Imaging Strategy

(Adapted from “Spinning on Symbolism: Imaging Strategies”, Journal of Management, 1985, co-authored with Frances Westley)

If you think about it, strategy is a “position.” But if you experience it, strategy is a “perspective,” bound up with images, including metaphors. Good strategists are, after all, visionaries. Of course, images in an organization extend beyond strategies, to the aesthetics of its products, its architecture, its logo.

Might we conclude, therefore, that organizations rich in tangible imagery are more inclined to pursue interesting strategies, while those poor in such imagery will pursue more ordinary ones? Does a name change from, say, About Better Care to ABCorp foretell a troubled future? Does the redesign of a corporate logo from an elaborate coat of arms rich in symbolism to a nondescript rectangle lead to equally nondescript strategies?

When unique beautiful buildings become uniform glass boxes, when paintings of the founders or of intricate production facilities are replaced by contemporary abstract art, when ” railway” or ‘”telephone” or “ice cream” are removed from the corporate name and symbols, so that no one can tell at a glance what the organization produces, does the strategy become as impoverished as the imagery?

Alternately, can the use of engaging imagery reinvigorate strategic vision? In other words, to enrich strategy, and success, should organizations return to warm architecture, rich logos, names that suggest style and individuality? Imagine the consequences.