Company culture
If I were faced with the situation of being able to provide just one business support session to a client, I would choose to do this on company culture. Why? Because company culture lies at the heart of every great business. In fact, I would go further and say that you can’t have a sustained, high-performing business unless the company culture is healthy.
So what do we mean by “company culture” and why is it so important? Company culture is a function of what the business is trying to achieve overall, the reason it exists and most importantly the core values that it stands for, i.e. what fundamentally matters most to the business about how the people in it go about doing things. It is the values that make the primary difference and characterizes the personality of the business. Like it or not, every business has a company culture, but the more enlightened ones will write down what they truly aspire to be seen as and will share this with all staff so that it is clear ‘how things are done around here’. Company values will usually include terms like: integrity, customer service, innovation, loyalty, open communication etc and collectively will uniquely describe what the business stands for.
Company culture starts at the top and hence if a company culture is bad, it is the leadership team’s job to fix it (note the similarity with the phrase “the fish rots from the head down”). Equally, all staff should ensure that they understand the company’s core values and behave in accordance with these.
The importance of a good company culture is that it shows up everywhere and sets expectations of behaviour for all those within it. It also has a massive impact on business performance. On 12th July 1999, Tony Hsieh established an online shoe company called Zappos founded on 10 core values:
Deliver WOW Through Service
Embrace and Drive Change
Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
Pursue Growth and Learning
Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
Do More With Less
Be Passionate and Determined
Be Humble
The company hired and fired based on these and the company became so successful that just ten years later Zappos was sold to Amazon for US$1 billion because Amazon recognized “the uniqueness of Zappos's culture”.
Not only does company culture set expectations on behaviour and improve business performance, it necessarily also has a major role to play in attracting the right staff (i.e. those who share the company’s core values). If done correctly, the company culture will be central to marketing messages and hence describe why consumers should purchase from the business.
What is the company culture like in your business and how can you engage staff to improve it?
Ian Ash ACC, AInstIB
Managing Director OrgMent Talent Solutions - www.omtalent.com.au