A new identity for a new life
When the US Bankruptcy Court holds hearings early next year to consider Enron's reorganisation plan, it will find proposals for the creation of two new companies, neither of which will be called "Enron." That name, with all its negative associations of greed, deceit and fraud, is to be consigned to history.
The companies replacing Enron have been branded to project a new image, one that dispenses with any hint of sham business operations and instead suggests corporations that are prudent and transparent. One company, CrossCountry Energy, will operate Enron's three main North American natural gas pipeline businesses. The other, Prisma Energy International, will run Enron's international electric and natural gas utility and pipeline businesses.
The name "CrossCountry" was chosen to make the statement that the company is prepared to "go the distance" for its stakeholders and customers. "Prisma" is intended to connote a company committed to being clear and open in its business dealings, in keeping with the widespread corporate governance reforms that have followed the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Name changes like these are expensive and time- consuming to undertake but are a common strategy when a company seeks to repair a damaged reputation. But do they work?
"The Enron brand was a brand that bred arrogance," says Gary Easterly, president of Easterly & Co, the Houston-based branding firm hired by Enron's restructuring team to come up with names for the new companies. "It did not really brand the truth."
He says the new names have been welcomed by Enron's employees, who are relieved that they no longer have to bear the taint of working for one of America's most infamous companies. "[They] don't have to wear that old crooked E any longer," he says.
Other large US companies that have undertaken name changes this year include Philip Morris Companies, owner of Kraft Foods and cigarette-maker Philip Morris USA, which became Altria Group in January; and telecommunications company WorldCom, which nudged out Enron as the largest bankruptcy in US history last year and is now known as MCI. In September, AOL Time Warner's board voted to drop "AOL" from its name and dump its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol "AOL", replacing it with "TWX".
"It's a very important step," says Julie Cottineau, managing director of naming at Interbrand. "The name of a company is the tangible representation of that company." But she adds that troubled companies that want to create a new image must also change poor business practices. "No name change is going to help you overcome a problem entirely unless you fix the root of the problem."
Philip Morris' recent change to Altria has had a mixed reception. Many people believed the company undertook the change to distance itself from its tobacco heritage. Altria says it made the change to get the message across to investors that it was not just a tobacco company but also the owner of food brands such as Oreo biscuits and Maxwell House coffee.
David Sylvia, director of external communications at Altria, says employees as well as customers were initially confused by the change, as perceptions surfaced that the company was turning its back on the tobacco business. But he claims that people have gradually become more comfortable with the name and that opinion research has shown the change has encouraged investors to view Altria as more than just a tobacco company. "We have seen a positive impact on the overall reputation of the corporation," he says.
If companies feel they have to change their names to promote a new image, consultants advise them to try and resurrect an old brand name - as MCI and TimeWarner have done. "It's easier to resurrect an old brand than to launch a new one," says Burt Alper, strategy director at Catchword, a consulting firm based in San Francisco.
MCI says it made sense for the company to use a brand that its customers were already familiar with. "MCI is a very well recognised name in the marketplace and it's been a very important part of our heritage," says Claire Hassett at MCI. MCI Communications merged with WorldCom in 1998 and the combined company was originally named MCI WorldCom before dropping MCI from its name in 2000.
Sometimes, however, if a brand can be rehabilitated, consultants say that it is better to stick with the brand than to change it. Denis Riney, executive vice- president at FutureBrand, says: "If you don't have to change your name, don't do it."
Some companies go to a lot of effort and expense to change their name, only to find that it bemuses customers, forcing them to change it back. One of the most ridiculed name changes in recent history was PwC Consulting's attempt to rebrand itself "Monday" last year to mark its separation from accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. The new name, which was widely laughed about, was never formally adopted because IBM bought PwC Consulting in July 2002 and created a new unit called IBM Business Consulting Services. "Monday was probably the shortest-lived name change I've ever seen," Mr Riney says. "It was too 1997."
In contrast to the 1990s, when so-called "coined" names such as Lucent and Agilent were popular, companies are now looking for names that are less artificial - names that contain real words, or that symbolise conservative values. Last month, Conseco Capital Management rebranded itself as 40/86 Advisors after its parent company, insurer Conseco, emerged from bankruptcy. The new name is derived from the company's geographic roots in Indiana - at 40 degrees north latitude, 86 degrees west longitude - a location that it claims reflects character traits that are "down-to- earth, disciplined, shrewd and resilient".
Enron was, for many, a fun and exciting place to work in the late 1990s as the company transformed itself from a pipeline operator into a trading and financial company. "The gleaming, 50- storey office tower in downtown Houston buzzed with activity from early in the morning until late at night," says Loren Fox in his book Enron: The Rise and Fall. "It was more than just an office. It was the place to be."
But CrossCountry Energy and Prisma Energy will promote a completely different kind of culture, according to Mr Easterly. "This new culture will be about hard work . . . and no bells and whistles."
