STAGIS

17 fascinating minutes at the BMW Museum

"Fascinating!" I thought to myself the other day, as I looked at an art installation. Over the past two months, I've been studying BMW in Munich as part of my ongoing work on a book on authentic organizational identity, which I am planning to finish this spring. The time had come to visit one of the greatest brand museums ever. Back in 2004 the BMW Group decided to spend some 80 million Euro on the renovation and expansion of their corporate museum, initially built in the 1970's. Located in front of the tall BMW headquarters and across the street from the architecturally fascinating BMW World, the Museum looks like a giant tea-cup and would serve well as an iconic entrance to a museum of modern art in any metropolis. Here, however, it's not paintings that are on show, but cars and motorcycles. At least, that was my expectation.

Authentic BMW
The architecture of the Museum itself is a piece of art. The building is listed, protected by the German Government. I soon found myself happily surprised at the first installation. What seemed like a thousand silver pearls were floating in the air, changing from arbitrary swarm to orderly sculptures depicting the forms of old and new cars. When the BMW started the revamp of the Museum, they hired Joachim Sauter, a specialist in new and innovative media. "He told us 'Be authentic!'," says Dr. Andreas Braun, who is in charge of the communication of the 5.000 m2 museum and was deeply involved in the development of the museum throughout the 2000s. 

Value creation at the corporate museums

I spend most of the day with Marco Montemaggi, vicepresident of Museimpresa, the association of corporate museums of Italy. Companies like Ferrari, Ducati, Piaggio, Alessi and more than 40 others all have museums celebrating the culture and heritage of the company. Marco was one of the main forces behind the Ducati Museum founded in 1996. During the last years he has been consulting a number of companies and teaches at Alma Graduate School, a part of Bologna University.

I wanted to meet with Marco as he has been specializing in structuring and creating expressions of the heritage of companies. He talks (and writes) of four ways of using corporate museums:

1. Conservatory

2. Display

3. Valorization (utilization)

4. Cultural identity networking

The utilization and value-creation of the corporate museums are very different. Some have rebuilt a little part of every store around the world into a small museum, carrying the heritage into every outlet around the world. Others have huge museums that are primarily used internally (like Alessi and LEGO). Yet others, primarily american, see their museum as a direct source of income and sell tickets. Ferrari uses this model.

One or two of the last chapters in my book will be on corporate museums. At this point I think one will be on the internal effects and one on the external and image-creating effects.

A meeting with the Ducati talebans, visiting Minoli in Bologna

I’ve just gotten home from a wonderful day working on my book on organizational authenticity. I spend the last bit of the afternoon and the evening with Federico Minoli, former CEO of Ducati motorcycles since 1996. The last few hours going through books, pictures, drawings, videos and other memorabilia with Federico and his family in their home in the middle of Bologna.

Ducati is not only a very good example of an authentic company, struggling out of a financial crisis as well as an identity crisis. It is also a personal passion of mine. And even though I get more insights into the dynamics of the identity, the construction of the brand and the organizational culture than the average Ducatisti, I am more thrilled by the story, the passion and the motorcycles each time I work on this casestudy. It’s a story about holding on to your roots while constantly striving for world-class performance.

Federico Minoli is a story in his own right. Former P&G manager, manager for Benetton in the US and serial corporate turnaround doctor, he was appointed CEO to the legendary motorcycle factory in Bologna back in the days. Ducati was on the verge of bankrupsy, the factory was a mess. Three years later the stock had leaped from 30 cents to 2,90 dollars per share. When he first arrived at the factory everyone was throwing out history. Literally. Posters, drawings, motorcycle parts was dumped in the trash. But
what Minoli understood better than anyone else at the time was the value of the heritage of the company. And the balance of empowering employees to do experiments in order to reinvent the brand. Soon after there was established a corporate museum of the Ducati racing history, the production lines were renewed and production workers were cast as models for the company’s image campaign. When bankers asked for customer segmentation he sent a photographer around the world to take pictures of Ducatisti, the people that are not only riding Ducati motorcycles, but members of the Ducati tribe. The pictures did not only dismiss the idea of segmentation as well as undermining the imposed needs of the bankers, they became a beautiful book with portraits of the diverse group of people riding the worlds fastests motorcycles. Federico calls the most enthusiastic part of the fan-base ”Talebans” – there are not many of them but they will go through pain and agony for their mission which is all about the performance of their motorbike.

