Instantly Uncover Your Corporate Culture

Best Definition of "Corporate Culture"

If you ask 10 people to define "organizational culture," you will get 11 different answers!

Fortunately, from my consulting and writing on leadership and organizational change, I created my definition of organizational culture:

"Corporate culture is how every employee knows she or he must act ? even if no one is watching."

Knowing your company's culture proves crucial for multiple reasons, including:

+ Only organizational changes that fit into your company's culture will succeed.

Changes not fitting into the culture will fail and not achieve desired results.

+ Hire employees who fit into the corporate culture. That is, "Do not try to fit a square peg into a round hole!"

Fastest Way to Uncover Your Organization's Culture

From my consulting experience, I devised a super-quick way to uncover an organization's culture: Discover the story all employees know and tell other employees. In fact, hearing the company's signature story is a right-of-passage for new employees. Hearing the story implicitly tells a new employee the actions and values the organization expects.

Here are two examples taken from my book entitled, Absolutely Fabulous Organizational Change?: Strategies for Success from America's Best-Run Companies.

1st Story: Ritz-Carlton-Hotel Company

Leonardo Inghilleri, senior vice president of The Ritz-Carlton-Hotel Company, told me this story often is repeated among his company's employees.

"Ladies & Gentlemen Serving Ladies & Gentlemen"

When he was 14 years old, Horst Schulze -- currently president of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company -- worked in as an apprentice waiter in a very fine restaurant in his native Germany. Initially, he saw himself as a "servant."

Then, he realized the fine restaurant was staffed by highly skilled professionals. For example, he looked in awe as he repeatedly saw the maître d' chat with and entertain the diners. In fact, the maître d' spoke many languages. So, he spoke German to the German diners, French to the French guests, and English to the English customers. He also expertly helped diners with their food and wine choices.

From this experience, it dawned on Horst Schulze that a luxury establishment is composed of ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. He instilled this insight into The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company where he now is president.

Ritz-Carlton's Culture

Company president Horst Schulze's experience gives rise to The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company's customer care motto which precisely expresses its corporate culture: "We Are Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen." Note: The company's culture perfectly dovetails with Ritz-Carlton's big, exciting, compelling vision: "Our key goal is to be the premier worldwide provider of luxury travel and hospitality products and services."

2nd Story: Intuit

Brooks Fisher, vice president and general manager of Intuit's consumer internet business, told me Intuit's signature story is the following:

"Follow Me Home"

Scott Cook, founder of Intuit, was so focused on understanding and fulfilling the customers' needs that he invented "Follow Me Home." He would go to a store where Intuit's software was being sold. Then, while a customer was buying Intuit software, he would ask if he could follow the customer home. At the home, he would watch how the customer installed and used the software.

Intuit's Culture

Given Intuit's story, what is the company's culture -- or main focus? Fisher says the story conveys Intuit's culture which is "The customer always is first." And, as Fisher puts it, "That's how you win." Note: The story also precisely meshes with Intuit's big, compelling vision: "Our key goal is to revolutionize how people do financial work."

Hire Applicants Who 'Fit Into' Your Company's Culture

You know it proves difficult to "fit a square peg into a round hole." Likewise, companies need to hire applicants who 'fit into' their organizational culture.

For instance, one company I consult to is ultra-customer service oriented with super-friendly employees. When we did benchmarking studies for this company with the Abilities & Behavior Forecaster? Test ? to customize the Forecaster? Test to help hire the best ? we discovered successful employees in every job scored high on two of the test's scales:

+ Helping People Motivation, i.e., customer service-orientation

+ Friendliness

Such customer service-focused and super-friendly employees 'fit into' the company's culture, and prove most likely to succeed.

Message = Don't bet against your organizational culture when you aim to hire the best. Fortunately, you can do by

1. benchmarking your "superstar" employees in each job ? by having them fill-out a validated pre-employment test to discover their "benchmark" test scores

2. focusing on hiring applicants whose test scores are similar to your company's "superstar" employees' test scores

Now, You Can Uncover Your Organization's Culture

To discover your corporate culture, you simply need to uncover the story that

1. employees hear in their first week on-the-job and repeat to new employees

2. perfectly conveys how all employees must act ? even when no one is watching!

