Journey As Reward – The Two-Year Genesis Of The New Bertelsmann Essentials

The Bertelsmann Essentials weren’t exactly reinvented – just condensed, fine-tuned, supplemented and focused in conscious continuity to the original version and a corporate culture that has evolved over decades. Nonetheless, the process of turning twelve chapters about our media company’s basic values into four chapters, took more than two years. And from the beginning, the authors didn’t just "put up with" this fact – they planned and wanted it this way. True to the maxim "the journey is the reward" the numerous intense discussions about their revision created a new and deeper awareness of the Essentials, their importance and their effects. And these discussions were held across company and division borders, as well as across all levels of hierarchy.

The Executive Board commissioned the revision of the Essentials in 2003, in the wake of the 2002 Employee Survey, which had pointed up in black and white the correlation between a the company’s approach to entrepreneurial partnership and economic success. The following year (2004), the Corporate HR department and the Executive Board first discussed a joint draft with the Corporate Works Council and the Management Representative Committee. They agreed to a draft that was presented to the company’s Top 100 executives at the Year-End Meeting 2004 with the request to continue the discussion in their respective departments.

The responses showed a high degree of approval. Valuable suggestions were submitted – including by the top executives themselves– which were again discussed by the Executive Board, Corporate Works Council and Management Representative Committee and in many cases incorporated. Every single proposal was responded to; the process itself was taken very seriously. This gave rise to a very constructive and earnest dialog between everyone involved. There were no real points of contention; perhaps the only sensitive point was the translation and adaptation into the various languages in which the Essentials are now available. "Native speaker" Bertelsmann colleagues in the various countries put the finishing touches to their respective versions by making sure that the translations were not only properly worded, but that they also reflected the original and intended meaning, message and spirit. The final draft that resulted from this process was ratified by the Bertelsmann AG Supervisory Board in July 2005. It was first presented in December at the Management Meeting 2005 in Berlin, and is now being communicated to all of our media company’s employees.

In addition to firmly condensing the Essentials to the four key points of partnership, entrepreneurship, creativity and citizenship, two changes were made to the content of the 1998 version towards the end of the discussion process: The economic goals were formulated more precisely in the new Mission Statement. Instead of "an appropriate return on the capital invested" it now reads "a return on the capital invested that safeguards the growth and continuity of the company." A clear statement of obligation was also added: "We expect everyone at Bertelsmann to adhere to this mission and these core values."