I promised to discuss The Zechariah's STK Model for re-branding.A little recap might refresh our memories of last article:Reconfiguring Corporate Culture: A Fundamental of Re-branding.Last time we discussed that reconfiguring a corporate culture is vitally important for a successful re-branding.Remember what Tony Hseih, former CEO of Zappos.com, the online shoe retailer, said: Your culture is your brand.Also, we delved into how the vision of the business leader births the values to drive the vision,and that these values culminate into the culture of the company.The confusion heaps when there is a moral infection which becomes a nuisance to the company's image, and when on a large scale flings a strangle-hold on organizational success.Reworking such culture can be challenging.I promised to bring the biblical analogy of taking away the grimy, grubby garments for the rich,royal robes in the light of re-branding inside-out , or better still reconfiguring the corporate culture.The Zechariah's STK Model has three phases compressed into a value chain for the reconfiguration project- STK means Strippers' Act, Turbaning The Head and Know The Command
Strippers' Acts
"...Take away the filthy garments from him. And to him He said, "See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes."
It is rare to see any changes commence without defining the objectives and identifying possible challenges. In context of this topic, there are some strippers' acts which must be done,cascading from the business leaders to the lowest ranking employee of the company. Stripper's job you imagined, right? This is identifying, admitting and administering the iniquitous,unprincipled and unhealthy workplace culture that have cloaked the people,the practices and the processes. The significance of the priests being stripped of his own filthy garments is strategic, just like the leadership of the company are the ones qualified,more than anyone, to envision the future. Therefore, certain personal behaviors strapped with incivility should, or rather must be stripped off. Do you know why? Your greatest asset is human capital, and devaluing them is counterproductive. Esther Dyson said, " Owning the intellectual property is like owning land: you need to keep investing
in it again and again to get a payoff; you can't simply sit back and collect rent." The visionary leader must at all times carry or wear a rich robe of inspiring identity. That identity is your brand. It would be parochial to misunderstand this wearing-a-rich-robe identity as wearing some expensive designer's clothing. A rich identity is in our character, culture and value system.
Stan Gault, having retired from Rubbermaid Corporation, was given a CEO's job at Goodyear Tire to revamp the crippling performance. He immediately sent messages to employees that he was on their side.He acted so,too. He ensured his pay commensurated Goodyear's performance. He unscrewed most of the light bulbs in the large office he inherited in order to reduce costs. The news spread like wildfire across Goodyear. Employees did not realize he would be sacrificing too when Gault asked them to slash expenses. What an inspiring identity!
Turbaning The Head
"So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him."
How do you reconfigure or manage the ailing parts of a company's culture,having at the back of your mind that employees, other than high-profile celebrity are your first brand ambassadors? Your customers don't meet and greet,or encounter the celebrity you signed up for your brand, at the front desk.
Which staff inclusion style do you employ in relation to the drivers or evangelists of this new vision? Top management executives and senior managers are not enough to drive this change.It is pertinent to co-opt a few influential junior and senior supervisors who have touch with the lowest ranking employees. This works like the magic of using social media as a viral traffic tool for a B2C model.
What communication model or structure are you going to apply to disseminate this project of culture change across the company at the heels of previous futile communication flaws experienced with the rightsizing exercise last quarter?
Can we afford this project right now, and how does it affect our bottom line?
These and many more are the issues that pop up in the head of the business leader.And having his mind,heart or head clear, leveled, and upright becomes useful for brainstorming and an added plus for value stream mapping and decision making.They wrap all these into what Management people call Strategic Planning.But ask yourself this question:Can there be any planning without thinking? Strategic thinking is a competency thought leaders exhibit during critical moment.See it more like an input- a fundamental for change management.
Little wonder a clean turban was put on the priest's head first, and the clothes afterwards, in the verse above. Turbaning the head is to separate the leadership, not relational but as a representative who bears a huge burden of the people before God.Likewise the business leader is wrapped with layers of issues of the workplace.He returns communicating or sharing a new vision,often times demanding a new direction to maximize the future.There obviously is a significance with the turban.Developing a strategic concept demands strategic thinking and strategic intent.How to let this new vision rob on or clothe the whole company/corporate body depends on the strategic planning of the head.
Keeping The Command
"...And if you will keep My command, then you shall also judge My house"
It's not enough to strip the whole company off unproductive and unhealthy business process or culture, or turbaning the leadership of the company with the right strategic intent and well-thought strategic planning; sticking to the established rules to guide and govern business processes and employees' behaviors with respect to customer's relationship management becomes a top line conditioner for the commercial success of the re-branding or the reconfiguration project.
Every industry has its policy, or better put,rules that guides and regulates its business processes or system.Wholesomely abiding by these rules stands out a company; benefits of this is evident when the chips are down because integrity is the guide to ride with in the tide of life. I am talking about compliance to business rules.Business Rule,according to BusinessRulesGroup.org, a non-commercial peer group of IT professional states, "From the business perspective,a business rule is guidance that there is an obligation concerning conduct, action,practice or procedure within a particular activity or sphere.It involves the behavior of people in the business system."
Business rule acts like an interface between people and business process.I learnt that business rule should also accommodate penalty and pay-off.Over time a relationship is established which culminates into guiding behaviors,creating norms and configuring the corporate culture.Take for example,on a shop-floor where the scrap level is alarming;productivity is dwindling by the quarter,and the Director of Manufacturing is bothered grievously; hence his preoccupation.
He constitutes a team to manage the crisis.He appoints the team leader,a manager who has over the years demonstrated undoubtedly a passion,commitment and compliance to the established Total Quality Management system of the company. The team swings to action, studies and monitors the Front-End Production Processes( right from the supplier's activity to the finished product).After three months,the report was submitted to the Director of Manufacturing.The following were areas of discovery: substandard raw materials by supplier,poor housekeeping,extremely low Overall Equipment Effectiveness, to mention a few.The team's recommendation was to re-engineer the production processes.Business on the shop-floor is no more the same;new rules, new activity.The Quality Assurance manager must ensure total quality compliance of production team to the new standard specifications.This new drive objectively is not to cow employees' work ethics, but to reshape how everyone works -Procurement, laboratory, the Production,and the Marketing and Sales departments. These ethics will form the new culture.Three months down the line afterwards, they have produced a superior product exceeding customers' expectations.The competitors are yet to recover from this market share swipe.If you keep thy command,you shall also judge my house;Keeping abreast of up-to-date Industry info or knowledge is a leverage for equipping your company for compliance,and subsequently organizational success.It is similar to concept of product leadership
Final Word
Personal branding or corporate re-branding is incomplete as long as we are replete with hindering culture cloak. Undressing the unprofitable,grimy, grubby garments of corporate depravity is sore,yet strategic for repositioning the individual or the industry for success.Wearing a rich royal robe or identity of principled,healthy workplace culture, and ensuring strict compliance of employees to business rules and policies equip for better competitive advantage and industry leadership.Is this not how a brand is plucked from the fire?
Inspired by The Vision of The High Priest
The Bible.
Zechariah 3:1-7
( New Spirit-Filled Life Bible-NKJV).
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