Usually, the story is about the company's founder. It typically conveys insights and actions that lead to remarkable, profitable success.

© Copyright 2005 Michael Mercer, Ph.D., http://www.DrMercer.com

Michael Mercer, Ph.D., is a speaker, book author and founder of The Mercer Group, Inc. He delivers 50 speeches and seminars annually at companies and conferences. His five books include (a) Absolutely Fabulous Organizational Change? and also (b) Hire the Best -- & Avoid the Rest?. Dr. Mercer developed a widely used pre-employment test ? Abilities & Behavior Forecaster? Test ? which helps companies choose productive applicants. You can (1) get a free subscription to his Management e-Newsletter at http://www.DrMercer.com or (2) call him at 847-382-0690.

---

Innovation Management ? Good Leadership

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Developing Your Mission

"The best Leader is one who knows how to pick... Read More

Is Your Business Ethical?

Ethics - in a profession or trade - is that... Read More

The Power of the Contract in Performance Management

An essential step in managing the performance of salespeople is... Read More

Be a Change Agent ( Part 1)

Aligning business organizations to be successful in the present and... Read More

Project Management 101

Project management is a very important business concept because it... Read More

Making a Decision to Outsource: Driving Factors

Most executives view offshore outsourcing most of all as a... Read More

The Leaders Fallacy May Be Howard Deans Undoing

Howard Dean's tenure as chairman of the Democratic National Committee... Read More

The Best Way to Keep Track of Meetings

How should you keep track of meetings?Have you ever wanted... Read More

Plan for Business Success - 6 Reasons to Succession Plan

Succession Planning provides many valuable assets to your business. Yet... Read More

On The Job Training is Something You Canâ??t Afford to Skip

Trained employees are more productive employees; thereâ??s no doubt about... Read More

Smart Staffing: Replacing a Key Manager

Have you been in this situation? One of your top... Read More

Time Management Tips for Managers

Late last year I was presenting a workshop for the... Read More

10 Fool Proof Ways To Intensify Your Profits

1. Create benefit intensifiers for your list of ad copy... Read More

Keep Your Good Workers by Building Good Leaders

A recent report from the American Hospital Association's Commission on... Read More

How to Prepare for Your Companys Financial Future

Sooner or later, most business owners need to look for... Read More

Organizational Culture and Creative Blocks ? the Similarities

Few Decision makers see the link between between creativity and... Read More

Disaster Prevention Tips For Hiring A New Manager

It happens over and over in businesses every day.Within large... Read More

Employee Orientation: The 90 Day Difference

Why do some new managers succeed while others fail? It... Read More

3 Tests To Hire The Best

Question: What's the easiest, cheapest and quickest way to have... Read More

Business Fails When We Do Not Talk

You may remember being told as a child, "Keep quiet!"... Read More

The DNA of Motivation

It really is about motivation. After all, what impels someone... Read More

Five Strategies To Strengthen Your Company?s Financial Management

Too many businesses wait until a crisis occurs before they... Read More

Organizational Structure, Creativity, Innovation

Organizational structure can inhibit or foster creativity and innovation. The... Read More

5 Steps to Identify Core Processes

Part Two of Creating Well-Defined Processes SeriesNext Week: ImplementationLast week,... Read More

Performance Appraisal - Ten Stupid Things Managers Do To Screw It Up

Performance appraisals aren't fun. But a lot of the time... Read More

Training Managers and New Trainers

Training managers use many of the same interpersonal and analytical... Read More

10 Steps Towards A Stress-Free Introduction Into Management

Becoming a manager for the first time can be an... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management: The Value Of Due Diligence

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

How Managers Can Turn Failures Into Successes

Although there are real, external reasons for managerial difficulty ?... Read More

The Red Phone - Management Consulting in 30 Seconds or Less

Modern business faces complex problems; management often calls upon highly-specialized... Read More

Lone Rangers Suffer without Tonto

A lone ranger is someone who prefers working in solitude... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Improving Workplace Safety

This article relates to the Safety and Working Environment competency... Read More