Tomorrow I’m meeting with Marco Montemaggi, one of the founders of the Ducati Museum, author on heritage marketing and vice president of the association of corporate museums in Italy. Greetings from the oldest university city of Europe from a Ducatisti.

Authentic road trip with Lego's Jørgen Vig Knudstorp

During the past three weeks I’ve been on a roadtrip with Lego. A mental and historical of the kind with Lego company and a literal one with CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp.

During the past year I’ve been studying a number of different companies in order to further define my conception of organizational authenticity and to find examples and practical implications of how you as a leader can help your company become more authentic. This time around, I was trying to find out how Legos identity has been rediscovered through the past four years and the outcome of the toy company has been turned from massive losses to impressive revenues.

Three weeks ago Jørgen invited me to join him as he was going to a Lego Fan event in Skærbæk in Southern Denmark. I rode my motorcycle to Jørgens place and joined him and three of his kids on what would most certainly have appeared as a family trip including the odd uncle.

I have heard about Adult Fans of Lego before, mostly from my friend Majken Schultz and her former PhD-student Yun Mi Antorini who wrote her thesis on brand communities with the adult Lego fans as the case in study. But I had never experienced the ’real’ Lego fans myself. Arriving in Skærbæk I was lucky to talk to a bunch of hardcore Lego fans who spans from babies to 80-year olds and on that particular day represented 12 nations who had all come to Denmark to participate in the Lego Fest.

What’s interesting to me is the fact that the Lego fans have been active in getting Lego back on track. As one Danish fan told me, ’Lego had forgotten what Lego was all about. You could buy a helicopter and the tail was in one piece. So you could do nothing other than build a helicopter with it. The very idea of Lego was disappearing and we tried to tell Lego.’ Luckily, they did listen and things changed. A number of employees were discussing the authentic strengths of Lego and the Lego experience with then newly-appointed CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp and they found out that the creative play within the building system of Lego was the most valuable authentic strength of the company. The focus on the construction process as the most precious part of the Lego brand was reestablished as was a number of initiatives, like fan communities, the possibility to order customized boxes of Lego and the revitalization of the initial founders’ credo ’Nothing’s too good for children’ (I don’t think I’m using the right translation here, but along those lines...). A value that was born by the founder and has more relevance now than ever. Simple as it may sound when I mention it in brief, the change has been enormous. Not least the economic impact. For three consecutive years the Lego Company has been presenting it’s best results since it was founded.

Yesterday I was interviewing Jørgen again. This time I flew to the Billund headquarters where we mapped the authenticity of Lego before heading off on another roadtrip including another late afternoon with the kids. I’ll leave the details. Let’s just say I suspect Jørgen of an attempt to turn my book into a sequel on parenthood. The title would be ’Authentic Parenting – How to Multitask Kids, Bricks and Business Authors’. During the next weeks I will be going through the talks as I leave part one of my book and start working on the next.

Visiting another authentic company, the legendary Ducati factory

During the past week I spent two days visiting a company that produces sexy, roaring, speedy beasts, the legendary motorcycle manufacturer Ducati in Bologna as they are a case study in my book on authentic companies. I was visiting creative director David Gross, author of 'Fast Company" about the turnaround of Ducati in 1997 and the years that followed, and Livio Lodi, curator of the Ducati Museum.

Ducati designs and manufactures the worlds fastest racing motorbikes and are known for their sexy design of fast, red motorcycles with superior technology. But in 1996 things didn't go too well at the Bologna-based factory. The financial situation was catastrophic and hundreds of unassembled motorcycles were standing around. It was a mess. An American capital fund took over the factory and two consultants were asked to turn around the company. Friederico Minoli and David Gross. They thought they were staying for six months but it turned into years as the world of motorcycles grew on them.

