2008

Authentic or Not?: A Men’s Organization with a woman member

June 5, 2008

Tweet Recently, I told you about an organizational situation that raises some interesting questions about whether the organization is being authentic. The organization, a Men’s Chorus, has up to 249 male members and 1 woman member, my neighbor Joan Garry. I proposed that this organization is either very special or very inauthentic” how else could […]

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Authentic Food Organizations: Why I love my CSA

May 29, 2008

Tweet Spring is here, and I’m in love again… with my CSA. CSA as in “cyber-spouse avatar”? No, CSA as in Community Supported Agriculture. It’s a group of us — 55 families, Farmer John (that’s John, below), the five or so employees of John’s Starbrite Farm, and 20 weeks of organic produce. [Quick introduction: Community […]

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Authentic, but how? What questions would you ask this organization….

May 21, 2008

Tweet Readers- I found a great story in my local paper about a woman in my town who sings in a men’s chorus. Yes, you read that correctly–She is in a Men’s chorus. While not exactly like the photo, above, I think the ratio in this chorus is at least 75:1 men to woma n. […]

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Suspicious of “Authenticity”, women challenge Dove ads – Again!

May 12, 2008

Tweet The latest controversy over Dove’s "Real Women" ads shows just how suspicious we are of organizations that claim they have become authentic and honest, after showing themselves to be neither. You may already be aware of the two previous controversies related to Unilever Corporation’s Dove "Real Women" ad campaign . [Jump to previous post […]

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Previous Authenticity Controversies re: Dove & Unilever

May 11, 2008

Tweet Can Dove / Unilever be thought of as ‘authentic’? 1. Dove makes and sells products to ‘fix’ women’s beauty problems, and contradicts the messages it intends to send in the "real beauty" campaign. These unreasonable standards of beauty hurt women and girls . CBC’s Street Cents "examines whether Dove wants to turn beauty standards/stereotypes […]

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B Corporations: Video Clip

May 10, 2008

Tweet Here is a video clip of Andrew Kassoy, a co-founder of the B Lab (the non-profit that has set up the B Corporation structure) speaking at a Stanford Entrepreneurship seminar in February of 2008. It’s interesting to hear the argument behind the B Corporation straight from the folks who thought of it! Marrying Socially […]

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B Corp Identity: An Opportunity for Organizational Authenticity

May 1, 2008

Tweet What are for-profit organizations to do, if they want to pursue social purposes and be authentic? Until recently, organizations facing this authenticity dilemma had three options. They could: Attempt to manage the incongruence between their actions and their identity, and forgo authenticity, Resolve the inconsistency by giving up for-purpose actions and become an authentic […]

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The Authenticity Paradox of Gilmore & Pine

May 1, 2008

Tweet The authenticity paradox , as defined by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II in their book "Authenticity: What consumers really want" , contains the following axioms: If you are authentic, you don’t have to say you’re authentic. If you say you’re authentic, then you’d better be authentic. It’s easier to be authentic, […]

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Can a for-profit business organization that also pursues a social purpose be authentic?

April 24, 2008

Tweet There are so many examples of for-profit organizations whose for-purpose actions are suspect that it’s a little scary to bring up the subject. Where do we even begin? We should probably start by acknowledging that the questionable relationship between a ‘for-profit’ organizational identity and ‘for-purpose’ actions (aka: non-profit, socially responsible, charitable, philanthropic, etc.) is […]

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3 Questions for a “Quick and Dirty” Assessment of Your Organization’s Authenticity

April 12, 2008

Tweet An authentic organization, very simply, is an organization whose identity, image and actions are congruent with each other. Identity is reflected in image and actions, Image accurately describes identity and actions, and actions express identity and image. How can you know whether and how your organization is authentic? It takes a deep inquiry and […]

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