CEOs Undertake Refounding To Restore Corporate Identity
Researchers at Y-SIM, after interviews with more than 200 CEOs, define "refounding" as the effort companies undertake to rediscover and reactivate the essential capabilities and purpose that originally made them distinctive. The paper uses examples—Rio Tinto's 2020 cave destruction, Mars' proactive Mars Compass, and Walmart under Doug McMillon—to show refounding addresses organizational drift and aligns incentives, culture, and stakeholder metrics.
Key Points
- 1Define refounding as rediscovering and reactivating a company's essential character through interpretive work
- 2Show that refounding addresses drift when incremental decisions erode core capabilities and stakeholder trust
- 3Advise practitioners to codify purpose, align incentives, and integrate nonfinancial metrics into management systems
Scoring Rationale
Strong interview-based evidence and practical framework, but limited relevance to today's AI/ML-focused data science audiences.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
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