Business Awards 2018

8 Company History Is The Key To Unlocking Future Success Interpreting the history of your organisation in new and different ways will help the direction of your branding and innovation today, reveals new research from UCL School of Management. The research was led by Davide Ravasi in collaboration with Violina Rindova, USC Marshall School of Business, and Ileana Stigliani, Imperial College Business School. This study, which was based on 10 years of data, examined how producers of iconic products and brands such as Alfa Romeo cars, Ducati motorcycles, Alessi kitchenware and Vespa scooters used historical artefacts collected in corporate archives and museums to support tasks related to product design, brand communication and HR management. The findings showed that in every case, companies utilised the history of their brand to inform decision making that tried to balance tradition and innovation, but the ways in which they used that history depended on the tasks they were performing and the audience they primarily addressed – were they loyal but sometimes zealous fans, or new recruits or potential new customers. Previous research has often assumed that organisations have a fixed, monolithic identity, which rests in the hands of senior managers and marketing teams, and that this identity reflects the Research was led by Davide Ravasi in collaboration with Violina Rindova, USC Marshall School of Business, and Ileana Stigliani, Imperial College Business School.