About Me
I can advise you on how to develop a strong identity and increase your organization’s visibility and distinctiveness by helping you to communicate in an appealing, authentic, and consistent way.
Work experience
After finishing Law School, I started my career working as an attorney in the general litigation practice at the full-service law firm of Russell Advocaten in Amsterdam. In the next 10 years, I further developed my career in the financial services industry, starting as a corporate lawyer and ending as a member of the day-to-day management of the TMF Group in the Netherlands. In connection with the buy-and-build strategy of the TMF Group, I was asked to join the acquisition team and became responsible for the group’s organizational & marketing communications worldwide (2001-2013). Drastic as it may have seemed at the time, for me this move was only natural. With in-depth knowledge of the business and the necessary years of experience, I was now more ready than ever to take up this position and to deal with the various communication challenges. Also, my legal background proved to be very useful in carrying out issues management and understanding the risks, as well as in guiding the organization through periods of more serious media exposure.
Consultancy business
Nowadays, I run GoodReputations, a consultancy business specialized in identity management and branding. I service clients of different sizes, from start-ups to mid-size, and in various industries, including financial and legal services, F&B, security, trade, leisure, energy, and transportation. In 2016, I received my master’s degree in corporate communication at the Rotterdam School of Management of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. As part of this executive program, I conducted academic research and examined how organizations in the Netherlands understand and manage privacy in practice, and more in particular, how seriously they take the related privacy concerns from a reputation management perspective. Based on the subsequent analysis of the findings of this study,
I offer organizations relevant insights and practical approaches from a corporate reputation management perspective for them to consider integrating into their information privacy management programs.
Identity management & branding
strategic differentiation
While it once was possible to choose between competing products and services based on price, or quality of service, this is no longer the case today. Increasingly, people make choices between a product or service from one company to another based on emotional factors, such as liking, admiration, and respect. What people are looking for and what attracts them is a sense of authenticity; whether the organization can be seen as real, genuine, accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. It is about how an organization communicates and behaves toward its internal and external audiences; whether it does so in an appealing, consistent, and transparent way.
Authenticity comes from within and starts with a process of discovering what the organization is about, what it stands for, what it believes in. This is quite a challenging process that begins at the top of the organization and involves a broad dialogue about the organization’s ‘core purpose’ – its reason for being. Once revealed, it can help an organization to better position itself against its rivals. If properly expressed, it can produce favorable perceptions about the organization among its diverse stakeholder groups and contribute positively to an organization’s reputation building and overall performance.
reputation building
creating competitive advantage
be authentic
Being authentic practically means narrowing down the gap between who you are, what you say, and what you do. In other words: you’ve got to be real. Authenticity creates emotional appeal, which is the primary driver of reputation building. Authenticity comes from the heart of the organization – its core purpose. Therefore, to stimulate perceptions of authenticity, organizations need to focus their actions around their ‘core’ identity and develop communication programs to support it. When done well, stakeholders will recognize the organization as genuine and authentic and confer trust and reputation upon it.
deliver on expectations
Building a strong reputation requires meeting stakeholders on several different expectations (products and services, innovation, workplace, leadership, governance, citizenship, performance) consistently over time. By delivering on these expectations, the increased trust and support will build a strong relationship. In contrast, if an organization is not perceived to be delivering on these expectations, stakeholders will lose trust, and subsequently will not buy, recommend, invest in, work for, or even give the benefit of the doubt to that organization.
be Expressive
To gain stakeholders’ trust, organizations need to be visible and convey to their stakeholder communities who they are, what they do, and what they stand for in a distinctive, transparent, responsive, all in a consistent way. Expressiveness starts from within, designed to get the buy-in from the organization’s employees and to turn them into ambassadors, followed by a process of external expressiveness, aimed at mobilizing key stakeholder support and reputation building.
my approach
building authenticity & expressiveness
step 1
Review & Analysis
The first step in the process requires a review and analysis of the organization’s core activities and business strategy, the industry in which it operates, its competitiveness, trends and developments, opportunities and threats, its culture and core values, its brand personality, purpose, vision, and mission, its key stakeholders and their perceptions, as well as the organization’s communications and level of expressiveness. The findings of this process will give a clear insight into the organization’s strategy and its relative positioning against competitors and stakeholders in the context of the environment the organization operates in.
step 2
Identity Development
Drawing on the research-based information gathered in step 1, the roots of the organization will have to be explored. This process requires a broad dialogue about the organization’s core purpose and true characteristics that provide the primary points of differentiation and that can create unity and a sense of belonging among employees. Normally, different viewpoints exist about the organization’s most typical characteristics, especially between employees and senior management. Assessing and analyzing these differences needs to be pursued to avoid misalignment with the corporate strategy and the organization’s objectives.
step 3
Nomenclature & Visual identity
To promote recognition and identification, organizations need to select a name and develop a uniform set of symbols. Names and symbols such as logos, packaging, signage, music, dress codes, styling, and architecture, all play an important role in expressing the organization. They are sometimes even the most important factors in making it appear unique. Name, symbols, and visual style will have to be used in a consistent manner to avoid fragmentation and misalignment. To this end, clear and simple guidelines will have to be put together for employees to familiarize themselves with and to create a uniform image for the organization.
step 4
corporate story
Besides the visual presentation (name, symbols, and visual style), an organization needs to create strategic communications and messaging to express itself and its root positioning. To this end, a compelling corporate story will have to be developed to help strengthen the bonds with the organization’s key constituents and to successfully position it against rivals. The story should convey the organization’s essence and its unique features in a relevant, realistic, and responsive way. Once created, a process of internal and external communication will have to be initiated to express the organization’s distinctiveness and to generate stakeholder identification.
step 5
internal introduction
To create a shared understanding of the organization’s root positioning and accompanying identity by key stakeholders, effective communication is key. Earning their support and buy-in is essential for any organization to realize its objectives.
The internal launch should take place first, as employees’ loyalty is essential for trust and reputation building. They need to know and understand the goal they work toward to show supportive behavior and to make decisions that are consistent with the organization’s objectives. Without it, organizations will have a hard time claiming credibility, authenticity, and trustworthiness, elements that are essential for building mutually rewarding relationships with key stakeholders.
step 6
External communication
Organizations should also promote external identification and evoke feelings of trust, liking, and respect among their external stakeholder groups. To this end, and based on the analysis and insights gained about their individual characteristics, knowledge, and perceptions (step 1.), targeted communication and initiatives should be developed to allow them to create and sustain a proper understanding of the organization’s character and intentions. When done effectively and in an emotionally appealing way, expressiveness can evoke feelings of liking and respect, and increase trust among the organization’s key stakeholder groups.