CULTURE EATS STRATEGY FOR BREAKFAST
Peter F. Drucker, Austrian economist
Strategy, especially innovation strategy, is important for companies to survive in the market environment. It sets the direction, so to speak.
An appreciative corporate culture that supports the achievement of objectives begins with the management, which formulates the objectives and strategies and exemplifies the values of the company. Which means with you.
Changing a corporate or organisational culture requires time, awareness and patience. It cannot be directly influenced or specifically changed.
The focus must be placed on other opportunities for corporate development. These will then always bring about a change in the corporate culture. But this happens indirectly. It's not about changing the culture, but it starts with the question of how supportive or inhibiting the dynamics of the corporate culture viewed in and from the present are likely to be.
Corporate culture always refers to the past - but it changes from the perspective of the respective present of the observer. Even the best strategy is unsuccessful if it is not backed by a corporate culture in which projects are implemented in a committed and targeted manner.
Accordingly, only the formal structure can be edited by changing decisive decision-making premises such as programmes, communication channels or people. Every change to the formal structure has an impact on the way in which people interact within the organisation and the rules according to which communication is organised.
In each organisational context, culture is understood as the set of rules that are taken for granted and applied, and which only come to the fore when they are violated. Looking at the corporate or organisational culture as an interpretative framework for and of behaviour provides a better understanding of the most diverse patterns of behaviour and communication and shows why people or entire companies present themselves in this way and not otherwise.
the economic success of your company
motivated employees who identify with your company
employees who are happier and more productive
employees who are open to mistakes and learn how not to repeat them in the future
THIS IS HOW WE CAN HELP YOU
We at SOL support you competently in analysing your strategies and goals as well as the necessary corporate culture, embedded in a positive working environment that is characterised by:
Respectful interaction with each other
A supportive management culture
Shared values and ideals
Quality and innovation
High customer orientation
THE BASIS
Companies bring together many people who have different views of ‘right and wrong’ or of how professional challenges should be dealt with. If it is not clearly communicated how something should be done, if employees do not recognise or feel the rules of the game, expectations must be constantly clarified or adjusted. This leads to friction, misunderstandings and frustration. The result can be internal and even outright resignation. This costs time and therefore money.
The basis for a well-functioning corporate culture is therefore a shared understanding of the desired reality.
STRATEGY AND MISSION STATEMENT
We can speak of strategies when actions are geared towards achieving specified goals and those responsible for achieving these goals are named. Mission statements, on the other hand, like all other formulations of values, are much more abstractly formulated than strategic goals.
Although guiding principles also provide preferred points of view for actions, they leave open which actions are favoured over others. Mission statements can tolerate partial contradictions between them (e.g. customer orientation versus employee orientation).
For its external image, the company needs a mission statement to which external stakeholders can orientate themselves and within which employees can act. The more clearly this is defined and the fewer contradictions there are between aspiration and reality, or between strategy and mission statement, the less time and motivation will be wasted.
THE TRANSFORMATION
The question is: Does your company have a goal- and strategy-orientated corporate culture? Does your company have a strategy that is as consistent as possible, coupled with differentiating guiding principles? We can analyse these and thus qualify their influence on the company's results.
This is how SOL lays the foundation for a sustainable transformation.