The challenge
When a corporate scandal hits the press, it’s rarely an isolated incident, but rather a spike in a pattern of behaviour that already exists within the culture. Certain behaviours have probably been encouraged, or at least tolerated, which lead to reputational problems. The results are the same- reputation damage and financial loss.
The News of the World, FIFA, Volkswagen, BP, Nike, Enron, Lehman Brothers all suffered. Reputation damage will at best dent your performance and tarnish your name, at worse it will cause the collapse of your business.
The challenge for organisations is not to merely define corporate values and standards, but to ensure they are truly lived in the day-to-day.
Recognise the risks
Action checklist
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The challenge
A merger not only brings together two or more organisations, it brings together multiple - and unique - cultures. It’s a high-risk situation. Studies show that in 50-70% of cases where mergers dilute value, the cause is a failure to successfully manage the culture. So how do you unite these in order to construct a strong culture for the new entity? How do you manage culture in a merger?
Recognise the risks
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The challenge
It’s the cloud to the silver lining of every organisation that goes through rapid growth: How do you identify and preserve the aspects of your culture that forged its success at the same time as a wave of new recruits threatens to dilute its cohesiveness?
It’s not just numbers coming into the business. As organisations grow, they have to hire new people with specific skill sets, and cultural fit can easily become secondary to an urgent need for the business to acquire such skills.
Growth may also mean geographic expansion, or multiple sites, which can lead to an additional breakdown of cultural cohesion. So, how do you manage culture during rapid growth?
Recognise the risks
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The challenge
A new leader or CEO will want to put his or her own stamp on the organisation. They are likely to bring an influx of sweeping changes and the installation of new systems and symbols.
These may work, but must always consider in parallel the behavioural and cultural aspects. Dissonance and cynicism between the leader and his or her people can slow down growth.
So, how can a new CEO make their mark, utilise past experience and effectively harness and develop or change culture to realise genuine benefits?
Recognise the risks
Action checklist
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The challenge
The senior team casts a long shadow. They set the culture through their behaviour, the decisions they make and their priorities. If you have defined performance outcomes that depend on certain behaviours for their achievement, the senior team must ‘walk the talk’ and align their behaviours, values, and beliefs to the culture they require to implement the business’ strategy. It's the basis for truly effective senior team behaviour.
How do you achieve such alignment in a group that may have their own agendas, drivers, beliefs and unique personalities? How do you get those who don’t yet see the value in culture management as a business tool to work with you?
Recognise the risks
Action checklist
The challenge
Every business strategy represents a change from the past. You want more market share, more revenue, more products, more customers and less cost. You are asking the business to achieve something new, whether it is to do the same thing but better, or to do something entirely different things. So how will your people need to behave differently in order to achieve this?
When we work with clients, we help them identify how much of their strategy will be risk if the existing behaviours remain unchecked. If, for example, you want to achieve a revenue increase of $500m and believe half of this may be at risk if behaviours do not change, then it is well worth investing in culture management.
Recognise the risks
Action checklist
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