Corporate Metaphors: A Study on Communicating Value Propositions in San Miguel Corporation and the Development Bank of the Philippines

Abstract

This study explores how corporate value propositions that are structured using metaphors are formulated. It answers questions on who the key players are in the formulation and how these value propositions are used. The study delved into the formulation of the value proposition in relation to Weick’s sensemaking model. It also studies how tire metaphors are manifested inside die organization, may it be in die behavior, verbal or physical aspect. It compares two companies, namely, San Miguel Corporation and the Development Bank of die Philippines, in terms of how diet use a metaphor in their value propositions. The study uses Weick’s theory on Sensemaking and contextualizes it in the Philippine setting. Another theory used to discuss the culture of the organizations is Edgar Schein’s theory in Organizational Culture, showing its various levels in Iris Onion model—its basic assumptions, the values formed and the behavior or artifacts it emulates. The researcher gathered information from interviews with those who were part of tire team that coined die various propositions and the employees of different divisions, to see how these metaphors and symbols are manifested inside the organization. The researcher interviewed top managers from SMC and DBP (one from each), who were chosen, based on dieir knowledge of the formulation and implementation of the metaphor used. Also, the researcher sought out 3 employees each company, coming from different departments to describe the various manifestations of their value proposition as well as how it develops a culture inside their workplace. It was found that in SMC, there was a team of top-level heads and division presidents present to formulate the corporate vision during a brainstorming. DBP, on the other hand, had a past president make their Family Credo. The formulation was based on a certain context at the time it was made. SMC’s core purpose and vision was formulated at around the time SEC required a handbook on the organization’s corporate governance. DBP on die other was at the stage of rehabilitating itself following the Asian Crisis that happened at that time. In die study, a table of die seven tenets of sensemaking was then compared to die process of both companies’ formulation of their corporate metaphors. In manifesting these certain propositions, SMC was found to be doing it successfully more externally, by way of advertisements, or campaigns, rather than internally. DBP, on die other, does not primarily use this in financial operations but internally, within worker relationships and in inculcating of values.