Identity as Strategy

The identity of your organisation, sector, or region is often a hidden treasure that can drive your strategy. A clear understanding of who you are provides both a foundation and perspective for shaping your future. But identity can feel intangible—so how do you unlock its potential?

In this book, seasoned identity consultant Stijn van Diemen explores eight strategic perspectives on corporate identity, each illustrated with engaging real-world cases. These cases bring the concepts to life, showing how the strategic models can be applied in different contexts. By following these examples, you’ll be better equipped to translate the insights into your own organisation, sector, or region.

Filled with dozens of practical models and design principles, this book helps managers and marketers make better decisions, gain stakeholder support, and build a solid foundation for their strategy. The practical case studies make it easier to see how the strategies work in real life, enabling you to adapt them to your own unique situation and drive success.

Author

Stijn van Diemen has over 30 years of experience tackling strategic identity challenges across various sectors. With extensive consulting expertise in healthcare, education, government, ICT, digital platforms, and business services, both in the Netherlands and internationally, he has helped more than a hundred organisations, sectors, and regions define and project their identity to build a successful future.

Reviews

A compelling scope
Corporate identity work often starts with logos and tone of voice but quickly turns into strategy. In Identity as Strategy, Stijn van Diemen turns that shift into a method: only by knowing who you are can you define where to go.

Grounded in 30 years of practice, the book blends real cases from business, government, and culture into a practical toolbox for brand strategy. Clear, hands-on, and refreshingly relevant—essential reading for anyone shaping identity or strategy.

Peter Post is a communication, UX, and service designer, and partner at Studio Peter Post × Petra Esveld.

A Breath of Fresh Air
Finally, a management book that doesn’t call for radical change but a return to the core. Identity as Strategy is about knowing who you are as an organization—because once you do, engaging people and thriving in complex networks becomes far easier.

Through clear cases and a rich set of models, Stijn van Diemen shows how identity thinking deepens strategy and reveals new opportunities. Each familiar framework gets a fresh spin, keeping the reader alert and inspired. Rather than offering one formula, Van Diemen invites curiosity and reflection—an antidote to the sameness of copycat organizations.

Dr. Rob Poels is an organizational consultant and researcher specializing in digital transition and change.

A practical and refreshingly candid guide
This book offers a wealth of practical insights into how the concept of identity can shape the strategy of organizations, sectors, and regions. Through richly detailed case studies, it uncovers lessons that are directly applicable in similar contexts. Each case highlights a different dimension of identity: how it provides direction for growth and value creation, brings coherence to ambitions and activities, offers stability amid constant change, clarifies organizational meaning, and enables clear expression of who you are. Above all, the book demonstrates the true power of identity. It is a practical and refreshingly candid guide that will prove valuable to anyone involved in making strategic choices.

Dr Renate van der Meer, lecturer, Communication programme, researcher, Marketing & Customer Experience research group, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. PhD research: Collective identity & Multi-party collaboration: Steering and connecting in a context of differences.