更名改姓 寻求新生
明年初，美国破产银行将举行听证会，考虑安然(Enron)重组计划。届时，破产银行将看到有关将安然分拆为两家新公司的提案，它们都不会沿用"安然"这个名称。"安然"，这个引发贪婪、虚假和欺诈等负面联想的名称，即将尘封于历史之中。
取代安然的两个公司已被冠以新名称，凸显新形象。这一新形象没有丝毫虚假经营活动的痕迹，而是以一种审慎、透明的形象示人。其中，取名为CrossCountry能源的公司 将经营安然在北美的三大天然气管道业务，另一家取名为Prisma能源国际的公司将负责安然的国际电力、天然气公用事业和管道业务。
选择"CrossCountry"这个名字是为了告诉大家，公司做好了为股东和客户"尽心敬业"的准备。"Prisma"的言外之意是公司承诺在业务往来中透明、开放，并与美国索克斯法案(Sarbanes-Oxley Act)出台后普遍推行的公司治理改革的 步伐一致。
诸如此类的公司改名费用高，耗时长，但当公司想要挽救受损的名誉时，常常会采用这种策略。但是，这能行得通吗？
Easterly & Co总裁加里o伊斯特利(Gary Easterly)说：" 安然是一个滋生傲慢自大的品牌。它不真正代表事实。"位于休斯顿的Easterly & Co是一家由安然重组小组聘请 的品牌咨询公司，负责为新公司命名。
他说，新的公司名称受到了安然员工的欢迎。他们不用再背负为美国一家最臭名昭著的公司打工的污名，这令他们感到欣慰。他说："（他们）可以不用再顶着奸商的帽子了。"
今年改名的美国大公司还包括，旗下拥有卡夫食品(Kraft Foods) 和香烟制造商菲利普o莫里斯美国公司(Philip Morris USA )的菲利普o莫里斯集团(Philip Morris Companies) 于今年1月改名为Altria集团；去年"挤走" 安然创美国历史上最大宗破产案的电信公司世界通讯 (WorldCom)现已更名为MCI。今年9月，美国在线时代华纳(AOL Time Warner)董事会投票通过从公司名称中删除 "AOL"，原先在纽约证交所的上市股票代码"AOL"也换成"TWX"。
"这是十分重要的一步，"国际品牌公司(Interbrand)命名部门常务董事朱莉o科蒂诺(Julie Cottineau)说："公司名称是一个公司有形资产的标志。"但她补充道，麻烦缠身的公司想要重塑形象，必须同时改变不好的商业习惯。"除非你能标本兼治，否则改变公司名称也不能帮助你完全解决问题。"
最近，菲利普o莫里斯更名为Altria，社会反响则喜忧参半。许多人认为，菲利普o莫里斯变更公司名称是为了远离烟草业的传统。Altria则表示，他们改名是为了向投资者传达一种信息：Altria不仅仅是一个烟草公司，还拥有诸如奥利奥(Oreo)饼干和麦克斯威尔 (Maxwell House) 咖啡等食品品牌。
Altria外部事务总监大卫o西尔维亚(David Sylvia)说，公 司员工和客户一开始都对公司改名困惑不解，因为大家以为公司打算放弃烟草业。但他声称，人们对公司新名称已经越来越习惯。民意调查显示，公司新名称鼓励投资者不仅仅把Altria看作是一个烟草公司。"我们发现，改名对公司名声整体产生了积极的影响。"
如果公司认为，他们必须通过改名来提升公司新形象，咨询顾问则建议他们尝试并重新启用旧品牌名称，正如MCI和时代华纳所做的那样。"重新启用一个旧品牌比推出一个新品牌容易，"旧金山的咨询公司Catchword战略总监伯特o阿佩尔(Burt Alper)表示。
MCI说，使用一个客户已经熟悉的品牌对公司来说比较合适。"MCI在市场中是一个响当当的名字，而且一直也是我们公司传统的重要一部分，"来自MCI的克莱尔o哈西特(Claire Hassett) 表示。1998年，MCI通信与世通合并， 合并后的公司最初命名为MCI世通；2000年，公司去掉了名称中的MCI。
然而，有些时候，如果一个品牌的名誉可以恢复，咨询顾问认为，沿用旧品牌比更改名称要好。FutureBrand执行副总裁丹尼斯o赖尼(Denis Riney)说：" 如果你不是非 改名不可，就不要改。"
一些公司在改名上花费了大量的人力和财力，却没想到新名称令客户们一头雾水，结果他们不得不再把名字改回来。近期，最可笑的一个例子就是，去年，普华永道咨询 (PwC Consulting)为表明从普华永道会计事务所 (PricewaterhouseCoopers)中剥离出来，曾尝试改名为 Monday。由于IBM于2002年7月收购了普华永道咨询，新建了一个IBM商业咨询服务部，结果，这个倍受讥笑的新名称从来没被正式采用过。"Monday可能是我所见过的最为昙花一现的名字，"赖尼先生说："太过时了。"
90年代，"杜撰的"公司名称曾风靡一时，例如，朗讯 (Lucent)和安捷伦(Agilent)。与此相反，公司现在追求的是更加真实的名称－名称中蕴含实实在在的意义，或能体现保守的价值观。上月，Conseco资本管理公司在其母公司Conseco保险公司摆脱破产后改名为"40/86咨询顾问"(40/86 Advisor)。 这个新名称来源于公司成立时在印地安 那州的地理位置，即北纬40度，西经86度。公司宣称，这个地理位置体现了公司"务实，自律，精明，富有韧性"的性格特征。
90年代后期，安然从一个管道运营商蜕变为一家贸易和金融公司。当时，对许多人而言，安然是一个好玩有趣、令人兴奋的工作场所。" 地处美国休斯顿市中心的50层办公大 楼熠熠生辉。从清晨到深夜，人人忙忙碌碌，处处生机盎然。"洛伦o福克斯(Loren Fox)在 <<安然浮沉录>> (Enron: The Rise and Fall)中写道，"这不仅仅是一个办公 室，更是一个时尚的地方。"
但是，据伊斯特利先生称，CrossCountry能源和Prisma能源将营造一种全然不同的文化氛围。"新的企业文化将是埋头苦干……没有钟声和口哨声。"