One of the things that turned the company back into a great succes (moving from a production of 11.000 units to more than 40.000 units a year) was the strategic use of the heritage of Ducati. When you ask about company values at Ducati, they will not tell you about "passion" or "service" or other such airy terms. They talk about dry clutches and the desmodromic system. Technical solutions that has helped these 2-cylinder italian beasts run faster than any japanese 4-cylinder machine in the run. The stories of past passion and victories helped the company recreate a strong brand that now attracts thousand of fans from all over the world. Both to online communities, to events (as the Ducati Week) and to the Ducati Museum, a 1.000 square meters of museum space displaying Ducati products from its start in 1926 up to the latest 1098 racing model.

If I wasn't a fan before (I was), I certainly became one after seeing the factory and the Museum and after talking to several employees and race bike journalists about the exciting world of speed, sexy design and "desmodromic passion".

Visiting Alberto Alessi and a life of design heritage

Display of all items in the current catalogue of Alessi products, centrally placed in the Alessi headquarters.

Entering Alberto Alessis office is like visiting a strange fusion of a writers refuge, the laboratory of an inventor and a living room full of the rich memories of a lifetime. The walls are filled with framed drawings by designers and artists such as Michael Graves and Richard Sapper. A polaroid shows Alberto and Philippe Starck enjoying the company of one another, laughing.

As I interview Alberto for my book on organizational authenticity he smokes cheroots and explains how he comissioned Salvadore Dali in 1971, during the first year he was in the family company. His father Carlos stopped the project immediately. Later the same day I am fortunate enough to see the single piece of art Dali got to develop for Alessi as Gloria Barcellini, the omniscient, sharp assistant of Alberto through fifteen years, shows me the factory and the chamber of treasures, the corporate museum. To my embarrassment - and Glorias amusement, I might add - I find myself exclaiming "What is it for?" as she shows me the Dali piece - a rare sight as it is one of many works that aren't displayed publicly. The title, Gloria explains, is something like "Object without function", a direct result of the mission of the then 24-year old Alberto, trying to bring art into the Alessi factory and make the company more exciting. He succeeded.
A decade later Alessi released a number of design-hits such as the Michael Graves kettle with a bird and Richard Sappers Espresso Coffee Maker 9090 which is on permanent display at MoMA and which I use at home on a daily basis. Alessi took off and became a world-famous design company.

Thousands of design objects produced since 1921 as well as drawings, memos and prototypes of all sorts are on display in Museo Alessi, the internal museum of Alessi. It serves as a source of inspiration and a collective memory of identity, ideas and solutions for the company. Unusual as it sounds the museum is not open to the public, the museum curator Francesca explained me. The primary function of the museum is to work as a tool for the management, designers and technicians as new products are developed and old ones are to stay true to their original idea. The museum stores some 17.000 items including prototypes built of paper and as I leave Francesca tells me that it's her anniversary the next day. It has been 10 years since she opened doors to the museum that store the heritage of Alessi.

There are a number of Italian corporations celebrating and actively using their heritage as an internal tool or competence as well as a marketing manifestation. The companies include such wonderful companies as Ducati, Ferrari, Alessi and Piaggio. Together with a number of other Italian corporate museums they've formed an association for corporate museums. There is one other association of the same kind, way smaller, in Portugal. Danish Carlsberg has a corporate museum too, but not nearly as comprehensive and, more importantly, not seemingly a significant competence for the development of organizational identity and corporate strategy, nor a seriously prioritized part of the expression of the corporate identity.

On the three dimensions of authenticity

In december we produced a small notebook that we've sent to our customers. I wrote an article for it in order to give everyone we're dealing with a chance to read a bit more about the ideas behind our concept of understanding the authenticity of organizational identities. If all goes well, the book should be published at some point during the fall 2008. You can download the article as a PDF here: Organizational Authenticity Article

If you don't have the time or feel the need, you might want to take this quote with you from Shakespears "Hamlet", which was the starting quote of my master-thesis in 2006:

Three Reasons why Authenticity is the New Customer Sensibility

Troels asked me to spell it out. Why is Authenticity important? And thanks for asking, Troels. Sometimes the simple questions are the most difficult and I certainly find this one of them. This is the argument and the reasons I've been able to come up with:

1. We're fed up with fakes. We want real people, real organizations and we want to deal with companies that take a stand and live by their opinion. We're tired of companies that do it for the money alone. A part of this touches on the issue of integrity.

