The beginning of a new year typically is a time of optimism and great expectations - an excellent time to look forward, and set new goals for the near future. For many folks, it’s also time to reflect on the past to better appreciate and understand their personal histories.

Looking at the months ahead in 2008, Denison Consulting remains committed to helping organizations around the world - and the people within them - to succeed. And we’ll continue to deliver outstanding, research-based tools and services in support of bottom-line business performance.

Reflecting on our past, we’re frequently asked about the history of Denison Consulting. It’s a great question, and the answer is interesting and compelling. In our first e-letter for 2008, we’re featuring a “quick read” version of our history. In addition, we’ve included an important announcement about the leadership team at Denison Consulting, an update on our ongoing research efforts, news about our latest best practice forum (which was held in Shanghai this past fall) - and more.

Enjoy our e-letter, and have a great 2008!

Dan Denison and Bill Neale are the founding partners of Denison Consulting, which was created in 1998. But the roots of the company go back much longer than that.

Back in the 1980s, Bill Neale was serving at the headquarters of General Motors as director of the company’s Center for Management Development. He saw the need for organizations to clearly see how something like employee involvement could influence business performance factors such as profitability and sales growth.

“In that era, the pressure was mounting for training and development departments to be accountable - to be able to demonstrate that improvement programs could, in a measurable way, improve the performance of a leader or an entire organization,” said Neale. And, according to Neale, Denison’s groundbreaking research “hit a major nerve” for corporate executives.

Excited about the potential of tapping the value of Denison’s research efforts in his work for GM, Neale found Denison’s well known 1984 article, “Bringing corporate culture to the bottom line,” and contacted him. Over the next few years, a long-term, personal and professional relationship between researcher and practitioner was born.

Denison’s work at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, starting in 1977, had followed on the path-breaking work of ISR founder Rensis Likert, who developed the theory of participative management starting back in the 1960s! Later at the U-M Business School, and since 1999 at IMD - the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, he has continued publishing his research on this topic.

Starting in 1992, Denison and Neale collaborated to bring the Denison survey and the underlying model of organizational culture to market. The survey was much broader than traditional employee involvement surveys and included measures of factors like mission and adaptability, that had been found to be good predictors of growth.

In 1998, Denison and Neale founded Denison Consulting, and began serving businesses and other organizations around the world.

The Denison Model is the backbone of the tools and services provided by the company, including the Denison Organizational Culture Survey; the Denison Leadership Development Survey; and other key products for improving organizational culture, developing and supporting leaders, and enhancing bottom-line business performance.

Neale says it’s crucial for organizations to have research-based tools - like the Denison Model - to diagnose, improve and leverage organizational culture. He says the model is elegant, broad-based and easily understood. It helps an organization’s leaders answer four key questions:

• Do our employees know where we are going?
• Do we understand our customers and the marketplace?
• Do we have a workforce that is engaged and developed?
…and…
• Are we able to execute, and get the job done well?

Since 1998, Denison Consulting has served more than 5,000 organizations worldwide. And more than 100 of the clients served by Denison are listed on the Fortune 500.

How have companies utilized Denison Consulting tools and services to enhance organizational culture and achieve better bottom-line results? In-depth answers to this question are available in a series of case studies that have been published, and which are available on the Denison Web site.

The latest case study in the series, Turning Results into Action: Action Planning at Henkel, profiles the effective, broad-scale application of two Denison tools by Henkel, a multinational company based in Dusseldorf, Germany. In recent years - 2003, 2004 and 2006 - Henkel has used the Denison Organization Culture Survey in a successful organizational-improvement initiative.

In 2006, the Henkel team worldwide began to use a new resource - The Denison Action Planner: A Dynamic Tool for Implementing Change. This Web-based tool is designed to ensure that results from the Denison Organizational Culture Survey are translated into actions. It enables all aspects of action planning to be easily recorded, monitored and summarized.

