Corporate Reputation Review
Corporate Religion: Building a Strong
Corporate Reputation Review,
Vol. 4, No. 1, 2001, pp. 82–83
# Henry Stewart Publications,
1363–3589
Page 82
Volume 4 Number 1
Company through Personality and Corporate
Soul
Jesper Kunde
Prentice Hall (Pearson), London, 2000; ISBN 0 273 64380 0; hardback $23.20
The book title ‘Corporate Religion’ seems
to use the word ‘religion’ in an overly
broad sense. Many of us use the word ‘reli-
gion’ only in the domain of the ‘holy,’ of
belief, of terminal values, and of a funda-
mental world view. Jesper Kunde of Den-
mark connects this ‘holy’ concept to the
commercial world, to the brand, and to
the vision of an enterprise about its place in
society. This title evokes certain unpleasant
feelings based on the need to keep religion
and commerce separated. After reading the
book, however, it becomes clear that
Kunde uses the word ‘religion’ as a meta-
phor to shed light on various important
issues. Here are the central ‘religious con-
cepts’ Kunde employs in discussing the
most successful organizations:
— vision and belief regarding the function
of the organisation
— visionary leaders as modern prophets
— evangelism, or preaching this vision,
both internally and externally.
Etymologically, ‘religion’ means ‘bringing
together’ or ‘binding’ under a common
denominator. And that is precisely what
good organisations do with their workers
and their customers. A good organisation,
or better yet, a good management, has a
vision about the place and future of the
organization in its market and in the
society as a whole. Kunde describes organi-
zations that have become strong and suc-
cessful through this vision and this belief.
Their vision has given them a clear and dis-
tinguished place in the market and in
society.
Vision and belief are something different
than market and customer focus. They are
more than simply doing what the customer
requests. A clear vision provides the orga-
nization with a ‘personality,’ a personal
offering, a ‘proposition’ to the market. The
organization uses this to position itself, to
determine its place and standpoint and
‘stands for’ important norms and values.
Obviously, this standpoint and these norms
and values must be attractive to employees
and to groups of customers in order to
remain a successful player in the market.
A religion has its spiritual leaders and
prophets. Kunde describes a few of these
leaders, such as Richard Branson of Virgin,
Anita Roddick of the Body Shop, Bill
Gates of Microsoft, and Louis Gerstner of
IBM. He also discusses ‘cult brands’ such as
Harley-Davidson and the Hard Rock Café.
He looks at the fall of Adidas and the rise
of Nike in the sportswear market. We
could add Ted Turner as visionary leader
of CNN to the list. These spiritual and
visionary leaders have built their organiza-
tions from a clear and convincing vision
about the place, the function, and the
future of their organizations. This raises the
question of whether these organizations
may fall into crisis if their visionary leader
is no longer with the company (Richard

Branson, at least, has a risky lifestyle as a
balloon-flyer).
As the third ‘religious’ element in a
successful organization, there is ‘evange-
lism,’ the preaching of spiritual leader’s
vision. This vision must be propagated
internally and externally in order to ‘con-
vert,’ convincing employees and custo-
mers of the belief and of the correctness
and relevance of the concepts. Internally,
this must lead employees to higher moti-
vation and devotion to the quality of pro-
ducts and services, something especially
important for service companies. Exter-
nally, it must lead to the identification
and loyalty of the customers with the
brand and the company. Kunde explains
how important PR and integrated corpo-
rate and marketing communications are
for an organization. The crucial question
here is whether customers and employees
identify with, for instance, the ‘brand’
Richard Branson or with the brand
Virgin — or whether it possible for
Richard Branson to transfer values con-
nected to him to the brand Virgin.
Kunde considers ‘corporate religion’ as
the next step after the branding policy. He
gives a step-by-step implementation plan
for how an organization turns from a pro-
For Your Bookshelf
ducer of goods and services, via a brand-
builder, to corporate religion. This devel-
opment requires both value and involve-
ment. Adding more value to the brand (by
advertising and brand achievements) and
getting employees and customers more
involved with the brand should bring the
brand to ‘brand heaven.’
In conclusion, this is an educational,
entertaining, and inspiring book for man-
agers and entrepreneurs wishing to bring
more ‘spirit,’ personality, and motivation
to their organizations and their employees.
Cases studies include Harley-Davidson,
Virgin, SAS airline, Adidas/Nike, Hard
Rock Café, IBM, The Body Shop, Walt
Disney Company, Starbucks (coffee),
McDonald’s, Toyota, and Kunde & Co.
The reader may not know the latter com-
pany, but it is Jesper’s own advertising
agency (‘the total communication agency’)
in Scandinavia. In the epilogue, Kunde
describes a program of 12 steps to reach
brand heaven within a year. The price of
this book may be low if it reserves you a
seat in brand heaven.
W. Fred van Raaij
Professor of Economic Psychology,
University of Tilbug, The Netherlands
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