The great management theorist Peter Drucker once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” While this is just the type of pithy phrase capable of eliciting a roomful of nodding heads, I wonder how many organizations have really moved beyond the platitude stage in terms of embracing the concept? Fewer than one would expect, I imagine. Saying culture is essential to the success of your business is easy, building one is hard.
A corporate culture is about conviction, which is something you live out every day rather than aspirational values. From a practical perspective, a company’s culture is built upon a small number of core tenets which are used to define desired behavior, thought processes, communication, and decision-making within the organization. In other words, a company’s culture is its internal standard of measurement against which it’s activities must continually be compared. Successfully inculcating corporate convictions is a function of continual reinforcement throughout all levels of the company. There is no “executive immunity.” A junior employee must possess the ability to “call up” a senior executives’ actions if they are inconsistent with the expressed core principles. If we were to try and define the purpose of a company’s culture and core convictions in nautical terms, they are the North Star.