Overall, Henkel’s experience demonstrated the value of targeted action planning. Results from the 2004 Denison Organizational Culture Survey showed that departments or levels that had selected a few areas for improvements – and had mapped out plans for achieving such gains – achieved better results than those units which do not take such an approach.

Managers and leaders at Henkel saw significant added value in the Denison Action Planner, with its launch in 2006. They anticipate using this new tool to continue to drive organizational change in the future.

Read the complete case study Turning Results into Action: Action Planning at Henkel.

The “buzz” about the value of personal and professional networking is growing louder – and it’s both credible and important. Michael Dulworth - an author and human resources expert who has used and endorsed the Denison Model - says “an effective network can make you more knowledgeable, help you address critical issues, and even improve your health and well-being.”

Dulworth’s latest book, published on January 1, 2008, focuses on networking. It’s called “The Connect Effect: Building Strong Personal, Professional, and Virtual Networks.” In the book, the author examines the characteristics of each kind of network, and offers strategies, tools and resources for building and using networks for personal and professional growth.

Networking clearly encompasses a lot more than occasionally “doing lunch” - in the view of the author-expert.

Currently, Dulworth serves as president and CEO of Executive Networks, a San Francisco-based company that develops and supports executive networks for human resources professionals. His specialty is helping organizations improve their performance by using innovative business practices, approaches that are supported by Web-enabled technologies.

Read more about Mike Dulworth's new book "The Connect Effect."

2007 was a busy but exciting year for the Research and Development department, so we wanted to share with you some of the research highlights from 2007.

Denison research was presented at four different conferences in 2007 including: SIOP’s annual conference: presentation - Self and Colleague Perceptions of Leadership: Do Age Differences Exist?; the annual meeting of the Academy of Management: presentation - “Social Capital in Organizations: Understanding the Link to Firm Performance"; SIOP’s Leading Edge Consortium, Enabling Innovation in Organizations: presentation – Organizational Culture and Innovation: Exploring the Link; and the North American Case Research Association: presentation - Culture, Motivation, and Change, Oh My: A Case Study at the Toledo Zoo.

We were also pleased to announce that a research proposal created in collaboration with Professor Aaron Schmidt from The University of Akron was selected for funding by the SIOP Small Grant Program. The objective of this research is to understand how different patterns of organizational culture traits relate to organizational effectiveness. We are moving along on this research and hope to have some exciting results to share with you soon.

In addition, we completed an update of the norms for the Denison Organizational Culture Survey. The norms now include 888 organizations as rated by over 350,000 employees.

Last but definitely not least, we are excited to announce that Michael Gillespie, Dan Denison and colleagues’ paper “Linking Organizational Culture and Customer Satisfaction: Results From two Companies in Different Industries” was accepted for publication in the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology and will appear in the March, 2008 issue.

We are looking forward to an exciting and productive 2008! Please contact us to learn more about our research.

The 23rd annual SIOP conference will take place April 10-12 at the Hilton San Francisco, and we are excited to announce that we have a great lineup of events for this years’ conference. We will be co-hosting a reception with Mobley Group Pacific on Friday immediately after the conference activities, just one floor up from the main ballrooms where the events are held. Our research and survey tools will also be featured in 6 different conference sessions, so drop by one of our sessions or our booth to learn more.

Click here for details on all of the Denison-related events at SIOP 2008.

In 2008 Denison will release updated norms for the Denison Leadership Development Survey. The updated DLDS norms were increased by 130% from the 2004 norms; 8,651 leaders were rated by over 69,000 peers, direct reports, and supervisors. The DLDS database contains leaders representing a wide variety of industries, job function, management level, and tenure. Please contact a Denison representative for more information.

Bryan Adkins has been promoted to the newly created position of President of Denison Consulting. He previously served as senior consultant for the company.

Adkins holds a master’s degree in business from Penn State University, and a doctorate degree in human and organizational studies from George Washington University. His research, teaching and consulting have focused on diagnosing and understanding the link between culture and performance. Adkins has provided consulting services to a wide range of organizations, including Reynolds American, Morgan Stanley, Target, Disney, ABC and VeriSign.

