THE BIBLE AND EXCELLENCE IN CORPORATE IMAGE

Twentyfive years ago I worked for a company that had invented its own award celebration: the International Gold Star for Excellence in Corporate Image. Most of my friends considered these awards a scam and I eventually quitted because of conscientious objections. Strange enough, this experience later enabled me to discover the secrets in the Bible.

Through an advertisement in the newspaper I learned that this company was looking for someone who spoke different languages and who was familiar with wordprocessors and databases. I applied for the job and started to work a week later. At first I had no clue what the job was about. I had had an interview with the owner of the company, but although he had talked a lot, he had said very little.

Only bit by bit I discovered what that award celebration was about. Companies from all over the world were sent a letter which announced that they were elected for the International Gold Star for Excellence in Corporate Image Award. They were invited to receive the trophy during a gala dinner in a famous five star hotel in Madrid. The participation fee, which was 2.400 dollars, included two nights in a double room at that hotel, two invitations for the gala dinner, the trophy itself and logotypes that could be used for publicity.

The invitation mentioned a selection committee, but these people were all friends of the owner. More than fifty thousand companies received such an invitation. The owner had several adolescents putting addresses of companies into a data base. They used lists such as the yellow pages and whatever company with an advertisement that was big enough was put into the data base.

Most companies immediately threw those invitations in the trash, but some were curious and contacted us. My job consisted in answering their letters (faxes) by using phrases which sounded attractive but said very little.

The company was rather small and really dedicated itself to the design of publicity folders. The award celebration was something extra. I was the only one who worked for it full time. Companies that contacted us in regards to the award celebration however got a very different impression.

‘One moment sir, I will put you through with the eighth floor.’ By answering the telephone with that phrase callers assumed they were dealing with a big corporation.  Others were told ‘I will pass you on with International Relations’.  Then they were put on hold for a while and later a second person picked up the phone, and he ten passed the call on to a third person, the manager for Latin America, for instance. Although those three people could sit next to each other, callers were made to believe the company was huge.

A few days before the convention the owner asked whether I had a suit and a tie. I didn’t. Since I was officially the director of international relations, his daughter took me shopping. With that suit I suddenly looked like Richard Gere in ‘Pretty Woman’. I had never worn a suit or tie before and it surprised me that people looked at me different; that they now treated me with respect.

During the award celebration I was very anxious. I was afraid that those companies would think that we cheated them. To my big surprise I discovered that this was not the case. A man from Costa Rica even told me that he was so glad that he finally received public recognition for all his efforts. It amazed me that making a lot of money was not enough reward for him. He wanted someone to pat his shoulder and say, ‘Well done sir’ and was actually willing to pay a lot of money for that.

About seventy companies received such a trophy that night. The first companies received a lot of applause. Later people of course got tired of clapping their hands. Those worked for the company were standing at the back of the hall and then took over. At the end of the evening, my hands hurted from clapping so much.

With people being pleased with their awards, I saw no reason for quitting that job. My boss explained that his awards enabled companies to improve their corporate image. The trophy itself, the pictures taken during the Gala dinner and the logos helped to convince customers that they were ‘excellent’ companies.

He gave me an example. He said that the Dia Supermarket chain bought an award to promote their products. He said that when this company started business people distrusted their products, because they were not familiar with them. People assumed they were bad quality because they were cheap, but changed opinion when they read on the labels that they had received an award.

The owner of this company made me realize that often people do not read what a text says, but what they think it says. He said that if he would put ‘recyclable’ on his stationary, a lot of people would assume that he cared for the environment, ignoring that all paper is recyclable, but only certain paper has actually been recycled.