2. We miss clarity in our own heritage and we want to deal with people and organizations that have heritage and history. We want goods and services that are (hand)crafted. We like what's original and what has a relation to roots and history. We like local people and local organizations.

3. We don't want mainstream. That's not an all together true statement but there is some truth in it. Most people aim for companies and organizations that stand out from the rest and are able of coming across with a unique identity and a unique message. The same crowd love innovators and their innovations. We like the avant garde, however different segments like different degrees of avant - some tend to stay behind the garde as it is safe and contains plenty of history and heritage.

Real World, Real Service
The need or authenticity is - of course - a reaction to the time we live in. The automation of the environments we interact with (in businesses as well as at home), the virtual worlds we travel through and the products and services we consume are not all authentic as they used to be. "Let's meet in Real World", "A Live Performance" and "Personal (or even "human") Service" are all statements or terms that people didn't use some 20-30 years ago. Back then, they didn't make sense. A performance was real per definition - as was service, delivered by a human and not automated at all.

All of the above is true for banks, windmill-producers, phone companies, theaters, bakeries, cafés, shopping malls, car dealers, the fashion industry, bio-fuel innovators - you name it. In my book I'll include a number of examples of companies that are inauthentic in one way or another - and some that just lack integrity.

A New Managerial Responsibility
One of the earlier customer sensibilities that turned into a management dicipline was quality. Before the 1950s there was a focus on getting the most for the least, that is, getting more goods at a lower price. Then consumers started to want quality and businesses had to start managing their quality. Hence Total Quality Management, kaizen, zero defects, Motorolas Six Sigma etc.

The danish writer Rolf Jensen got off well with Dream Society and Pine and Gilmore whom I share the interest in authenticity with have all been writing about the dream- or experience economy. They are describing the new sensibilities of customers and the demands that every business must live up to in order to be succesful, that is, the delivery of experiences rather than commodities, goods and services. The organizations' ability to deliver experiences as the thing customers pay for or as the mechanism that make customers like and want to interact with the business is another good example of a relatively new management responsibility.

One of the next managerial responsibilities that leading companies (especially the ones that have gotten big and lazy) will have to take is how they can bring their organizational authenticity to life in the perception that every customer, employee and other stakeholders have. What makes it much more difficult to deal with (and certainly to manage) is the complexity of authenticity. First of all it's about the entire company, meaning every department, process, employee, strategy, managerial decision. Wow, tough one. Secondly, authenticity is an individually perceived and contextually dependant factor. What I find authentic is different from what you think is authentic. And we'll both change our opinion in a different setting at a different time. But that doesn't make it less important - only more interesting a challenge.

Autentiske virksomheder drives af mening

Inspireret af Julies kommentar med spørgsmål til arbejdet med autenticitet, er her et par tanker til spørgsmål nummer to:

2. Den mening, organisationerne er drevet af, og den historie der udtrykkes, og dermed modtages af kunderne/borgerne/brugerne/leverandørerne, bliver vel opfattet forskelligt fra aktør til aktør?
Ja, både mennesker og virksomheder opfattes forskelligt i forskellige omgivelser og af forskellige mennesker. Identitet kommer af det latinske idem og handler grundlæggende om ensartethed over tid, om konsistens. Hvis ikke der er kendetegn ved min person som fx mit udseende og min måde at handle på (som forhåbentlig er relateret til mine intentioner og min måde at tænke på), vil det være svært at identificere, at jeg er den samme som før. Udover ensartetheden er det nødvendigt, at en identitet er distinkt. Jeg skal med andre ord adskille mig fra andre. Men uanset hvilket image og hvilke handlemønstre jeg er født med eller tillægger mig (eller bliver tillagt af den sociale og kulturelle kontekst jeg indgår i), så vil jeg blive oplevet forskelligt af forskellige mennesker, fordi de fortolker mit udseende og mine handlinger ud fra deres egen forståelsesramme. Det er med andre ord modtageren eller omverdenen der bestemmer, hvordan min identitet fortolkes eller forstås. Og da personer såvel som organisationer indgår i forskellige sammenhænge, bliver de opfattet forskelligt på forskellige tidspunkter, uanset at man som leder eller medarbejder i en virksomhed mener, at man handler ens.