“We are excited to expand Bryan’s leadership role, responsibilities and influence at Denison Consulting,” wrote Dan Denison and Bill Neale - founding partners of the firm - in a statement announcing the appointment. “He has an outstanding organizational development background, as well as firsthand knowledge about the challenges and opportunities facing the consulting community. We’re confident that Bryan can enhance and expand our services and tools, and support our business momentum and growth.”

Adkins assumed his new role at Denison Consulting in December 2007. Visit the “Meet Our Staff” section of the Denison Web site to learn more about Bryan Adkins, and other members of the Denison Consulting team.

Organizational culture matters - and affects bottom-line performance - whether you’re doing business in New York City, Zurich or Shanghai. And the worldwide interest in organizational culture is growing, among CEOs, other business leaders, and human resources professionals. In 2007, the time was right for Denison Consulting to convene its annual best practice forum at a non-U.S. location, for the first time ever.

Shanghai, China was the site for the company’s 2007 milestone event, “Leading Change Across Boundaries: A Best Practice Forum for CEOs, Senior Executives, and Human Resource Leaders.” The forum, which attracted nearly 100 participants, was held from October 18 through October 20, 2007. It was organized and hosted by Denison Consulting Asia and Mobley Group Pacific (Denison’s joint-venture partner in Asia). The Harvard Business Review-China served as a strategic partner for the 2007 international conference.

“Our 2007 forum was energizing and productive, and I am certain that the people who attended gained ideas, insights and strategies that will help them significantly in 2008 and beyond,” said Dan Denison, founding partner of Denison Consulting. Among the topics discussed in detail were organizational culture and its impact on business performance; leadership development; employee engagement; expatriate employee growth and success; and talent acquisition and retention in emerging economies.

An impressive array of guest speakers participated in the event, including:

• Giuseppe Cattaneo, CEO, China Division, Pirelli Tire Co., Ltd.
• Lismen Chan, vice president, human resources and organization, McDonald’s Asia Pacific/Middle East/Africa.
• Werner Krieger, senior vice president, human resources and corporate communications, Henkel Asia-Pacific, Hong Kong.
• Grant W. Levitan, managing director, RHR International Co.
• Yvonne Moore, vice president, human resources, Medtronic, Inc.-Asia Pacific.
• Kim Ooi, president, TI Automotive FCS China and ASEAN.
• Joan Popovich, human resources director, Corning Greater China.
• Lucy Qi, human resources director, Michelin China.
• Frank Rexach, vice president and general manager, Haworth Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East.
• Bryan Adkins, president, Denison Consulting.
• Dan Denison, founder and CEO, Denison Consulting.
• William Mobley, CEO and managing director, Mobley Group Pacific.
• Leb Tannenbaum, CEO of New Legends Consulting.

Denison welcomes the addition of a new Client Manager, Lisa Welch at the company’s Ann Arbor, Michigan headquarters.

As Client Manager, Lisa’s key focus is working with Denison clients to facilitate and positively affect organizational culture and leadership development projects. Prior to joining Denison, Lisa worked as an Account Manager for an industry leading supplier of automotive hardware and software diagnostic tools. She brings to the company a professional background in B2B Account Management, Sales & Marketing, and Human Resource development. Lisa holds a B.A. in Communication with emphasis in English Literature from Rutgers University.

Visit the “Meet Our Staff” page of the Denison Web site to meet the rest of the Denison team.

Denison Racing will again compete in the Formula 2000 Championship Series this year. Dan will team with Jon Adams of Adams Racing, former SCCA National Champion, to field a two-car team.

The team will compete in six races:

· May 10-11	Road Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
· June 21-22	Cleveland Grand Prix, Burke Lakefront Airport
· July 12-13	Mid-Ohio, Lexington, OH
· August 2-3	Road America, Elkhart Lake, WI
· August 23-24	Mosport, Toronto, Ontario
· September 20-21	New Jersey Motorsports Park

We hope that you will be able to join us for one of these events. Click here for the Denison Racing Line for more information.