec case in our new book »Brand makes it possible«. Here we also use many other practical examples to show how important and useful the corporate brand can be as a facilitator of successful transformation.

For example, using the example of the automotive supplier MD Elektronik, we show how a classic hidden champion in the provinces became a sought-after employer among applicants with targeted employer branding. And that the culture, values ​​and brand of a company are not »social romanticism«, but essential for its success and for the ability to assert itself in highly competitive markets. Because it is worth relying on the power of the brand.

The book »Brand makes it possible« was published by Wiley and is available everywhere in stationary and digital bookstores. (Find out more here: Brand makes it possible)

Authors: Sebastian May & Christopher Wünsche
Published in "The Entrepreneur's Handbook", Wednesday, March 9, 2022.

Link: https://das-unternehmerhandbuch.de/wandel-macht-der-marke/