You can hardly influence the development of your child by selecting whatever name. That is one of the conclusion of Steven Levitt published in the book "Freakonomics.” Most influence is given to a child before it is even born. You can do wrong however - according to an example in the same book of a parent that named a first son "Winner” and the latest born "Loser.” Imagine what happened to both of them...

Whether you agree with Levitt and favor a nature viewpoint or you disagree and you favor a nurture argument, when talking about business there is only one option; The name you choose will -- as a cultural element -- influence your business.

Recently a Dutch company TPG Post announced the change of their name into TNT Post. The company is the product of a split that took place in 1996 when the Post and communication divisions became separate companies; KPN -- the holding company before that time -- continued with the telecommunication division. The post division including the recent acquisition of the Australian TNT logistics company continued under the new name TNT Post Group or TPG. And now the company continues under the name: TNT Post.

On the same stock exchange -- the AEX -- there are more companies with a similar background. To start with the "A”, ABN AMRO is a bank that is the result of a merger of two companies ABN and AMRO that kept their name in the new combination. The name "ING”, which represents a bank-insurer, is a nice name invention of Inter-Nationale Nederlanden Group, where the "Nationale Nederlanden” was and continues to be the insurance part of the group.

Reed Elsevier is another example where two companies have merged and the names of the original entities continue to exist. In this case "Reed” is of British origin, and Elsevier the Dutch counterpart. This is not different for Wolters (and) Kluwer - as the previous mentioned company, also in the information exchange and publishing sector, although these parts

Numico is a company that also merged with others and that choose to preserve previous company names in the new combination. In this case Nutricia (Nu) merged with the German Milupa (Mi) and the British Cow & Gate (Co). Giving Nu-Mi-co. This example is different in the case that all the three companies continue to exist under the previous labels, Nutricia in the Netherlands, Milupa in Germany and Cow & Gate in the UK. The image and identity of a company is linked to the name it carries. Companies that grow internationally and become multinationals are better of with an international name than with a local name.

A company name also represents an internal culture. In case of ABN and AMRO, the culture could be expressed as the best of both worlds: ABN and AMRO, or together we are more. For NuMiCo, the cultural direction is less visible; the company name after the merger seems to express a new culture.

Back to TNT Post. In this case the new name inherits most of the Australian name TNT (Thomas Nationwide Transport). A logical choice, because of the international build up brand value of TNT. For the situation in the Netherlands there is a small compensation; the main company color (Red) will be replaced by orange - a Royal (Dutch) color; TNT Post has given itself a new cultural start offering the best of both worlds.

© 2006 Hans Bool