What is driving the buzz around company culture? Why is culture becoming an increasingly important for business success?

1. BEYOND THE BUZZ
WHY CULTURE IS THE NEW
MANAGEMENT TASK
culturestars.com | max lamers

2. THOUGHTS ON
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE,
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT,
COMPLEXITY AND BUILDING
WINNING ORGANIZATIONS

3. “CULTURE EATS
STRATEGY FOR
BREAKFAST”
PETER DRUCKER

4. “TAKE CARE OF
CULTURE AND THE
REST WILL TAKE
CARE OF ITSELF”
TONY HSIEH

5. “DON’T F*CK UP
THE CULTURE”
PETER THIEL

6. Culture is arguably becoming an increasingly
important topic

7. Despite the increasing buzz around culture,
particularly in start-up land, the common
problems with culture are

8. 1. No one tells you how to do it
2. It never seems to be urgent
3. It’s fuzzy and hard to measure

9. But the biggest problem is, it remains poorly
understood why it’s becoming important in
the first place

10. WHAT’S REALLY DRIVING
THE BUZZ AROUND CULTURE?

11. “FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, YOU
CANNOT BUILD A COMPANY
THAT'S FIT FOR THE FUTURE
WITHOUT BUILDING ONE THAT'S
FIT FOR HUMAN BEINGS”
GARY HAMEL

12. People are dramatically changing
how they live and work1.

13. We are now entering the next evolutionary
stage of human development
Magic / Tribal Age
Traditional / Agrarian Age
Scientific / Industrial Age
Post-modern
/Information Age
? Age
Started emerging 50 yrs ago
Started emerging 500 yrs ago
Currently emerging

14. What is currently emerging is reflected
in the desire for
 Autonomy
 Personal unfolding
 Authenticity
 Purpose and meaning
…

15. THEN NOW
FOCUS Pension Purpose
NEED Good Boss Great
Colleagues
HOURS 9-5 Whenever
WORKPLACE Office Wherever
TENURE Whole Career Whatever
Work has already changed in big ways

16. Businesses are facing increasingly
complex and dynamic environments2.

17. Businesses are living through times of
unprecedented challenges determined by:
 Accelerating pace of change
 Hyper-competition
 Increasing volatility and uncertainty

18. The need for speed as well as agility drives the
innovation of mgmt paradigms and org design
1980s
Collaborative
Management
Network of
Team(s)
Top-down Power
Structure
2000s1900s-
70s
Level of
Dynamism and
Complexity of
Markets

19. 1960s-80s 1990s 2000s
Profit Growth,
Financial
Engineering
Customer Service,
Employees as
Leaders
Mission, Purpose,
Sustainability
Management by
Objective
Servant Leadership,
Work together
Empower the
Team
Jack Welch
Peter Drucker
Howard Schulz,
Steve Jobs
Google, Amazon,
Facebook, Netflix
The Executives are
King
The people are
King(s)
The Teams and
Team Leaders are
Kings
Management thinking has changed fundamentally

20. EXECUTION CULTURE
In a complex and dynamic world culture is the
operating system the business runs on, enabling it to
move fast, innovate and execute effectively

21. Culture is a powerful enabler for high
performance3.

22. Culture is the medium to achieve three outcomes
that characterize high performance organizations
 Performance alignment
 Psychological alignment
 Capacity for learning and change

23. Companies with strong cultures are likely to
achieve much better results
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2011/02/10/does-corporate-culture-drive-financial-performance/#afac424672d1
GROWTH STRONG WEAK
REVENUE 682% 166%
STOCK PRICE 901% 74%
NET INCOME 756% 1%

24. The new task for management is to learn how to
build and lead organizations that are
1. Truly engaging
2. Fast & adaptable
3. Vigorous & antifragile

25. How do you do it?

26. “COMPLEX PROBLEMS
HAVE SIMPLE, EASY
TO UNDERSTAND
WRONG ANSWERS”
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN

27. There are no simple and template-like solutions!

28. Work Environment
Office Space
Food
Facilities
Personalities
Personal values
Experience
Diversity
Policies
Code of Conduct
Behaviors
Procedures
Workplace Practices
Learning & Development
Retention
Recruitment
Onboarding
Management
Performance Feedback
Procedures
Managers
Leadership
Vision
Strategy
Mission
Core Values
Well-being
People
CULTURE =
f (ORG SYSTEMS + LEADERSHIP)
Culture comes down to and is the result of how you
lead, build and manage the company as a whole

29. 1. Consider Org Building a priority, not culture
2. Don’t copy best practices, copy best thinking
3. Learn from the fringe and dear to innovate
4. Know that it’s a process, there is no finish line
Consider these four important guidelines

30. GET MORE INSIGHTS ON
www.culturestars.com