The venerable Sears Tower, the tallest building in the country, will soon be no more. No, not the building; the name.
The 111-story building in Chicago will shortly be renamed Willis Tower, after London based Willis Group Holdings, which is purchasing the naming rights.
Maybe not the smartest move by Willis, given what happens to some companies
who create grand architectural homages to themselves. Look no further than the GM Renaissance Center in Detroit.
Harvard Business School historian Richard Tedlow and coauthor David Reuben chronicle the history of Sears Tower in the Fortune article, Sear’s Edifice Complex.
Their take:
“Not every company needs to celebrate itself with a monument, but Sears did. And like many firms that do — from GM to AIG — a focus on the trappings of success can signal a lack of focus on real problems.”
Still, a study out of Harvard Business School earlier this decade found little correlation between “lean and mean” headquarters design and improved financial performance. Read Does Your HQ Operation Fit With Corporate Strategy? in HBS Working Knowledge.
What does your HQ design say about your company?
(Image of Sears Tower (left) by CK Irvine,GM Renaissance Center (right) by Patricia Drury, CC 2.0)
