Organizational culture as a Competitive Advantage

Discussing about culture and its impact in the organization is always an exciting proposition. Therefore I looked forward to the evening meeting of NIPM on the subject that happened on 22nd November 2017. The speaker was Mr Harish. H.V; partner, India Leadership team, Grant Thornton India. He started his talk by drawing attention to the famous quote of Peter Drucker- " Organizational culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

In simple terms,"Culture is how things happen in an organization." Looking at the way things happen, people form an opinion or come to a  judgement about the culture of the organization. All activities and areas  of your company right from reception to batrooms to employee behaviour, staff retention efforts etc, reflect the company culture.

Culture is not what top management or senior executives declare as the culture of the organization but what people believe as true in the organization and they respond through their behaviour accordingly. In this connection,the speaker gave a very interesting insight on the recent fiasco involving Indigo Airlines, when a customer was manhandled by the staff.

Mr Harish pointed out that for the company, punctuality has always been top priority. Gradually a culture had developed of achieving and maintaining this goal of punctuality 'at all costs' including at the cost of customer needs. Thus, even if the company screams from the roof tops that "Customer is our king and his/her needs come first", the employees can pick up the nonverbal signals  that highlight the fact that punctuality is  the most  important. Therefore things happen based on what people perceive as important and on  those things that are rewarded in real terms in the organization.
 
The worst possible culture is when people have received the message "Just do what you are told" and they tend to act accordingly. Mr Harish cited the famous ' social experiment' involving five monkeys and a ladder. A group of scientists placed five monkeys in a cage, and in the middle was placed a ladder with bananas on top.

Every time a monkey went up the ladder, the scientists soaked the rest of the monkeys with cold water. After a while, every time a monkey would start up the ladder, the others would pull it down and beat it up. After a time, no monkey would dare try climbing the ladder, no matter how great the temptation.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-PvBo75PDo 

 In this connection, I am  reminded of the quote of Grace Hopper, American computer scientist who said "The most damaging phrase in the language is: "It’s always been done that way."

When you are looking to change strategy, it is necessary that culture also changes to imbibe the new approach. Here training has got a very imporatant role to play for preparing the employees. The reward and recognition policies need to be aligned to the culture. Story telling is a powerful tool for aligning culture. Readers may be interested in my earlier posts on story telling, the links to which are given below:

https://hrdian.blogspot.in/2014/06/stories-from-work-place.html  

https://hrdian.blogspot.in/2014/10/webinar-on-corporate-story-telling.html  

  The speaker discussed the case of DRL (Dr. Reddy's Laboratories)  a multinational company employing over 20,000 employees. .As the company grew, over the years, the bureaucratic procedures had slowed down the day to day working. There was a desire to be nimble footed and innovative. In this connection the slogan " Good health can't wait" was highlighted and all stake holders were requested to give their suggestions. Projects were selected to highlight agility, innovation, customer centricity and more user friendly packaging. Employees were encouraged to contemplate on " What I am I going to do for this?" As a result a young scientist broke the rules and got a project done in 15 days.

The learning from the above case study is that we need to (1) Frame the issue (2) Align everyone to the common goal (3) Demonstrate quick results (4) Create a safe environment (5) Embrace symbols like catchy slogans, logos etc to keep the goal always in the minds of the people.

Another case discussed,was that of Zappos.com.an online shoe and clothing shop based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The founder,Nick Swinmurn had the idea of online shopping for shoes when he could not find the shoes he wanted at his local store. The on line selling offers customers more variety to choose from, facilitates home delivery and gives them the option to return product if not satisfied. Zappos has strived to be the best customer based company focusing on customer satisfaction. It has the company's phone number on top of every webpage and encourages customers to call and give feedback.

Zappos has designed and implemented what they call "Zappos culture book." The Zappos culture book is a collage of unedited submissions from employees within the Zappos Family of companies sharing what the Zappos culture means to them.  A new version is created each year and it reflects the true feelings, thoughts and opinions of the employees. Whether one is the CEO, or just started yesterday, everyone has a place in the Culture Book.Employees are encouraged to write whatever comes to them, without revisiting what they submitted in years past. Like a yearbook, the Zappos Culture Book is a snapshot of the past year through everyone's eyes. According to one employee Liz.G "The Zappos Culture is more than what goes on in the office. It is the relationships we form and the friendships we make. You can’t find that anywhere else. I never have."

The focus on  cuture is maintained in the company, through a three months training wherein the core values are reinforced. The hiring and firing is done based on the values.The speaker also spoke about delivering "now" through service; enforcing and driving change. Another point that was underscored by the speaker was "Never outsource your key competency."

To my mind, the proceedings of the evening provide a lot of food for thought and introspection. As the impact of culture is being increasingly acknowledged and appreciated, corporates would do well to focus on it for best results. After all the father of modern management had pointed out its relevance long ago and in his characteristic style, indicated that culture eats strategy- for breakfast, lunch and dinner!