The Culture of Strategy (4)

THE CULTURE OF STRATEGY (4)

Culture is not cast in stone. Culture must be strong and burning, but it must be able to evolve.

One of the reasons why the then ailing Apple Corporation called by its then ousted CEO in the person of Steve Jobs was that the culture had failed and needed a revamp. When Steve Jobs came back in and did his job, today we have Apple corporation as one of the most valuable organizations in the world.

General Electric (GE) had a culture of serious bureaucracy and wanted to be the leader in everything and every market to represent the giant they are. But there were so many leakages that they were sinking more than they were floating. Then comes the new CEO in the person of Jack Welch. He collapsed all the bureaucracy structures and created a new culture of accessibility by all to leadership, then he reassessed the market and said GE can be all things to everyone but not all things to its stakeholders who were supposed to be priority as an organization and he went about to change the focus and culture of the organization to represent value for most of its stakeholders which included a training and development system for its staff ingrained into the culture, a succession planning system creating healthy competition, and many more. Initially, a lot of people, especially his staff never liked him for his decisions, but over time, they came to appreciate his style and its benefit to the organization and to them. This turned their fortunes around and stamped their name in the business world as the leader. All the business successes mentioned above were riding on culture and where needed, changing the culture. This principle has not changed, implementation maybe relative to each organization or country, but its same. The principle is not different irrespective of the size of your organization, it is how you implement it that will be different.

?When Nokia found out about the touchscreen phone, they owned the market then but felt the culture of physical keypad phone was too strong to be eroded overnight, but that is what happened and that wiped them out. The culture was good, and they owned over 70% of the market, they were comfortable and felt they could relax and enjoy the new kingdom of theirs without evolving with the new external culture and this was their undoing. You should always cast your culture but be cognizant of the external environment, locally and globally.

The culture of an organization is best displayed by its mid/low level to customer facing staff. Same with a nation, you see its true culture by how the police, school system, health system, is and not by just what the government/leadership says. A system that respects life will have a top end health system and ensure the people can access it. A culture that values education will always place priority on the education of its people and will be reflected in its education and training infrastructures. The true culture of my country Nigeria is reflective in the police system and environment, it can be seen in the educational system and infrastructures, it can be seen in the health system and its infrastructures. All that is required is a leadership that values such genuinely and the system will bounce back better than it has ever been.

Success is not by mistake, it is deliberate, success is not accidental, it is seen then achieved. Success and leadership are from the mind, culture is from the mind, culture is more unwritten than written. It is an embodiment of the personality of the leadership of the system, either of an organization or a nation. This means that as a leader, for your team to truly succeed, you must have a personal success culture. A habit that breeds at least the key basic elements of success. You will need to have your own vision as aligned with that of your organization. You will mainly attract your kind to work with you and stay the longest with you in achieving your dreams. Therefore, to get better team members in the long run, you must become a better leader.?

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Ayo Emakhiomhe