They sent Yankee Stadium off with a great tribute to the team, it’s players and legacy. The greatest sports franchise of the 20th century - the Yankees - saying goodbye to the Cathedral they’ve called home for over 85 years. Why can’t a corporation evoke loyalty and following like a sports team? There are many great companies with a history of performance and amazing achievement. People drive this success. No doubt it’s hard to compare the glamour of sports achievements (e.g., clutch homeruns) with making big things happen in business. Knowledge work is not very visible and rarely public. But let’s not under-estimate the strong appeal and mystique of accomplishments in industry related to inventions, patents, product ideas, customer insights, sales, deals, etc.

When breakthrough developments happen in the corporate setting and drive a company’s momentum, that has a following with employees, industry observers, customers, etc. The story usually comes out and there’s an audience for it — hence profliferation of business biography genre….the stories behind legendary compaines such as P&G, Coke, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, IBM to name a few. But sometimes this information and recognition of it is lost when people leave, regimes change or corporate activity such as M&A occurs. Why not capture it somehow so that future employees can benefit from this context?

Legacy in sport is far greater and lasting than in the corporation. I’ve got to ask - should they be more alike?

Can corporations cultivate a sense of shared history, beloging and legacy the way sports franchises and universities do with their former players and alumni? Recognizing key differences, such as the role of sports fandom and its personal nature, there appears to be some commonality to do so. A corporation consists of players (employees) who perform as individuals towards a collective goal. In sports, it’s winning games whereas in business it’s about profits, market share and growing revenue. Achievement in these areas might be the baseline for legacy building. Why might this be a useful thing for a corporation? Because a strong corporate identity based on legacy can positively impact recruitment, retention and incentives. People want to work in winning organizations. Even if they arent’t winning right now, it helps to know that there was success in the past. Former employees can also contribute value to an organization when they promote pride and enthusiasm for their corporate pedigree. A company that does a good job of “keeping them in the family” is getting value beyond the employment relationship.

Here are two emerging ways companies can foster alumni ties.

-> Virtual Walls of Fame: Most big companies have sophisticated intranets where they make available employee profiles. How about a noteable alumni section that provides profiles of ex-contributors who’ve left a real mark. These profiles could be bubbled-up for greater visibility through “alumnus of the week” excerpts on intranet start pages.

-> Alumni Relations: Many corporations are using private label social networking / alumni management tools that keep alumni abreast of corporate news and personal updates for members of the network. These tools can further develop to enable richer relationships….for example, leveraging contacts, expertise and ideas in new ways to appropriately extend management of the firm beyond it’s four walls. Another example could be to have alumni brown bags which leverage the expertise of ex-employees from a educational perspective. Most large corporations have speaker series of some kind where general-purpose topics are discussed by an expert….doing more of this through alumni is an opportunity.

That said, there is complexity in connecting past employees to firm after they leave. Sometimes, these departures are not amicable or smooth. Layoffs, resignations and firings leave a bad taste in people’s mouth. Ex-employees may not want to be involved after transition. Just as likely, current management may not embrace continued involvement or recognition, however informal, of predecessors. Especially when regimes change, it’s easy and sometime reflexive to dismiss the role of prior managers.

There are also challenges in recognizing existing employees. It’s naive to assume that all superstars can be identified or that lack of recognition implies lack of achievement or capability. Most of us know that outstanding performance lies at the intersection of the individual and his / her circumstances. Sometimes the mandate or charter you have in an organization is not set-up for success despite your efforts.

Lastly, there is a large dis-connect with the sports parallel in that management is not an objectively measured task at the individual level. While corporate performance can be aggregated and measured by revenue and profits, it’s impossible to parse this out to individuals. By contrast, in sports, we’re talking about individual statistics as the primary evaluation tool. This helps make for objective assessment of who should be remembered in the team lore even when personalities collide. An owner or manager may bump heads with a player, but if he’s a superstar, he’ll definitely be part of team legacy. The fans will expect and demand it.

Perhaps the only way to solve for these differences in the corporate setting is to root them in HR practices. In other words, it can become a practice to develop an organization’s legacy through recognition of people and achievement.

One final thought. If you think the benefits of such programs are soft, you might think of corporate legacy as similar to the notion of brand value. Brand values are real and can number in the billions of dollars. Here, we’re talking about “brand value” for employees with benefits in recruitment, retention, etc. Current dimensions of such “brand value” are limited (defined by current success and market position). It’s stengthened when the culture of a firm and its values are represented by special people and achievements that span time and demonstrate the application of those cultural values.

• Farewell to the Cathedral
• Massive Legacy and an Emotional Ending
• It's Gone! Goodbye!

Filed under: Management

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Tags: legacy, winning, alumni, corporation, employees, sports, achievement,