Carlsberg i en anden kontekst
Jeg fik sådan et fint eksempel på kontekst-afhængigheden serveret af de studerende på forårssemesteret på modul-2 på Kommunikation i år. Jeg forelæste om min model til at beskrive autenticitet i organisationer og de studerende gav mig eksempler, som vi sammen forsøgte at tegne på tavlen. Vi diskuterede Carlsbergs identitet, som blev opfattet ganske enslydende af de studerende. Der var én der havde nogle ganske andre holdninger, hvilket jeg i første omgang med skam må indrømme at jeg overhørte. Det viste sig, at pigen der sagde os andre imod var fra Tyrkiet, hvor Carlsberg er et relativt nyt brand. Derfor var hendes opfattelse en anden end danskernes. Vi endte med at illustrere forskellen på Carlsbergs autenticitetsmodel i Danmark og i Tyrkiet. Autenticiteten i en organisations identitet opfattes altså helt forskelligt i en anden kontekst.

Autenticiteten kommer indefra
Den næste del af Julies spørgsmål handler om, hvor organisationens autenticitet så dannes. Autenticitet handler dels om arv og historie (derfor den nære relation til identitets-begrebet og konsistens), dels om at være styret indefra. Autenticitet kunne lidt frit kaldes "auto-entitet", altså "selv-eksistens" eller "selv-væren". Lige netop entitet er brugt meget i diskussionen af at være indenfor filosofien og senere indenfor organisationsteorien, fordi organisationer gennem tiden er blevet opfattet som identiteter i form af stammer og senere selskaber. Det er denne forståelse af autenticitets-begrebet der gør, at jeg taler om at være drevet af indre mening eller formål. Samtidig er der en række organisationsstudier der viser, at netop mening med arbejdet eller med organisationens eksistens er med til at drive ledere og medarbejderes handlemuligheder. Hvis ikke man forstår, hvorfor man skal udføre en opgave, er det svært at finde motivationen. Omvendt kan et formål, som man personligt synes er vigtigt være kilde til inspiration og virke motiverende.

Det vil nok være en overdrivelse at påstå, at virksomheder med en højere mening (høj-formåls-virksomheder, kunne man kalde dem - jeg må lige finde et bedre udtryk...) udelukkende er drevet indefra. For de problemer eller behov vi forsøger at løse eller tilfredsstille er jo for det meste udenfor virksomheden og dermed er organisationen begrundet i sin omverden. Men når jeg tænker på Virgin eller et mere dansk entreprenant eksempel som Skype, hvis grundlægger har været meget i medierne den sidste uges tid, så er det bestemt en "indre mening" der har været drivkraften. Det samme synes jeg gælder, når jeg taler med medarbejdere i Kræftens Bekæmpelse. Eksistensberettigelsen er betinget af en sygdom, men det er meningen med at bekæmpe den, der giver drive, motivation og en autentisk identitet. Det samme gælder, når Janus og Co. kunne se potentialet i at tale i telefon via internet. De kunne gennemskue en forretningsmulighed og et behov, men der ligger en stor portion holdning og et indre drive i rent faktisk at forfølge idéen. Det er autenticitet baseret på mening og står i modsætning til at lytte til omverdenen eller følge mainstream.

Er snakken om autentiske virksomheder kejserens nye klæder?

Julie skrev på baggrund af artiklen i Djøf-bladet en lang kommentar i går med 4 overvejelser, som jeg blev rigtig glad for. De spørgsmål jeg får til arbejdet med autenticitet i organisationer virker som brændstof til at drive processen videre og tænke over de udfordringer der er i emnet. Så først og fremmest tak for det, Julie! Jeg skal prøve at give dig mine syn og holdninger på dine meget interessante spørgsmål og dilemmaer. Lad os tage det første punkt:

1. Har en organisation en sjæl?
Gennem en årrække brugte jeg og mine medarbejdere udtrykket sjæl (endda "soul" fordi vi i mange sammenhænge skriver på engelsk) om den særegne identitet der hersker i en organisation. Den selvopfattelse, som alle i organisationen kan genkende og som lever i myter og fortællinger, men som ikke nødvendigvis (nærmest sjældent) bliver medtænkt og udtrykt i virksomhedens strategi og kommunikation. I virkeligheden kunne vi også have talt om den organisatoriske identitet og organisationskulturen, men "sjæl" har den fordel, at alle uden forkundskaber synes at have en fornemmelse af, hvad der menes.

