This document discusses the importance of corporate culture for organizations. It argues that corporate culture embodies an organization's vision, values and practices, and guides how innovation and corporate social responsibility programs are implemented in a sustainable way. It provides the example of Samsung, which was able to transform from low-quality production to innovative, high-quality products by changing its organizational culture and values through the "Frankfurt declaration." The document stresses that corporate culture must be intentionally developed and most importantly, executed, in order to be effective and ensure consistency with business strategies and societal expectations over the long run.

1. 2014 Nigeria Social Enterprise Reports (International edition)
THEME: Creating an enabling culture for sustainability
INNOVATION,
Corporate Culture and the
Game of Ping Pong
– Idagu David
ower is nothing without control”
goes a popular slogan for Pirelli Tyres
Company. This underscores the
reality of Africa’s corporate
environment which today is sensitive to not only
how innovative an organization should be to
compete globally, but also how they create a
social balance through the discharge of
sustainable corporate social investment (CSI)
programmes. As much as the innovative power of
an organization is the bedrock for staying ahead
in today’s dynamic business environment, the
discipline of execution in alignment with
organizational values is necessary to maintain a
sustainable business strategy.
Corporate culture is the custodian of business
discipline, which to a great extent determines
what an organization’s values are and how they
are aligned to every of business strategy;
including their Corporate Social Investment (CSI)
programmes. A clearly defined corporate culture
embodies the elements of vision, values, practices
and people, which are driving forces for
sustainable engagement with stakeholders at
different levels of organizational operations.
“If innovation is a free spirited young
horse, corporate culture will be the bridle
which controls and channels the horse’s
energy appropriately”.
In view of the new reality of an increasingly more
charged, complex, dynamic and challenging
business landscape and even more picky
consumers and environmentally aware
stakeholders, companies are forced to power up
their innovative capabilities, trying out newer and
more aggressive ways to court attention, sell their
products at profitable margins and still maintain a
healthy reputation as a responsible corporate
citizen. In this pursuit of the pie, most companies
are often times tempted to cut corners and
engage in practices that could spell doom for
their brand, stakeholders as well as their
environment on the long run. To curtail this,
balance is needed, and this can only be created
and sustained by an intentional corporate culture
that exists within such an organization.
orporate Culture – Beyond Ping-Pong
Developing a corporate culture for a
business is a requisite to ensuring
consistency of business strategies and much more
importantly, an alignment with values and
principles that hold true to both organizational
ideals and societal expectations – a commitment
to social responsibility.
Innovation without the guidance of a corporate
culture is like playing the game of ping-pong –
with burst of ideas that increases profitability but
could eventually damage corporate reputation in
the long term. Most organizations would argue
that they do have a corporate culture, especially
as they had taken the time to write them out in
their employee handbook and pasted them
conspicuously at the visitor’s reception.
However, an effective organizational corporate
culture is beyond creating a clean list of guiding
principles or would I say; dos and don’ts for an
organization. It is driven by vision; a projection of
where, how and most importantly, why the
business should be in existence; 20, 50, or 100
years from now. Corporate culture, just as every
other successful business strategy must be
developed intentionally with the end in mind.
They do not evolve by chance and organizational
leaders are vested with the responsibility of
initiating and propagating them within their
business.
“P
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2. 2014 Nigeria Social Enterprise Reports (International edition)
THEME: Creating an enabling culture for sustainability
nnovation fueled by Culture: the Samsung
Case Study
Up until 1993, Samsung was considered a
high-volume, low-quality producing company
and this affected its brand reputation as well as
sales volumes. This Korean conglomerate needed
to re-define their position in the electronic market
and knew that the only way to create a
sustainable innovative culture was to change their
organizational values and principles. Prior to that
time, a typical Samsung phone had design
defects and was an obvious copy-cat of the
Motorolla brand, which then was a market leader.
The decision to change that stereotype did not
come from a ‘burst’ of innovative ideas, but a
realization that sustainable innovation can only
thrive and be sustained within a culture that
encourages it. This gave birth to the now famous
“Frankfurt declaration” quote “change
everything but your wife
and children” by Samsung’s chairman
Lee Kun Hee, which has seen Samsung dominate
the electronic market with high quality; high end
innovative products - from Smartphones to
SmartTVs.
This is an affirmation to the fact that the
innovative capabilities of any organization can be
fuelled and sustained by the corporate culture
that exists within it.
xecution is King
Just as innovation without execution is
tantamount to building a museum of ideas
and strategies that will have no real impact on an
organization’s productivity, corporate culture is
nothing without execution. To win with corporate
culture goes beyond having well designed
graphically appealing handbooks about lofty
ideals. Those that only succeed to remain on the
shelve or at best deliberated at company
executive retreats. Without the discipline of
execution, it makes no difference investing in
developing a corporate culture for an
organization, for the ‘true test for effectiveness’ of
any corporate culture is in its execution.
t’s a Commitment
Taking steps towards developing a sustainable
organizational culture is a commitment. A
commitment to stakeholders- customers,
shareholders and social environment. It is an
organization saying that they will remain true to
their values no matter how harsh the business
environment gets. Fact is, it is easier said than
done; as the litmus test of an organization’s
commitment to social responsibility will be when
they are faced with a hard choice. A choice
between making profit at the detriment of their
social environment and stakeholders or that of
exploring innovative ways to achieve
organizational objectives in line with their core
values.
If there is no commitment, innovation or
corporate culture will all boil down to engaging in
game of corporate strategy ping pong.
Idagu Odachi David is the creative manager of QV3
ideation, a content marketing and marketing
communication consultancy collaborating with brands
and SMEs, helping them craft and tell their brand
story. He is also an Associate of the Nigerian Institute
of Public Relations.
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