Many people express surprise (bordering on shock!) when they find out that I head both the Marketing and HR functions at Learnnovators. That's because the general belief is that Marketing and HR make strange bedfellows. In reality, this is the ultimate match made in heaven! To find out how, we need to look at the symbiotic relationship between an organization's 'brand' and 'culture'.
Basically, both brand and culture are two sides of the same coin. Brand is how an organization is viewed by its customers while culture is how the organization is viewed by its employees. In other words, brand is an outward expression of an organization's DNA, while culture is its inward demonstration. Brand drives customer experience, while culture drives employee engagement. Brand impacts the marketplace, while culture impacts the workplace.
Therefore, to achieve sustainable success, it is imperative that an organization's brand and culture are totally aligned with each other. Because unless its employees truly 'live' the brand promise internally, they will never be able to deliver the 'experience' to the customers externally.
Given this scenario, does it not make sense for the same person to handle the two functions that drive the organization's brand and culture - Marketing and HR? This would ensure that the organization looks the same from the outside as it does from the inside. Moreso, because in today's increasingly transparent world, faking its identity could prove disastrous for an organization.
Interestingly, this proposition not only works in small-sized organizations like Learnnovators. Click here to check out an interesting article by Bill Taylor that shows how the concept has been successfully adopted by large corporations too.
Sometimes it feels great to know that you are not alone in this world :)