Det samme spørgsmål kan man stille om identitet. Har en organisation reelt en identitet? Eller er overførslen fra menneskers identitet til virksomheder noget abstrakt, som blot tjener det formål at vi kan tale om organisationen på en måde vi forstår? Det bliver straks værre når vi taler om sjæl fordi vi dermed trækker på et symbolsk eller endda religiøst udtryk, som der vel næppe er nogen enighed om, hvorvidt eksisterer? Sjælebegrebet ser jeg mest som en metafor og det kan blot gøre nogle komplekse socialpsykologiske relationer og systemer i en organisation til noget der er let at tale om. Om der så virkelig er en sjæl gør knap så meget for mig. Det vigtigste er, om begreberne kan gøre en forskel og sætte os i stand til at diskutere sammenhænge eller forskelle i organisationen, som vi vil udnytte eller ændre for at skabe for eksempel trivsel, nye relationer eller vækst.

Til gengæld er jeg sikker på, at en virksomhed kan være drevet af mening. Og ledere og medarbejderes evne til at definere grundlaget for virksomhedens eksistens og formidle den giver i stigende grad udslag i kunder, potentielle medarbejdere og andre stakeholderes holdning til, hvorvidt virksomheden (det gælder både private og offentlige!) er attraktiv. Når virksomheder har et særligt formål, som rækker ud over sin egen eksistens og økonomi, og den formår at eksekvere formålet i handlinger, øges vores opfattelse af virksomhedens autenticitet. I går aftes sad jeg og arbejdede med en tekst for Novozymes, som jeg synes er en "high-purpose"-virksomhed. En lang række af de produkter og udviklingspotentialer, som Novozymes har, mindsker gennem brugen af enzymer CO2-udslip, syreregn, udledning af sulfitter osv. At virksomheden så også er god til at tjene penge tager jeg som udtryk for, at man har en større chance for at få vækst og succes på markedet hvis man har et højere formål. Et højere formål kan nemlig potentielt skabe fokus, retning og mening for medarbejdere og er samtidig betydeligt lettere at brande end en virksomhed uden mening eller formål. Det er en vigtig del af det jeg kalder Refleksiv Autenticitet.

Og hvordan ved jeg så, at jeg som konsulent har udvalgt den "rigtige, mest autentiske del af historien", spørger Julie. Det ved jeg, fordi jeg undersøger medarbejdere og lederes historier, gennem interviews. Her handler det ikke om storytelling, som ellers har været meget fremme de seneste 10 år netop med det formål enten at formidle ønskelige historier internt og eksternt, men derimod hvad der kan kaldes Storylistening (ordet er vist endda trademarked af Schindl, Rughase Partners, som jeg har blogget om før) - altså at lytte til historier i organisationer med det formål bedre at forstå de opfattelser af den organisatoriske identitet der hersker i virksomheden. Disse opfattelser danner nemlig en ramme for, hvilke aktiviteter (strategisk, servicemæssige, innovationsmæssigt, kommunikativt) det er muligt at eksekvere med organisationens anerkendelse og opbakning. Hvis vi gennemfører et design- eller kommunikationsprojekt med en klient, er disse rammer afgørende for, hvad vi mener der kan skabes uden at ødelægge integrationen med de processer der allerede eksisterer i virksomheden.

Modsætningen er, som Julie skriver, at "smøre tykt på". Det er for det meste det man gør, når man reklamerer. I reklamen er der nemlig ingen grænser for, hvilke positioner, fordele eller USP'er der er tilladte. Bortset altså fra loven. Men indtil videre findes der hverken et integritets- eller autenticitets-afsnit i markedsføringsloven. Find på noget spændende og massekommunikér det med størst mulige frekvens, lyder parolen. Men højfrekvente reklamer uden afsæt i organisationens virkelighed er bare blevet så fantastisk ligegyldige for de fleste målgrupper og har mindre og mindre effekt. Og dermed er vi nået til spørgsmål 2....