Tag: values
-
Is there a Business Model behind that Values Statement?
There are many fledgling businesses that have laudable intent and shaky commercial foundations. This is a problem because, in an ideal world, the businesses that stand for values we share should also be able to sustain themselves as businesses. That’s the key premise underneath social entrepreneurship and conscious capitalism. Purpose-driven organizations need compelling values, but they also need coherent…
-
Measuring Meaningful Differences: College Rankings and Identity
Here’s a mini-exam for you. College ranking systems are: A. A great way to sell magazines and get your publication’s name in the news B. A scam that preys on the social and economic insecurities of educational organizations C. A somewhat-helpful guide to prospective students D. A process that is entirely gamed by the organizations…
-
Girl Scouts Rebrand Their Cookies: “Every Cookie Has A Mission”
The Girl Scouts have been busy with their organizational re-branding efforts. With the start of the 2010 Cookie Season, they have a new branding campaign specifically designed to make Girl Scout cookies meaningful. Back when I wrote the post Wal-Mart Knocks Off the Girl Scouts, about Walmart entering into competition with the Girls Scouts on…
-
Response to 9/11 Tragedy Revealed Business Schools’ Values
You will read many stories today recounting the heroism and the losses experienced eight years ago. We know now how many individuals and organizations rose up to help victims of the WTC & Pentagon attacks, and how individually and collectively our responses to the 9/11 tragedy revealed important goodness deep within us. Every year at…
-
The Only Harvard Business Review Article You Need to Read
Rarely am I inspired by the Harvard Business Review. Despite Harvard Business Review’s efforts to revamp their print edition (with a zippier format, hip graphics and bite-size summaries) and to expand their online initiatives, HBR has always felt behind the times. Even when HBR has addressed issues critical to my own research or summarized the…
-
B Corporations and Employer Branding
Branding your organization as being "for purpose and for profit" might help you attract just the right kind of talented job applicants. At least that’s what the HR Folks at Reece Computer Systems seem to believe. In their job posting for a Consulting Engineer , Reece Computer Systems not only describes the position and the…
-
Obama’s Website Made Me Cry
It moved me from intent to action. It snuck past my shield of cynicism. It struck me at the core of what I care about. And it made me remember that what really connects people and organizations is the chance for them both to be authentic. What hooked me wasn’t the way the Campaign organization…
-
Homophobia and (In)Authenticity at Omnicom: What can a leader do?
I am struggling to understand the pattern of reactions to a recent critique of an organization’s authenticity. Bob Garfield, writing in Monday’s (7/21) Advertising Age, has an Open Letter to Omnicom President-CEO John Wren, asking Wren to look at the contradiction between Omnicom’s public Statement on Corporate Responsibility and the homophobia represented in three recent…