Monday, December 27, 2010

Corporate Culture – The Performance Driver

At a gathering of business people, I was approached by a mid-aged entrepreneur. He wanted me to advise him how small companies can introduce “Corporate Culture”?

I said “to me corporate culture is to do with people’s behavior at work and it starts with the BOSS. He is the one who creates vision and practice some specific values”.

When Vision and Values penetrate in the day-to-day working practice of the rest of the team, some specific systems or “Behaviors” emerge and become “Corporate Culture” of that particular company.

Readers would agree with me that entrepreneurs, particularly owners that run smaller companies, often get busy in FIRE FIGHTING and ignore the fact that their own believes are fundamental to determining corporate culture in their organizations and in the long run, vision and values are the two factors help shape the work environment and serve as performance drivers.

In my seventeen years of engagement with the British Deputy High Commission, I observed that in some cases, corporate culture exist by default, however, in smaller and younger organizations, owner’s behavior determines the direction.

So the challenge for you gentlemen is to create good values at your workplace, the corporate culture will emerge automatically!

4 comments:

keuka design said...

I completely agree with you, the business owner must set the tone. Unfortuantely in small businesses, when the employees do not want to follow the lead, the owners do get caught up in putting out fires. Mostly because they are short handed.

Stephanie said...

I like this...especially for the small business owners that our company values are a reflection of our own values. Governance in all forms starts at the top.

Stephanie Quick
iqu, llc

Unknown said...

I couldn't agree more! What is sometimes lacking is a professional work force, especially in smaller non-profits where salary and benefits are lacking and thus career-minded employees are harder to find. A huge amount of time is spent putting out fires starting by staff conflicts!

Adeel Ahmed's Blog said...

That's true even for the large organizations. A fine thought ...