Brand identity is also an issue of corporate culture. "Inside Branding" ensures a coherent and sustainable corporate identity both internally and with the outside world.

1. Inside Branding Building a sustainable corporate culture Christian Siregar July 26, 2009

2. Inside Branding Successful companies spend significant resources on developing and maintaining their brand to differentiate themselves and offset the inevitable trend towards commoditization. However, companies that aim to achieve sustainable success also pay close attention to how their identity is understood, nurtured and projected by the people that make up their organizations. This could be called, “Inside Branding”.

3. Inside Branding Inside Branding begins with having a clear sense of purpose. Sure, people work to make money, but beyond simply putting in the hours, there is the notion of Commitment. Employee commitment can only earned by companies with a clear sense of purpose that can easily be understood and adopted by all employees. These companies also operate with a set of core values that their employees can clearly identify with and that contribute to the overall sense of common purpose.

4. The difference between “Inside Branding” and the corporate mission statement

5. Inside Branding & the Mission Statement Inside Branding is different from the company’s mission statement in that it is a dynamic process that must be revised regularly to ensure that it is in sync with the times, the maturing of markets and the changing values of a diversified workforce. Mission statements tend to be static documents that companies rarely bother or even dare to review. Mission statements that have been developed by outside consultants or by a small management committee have little value and often end-up being a set of niceties posted on walls with little or no relevance to the people who are suppose to be represented by the statements. Even the better mission statements that have been developed through some form of internal and external consensus with employees and customers often fall short of their mark.

6. Inside Branding & the Mission Statement Why? Simply because companies are living, changing entities. They do not operate in a vacuum. Their markets evolve and their customers’ and employees needs and priorities also change over time.

7. Inside Branding & High-Growth Companies Inside Branding is especially critical in high-growth companies that face the challenges of transitioning from small to medium or medium to large organizations. As companies grow, leadership and management priorities and styles often morph with the pressures from these changes. The risk at this point is that a “disconnect” is created between what is said and what is done. Leaders and managers “forget” to “walk the talk” and the credibility of a once powerful statement of purpose and values begins to lose some of its potency. Inside Branding ensures that both the continuity and the relevance of the purpose and values of a company are shared and upheld by all the stakeholders of the company.

8. Inside Branding & The "Green" Revolution Take for example the current trend of so many companies in showing that they are “Green”. With the right amount of advertising dollars even large corporations traditionally associated with being significant contributors to environmental pollution may be able to change their public image for a while, but how sustainable and credible can all that effort be if the employees that make-up the company are not also convinced that environmental ethics truly plays a significant role internally within the organization?

9. Inside Branding - a Question of Commitment Inside branding must therefore be given the same level of commitment as we would give to any mission-critical strategy. Leaders and managers must make sure that the “brand on the inside” is as clear and coherent as the brand that they are supporting in the market. The greater the alignment between the internal and external brands, the more sustainable the success of the organization over the long-term.

10. Inside Branding - Getting Started There are many ways to measure and monitor the alignment between the internal and external brand. One way is to establish cross-functional focus groups that meet on a regular basis to address the challenges that they are all facing in staying aligned. Although this can be facilitated by outside help, often, simply by rotating the chairperson of these focus groups ensures that all participants remain committed to the process. Ultimately, the success of any such endeavor will depend on the commitment of senior and mid-management to "Lead by Example".

11. "It's all about managing risk and making a difference...." The right partner ....the right time... Christian Siregar www.linkedin.com/in/christiansiregar www.youtube.com/csiregar