Why Culture Is More Important Than Strategy

A Bain & Company survey showed 9 out of 10 senior executives believe that the role Corporate Culture plays in an organization is as important as Business Strategy.

I disagree.

I believe the Bain & Company question was flawed therefore giving the appearance that Corporate Culture and Strategy are two different things. They are not. Corporate Culture is the result of Business Strategy and therefore one cannot exist without the other. Any company seeking to separate the two or believing that they are not one in the same will struggle with their Culture and therefore will struggle to find high-performing salespeople, quality managers and top talent throughout their respective organizations.

Corporate Culture IS the strategy.

You don't build a Culture around success: you build success around a Culture.

• With a poor culture, there is little success - maybe accidental success but certainly not consistent.
• You cannot build a top-performing organization with mediocre people and have it sustain for any period.
• If you had a poor Culture and were achieving accidental success, would it matter to you to improve your Culture?
• You won't attract the best people in the industry by creating a mediocre Culture environment.

If the point of the exercise is to be the industry standard to which your competitors are measured, wouldn't you want to assemble the best and the brightest minds in your industry to be able to lead your industry segment?

So now, do you have a plan for building your culture? If you don't have a Strategy for attracting the best and the brightest, improving your current people and eliminating those who don't fit in then you will become just another mediocre organization who can't seem to figure out why your competitor is stealing your best people and why there seems to be so many excuses when times are tough.

Corporate Culture IS the Strategy. All lasting success stems from that.
--
Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

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