Corporate Culture
Pat Townsend & Joan Gebhardt
ptownsend@qualitydigest.com
Phil Myhra, the president of
the company that one of the authors (Pat) of this column
works for, often makes the point that: “Everything
rests on mission, quality and culture. Mission is what we
do; quality is how we do it; and culture is how we work
together to get it done.” The secret of long-term
success is, of course, to pay attention to all three at
the same time and to work to keep them not only in sync
but being mutually supportive.
Previous columns have addressed mission and quality (as
will future columns), but this one will focus on “the
culture thing.” Every group of any size has a culture.
The key is for the people who lead and who make up that
organization to choose and define the culture they want
rather than just letting it happen accidentally. It is,
after all, their organization; the people who make up the
organization should choose who they are and who they will
be perceived to be.
Culture is how we interact with each other—it’s
how we treat one another; it’s the collective set
of habits, beliefs and processes shared by the majority
of the members of a particular collection of people. How
frequently and how well we communicate with each other or
say “thank you” to each other or offer a helping
hand--all of these also come under “culture.”
It’s who any group is.
Anyone who thinks that his or her company doesn’t
have a distinct culture needs only to ask a customer or
a partner. The assessment will probably start with, “You
people always…”
A culture can be consciously pursued. It’s not possible
for anyone to tell another person how he or she will feel,
but it is possible to define a set of actions that must
be taken on a repeated basis. When the action becomes a
natural part of how the person acts, it’s part of
the culture--like it or not.
An example of how a consciously pursued behavior can become
part of a corporate culture is given in the new book by
retiring IBM CEO Lou Gerstner. One of the central lessons
of Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance: Inside IBM’s
Historic Turnaround is the importance of culture--a point
that came as a surprise to Gerstner.
In the early 1980s, an IBM spokesperson once said: “There
is no dress code at IBM. Our people simply like to wear
white shirts and blue suits.” What became a rigid
dress code at IBM began as a move to make customers comfortable.
In the early days of computer sales, banks were major customers
and most bankers tended to dress conservatively. To make
them comfortable, the IBM leadership encouraged its sales
force and on-site technicians to dress similarly.
What began as a customer-friendly initiative first became
company habit and then an ingrained part of the culture--long
after bankers began dressing less formally and long after
bankers were the company’s major customers.
Under Gerstner, the source of IBM’s dress code was
re-discovered and publicized, and a shift to less-formal
clothing habits was accomplished. And IBM folks once again
began looking like their customers.
The point is that a corporate culture can be chosen, although
it must be done with some care. A company can decide what
it would like to be--and be seen as--and can then choose
behaviors that are commonly associated with companies that
have the desired traits. That specific behavior can be modeled,
taught and encouraged. Perhaps even before the new culture
has been fully internalized by every employee of the company,
customer perception can begin to change, reflecting the
new culture.
In order to maximize the possibility of success for its
quality efforts, the leadership of an organization must
assess its culture. Once that assessment is made, decisions
can be made about what to do to shape the culture so that
it best supports the company’s quality efforts and
mission. A corporate culture is much like an individual
culture: It determines how people perceive you. It can be
changed but only with a deliberate effort.
Mission, quality and culture. No one of the three can
be left to chance.
Pat Townsend and Joan Gebhardt have written more than
200 articles and six books, including Commit to Quality
(John Wiley & Sons, 1986); Quality in Action: 93 Lessons
in Leadership, Participation, and Measurement (John Wiley
& Sons, 1992); Five-Star Leadership: The Art and Strategy
of Creating Leaders at Every Level (John Wiley & Sons,
1997); Recognition, Gratitude & Celebration (Crisp Publications,
1997); How Organizations Learn: Investigate, Identify, Institutionalize
(Crisp Publications, 1999); and Quality Is Everybody's Business
(CRC Press, 1999). Pat Townsend has recently re-entered
the corporate world and is now dealing with “leadership.com”
issues as a practitioner as well as an observer, writer
and speaker. He is now chief quality officer for UICI, a
diverse financial services corporation headquartered in
the Dallas area. Letters to the editor regarding this column
can be sent to letters@qualitydigest.com.
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