Entrepreneurs often choose strategy over corporate culture. But it’s a mistake to forget about organizational culture. We use cultures to differentiate products and to build brands. Just being different doesn’t count; we must deliver a new experience for our customers—and our employees must enjoy it.
This article examines the concept of a corporate culture, and presents practical and actionable advice for identifying your organization’s culture and implementing it from the inside out.
What Is A Corporate Culture?
You want to be a high-performing organization. You must know what drives your people’s performance, and you must make sure your people know you have their backs. But how do you go about determining your organization’s culture and whether your people thrive in it? That question is a good place to start:
A Culture is anything you do, say, and believe that makes other people feel (e.g., feel good or safe) and think. The following are the essential elements of a culture:
Focusing on the customer
The key to a successful corporate culture is first and foremost customer focus. This approach to organizational governance is the basis of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. It is the best way to ensure your people are engaged in the customer experience, to know how your company is viewed by your customers, and to build a profitable business.
Creating clear and strong lines of communication
It’s important to keep your organization operating as a team (see The Best Team in Business), so your people need to be able to talk to each other regularly (the more they can do this, the better). They need to know what is going on and where to find information, too. This helps to maintain an open dialogue and a sense of a shared commitment to the organization’s mission and goals.
Flexible, individual approach to problem solving
A culture should be as individual as you are. There are no right answers within a company. There is only right action. This, in turn, allows you to respond quickly and creatively to issues and challenges at all levels of your organization—even at the top levels of your organization.
Fitting in
The culture of the organization needs to enable people to work together and to create a sense of community. This means it should foster a sense of belonging. For example, a top executive of a Fortune 500 company was approached recently by a friend who was the founder of a successful and rapidly gaining startup. His company had begun as a consulting company a decade earlier, and had gradually grown to become one of the top 15 fastest-growing companies at an emerging technology company that employed 3,500. He told the executive, “I’m trying to find a way to get into this company to save your company.” After about ten minutes of conversation, the new CEO invited him to lunch and then asked in an unusual way, “How can you get into our company and benefit our company?” His answer: “Well, you told me about your company, and I have the idea, and we could do this together.”
An organization without a formal culture is one that is defined by a set of internal cultural beliefs. These include individual characteristics that are perceived by employees as important to success in the organization. These perceptions then shape how they view their colleagues and company. A culture is also created when an organization defines values and rules for the behavior of individuals within the group. Each person, based on perceptions and beliefs, takes his or her actions into consideration. The process of creating a culture is a long and constant process, one that is often inextricably linked to the company’s overall success and growth.
The Need for a Strong Cultural Identity
Every organization, however large or small, must have a firm sense of its culture; otherwise, it will risk becoming a homogenous unit, an echo from the past, a unit without its own identity. A lack of cultural identity can quickly become an impediment to productivity, and can even erode team spirit and coherence, even in companies that do not have their own cultures.