Creating a culture of transformation and reimagination

By Wes Bricker, Vice Chair - US Trust Solutions Co-Leader, PwC US

Building a culture that embraces reinvention and transformation is key for businesses to both thrive and survive in an increasingly uncertain economy saturated with competitors. But there’s a likely challenge management teams will face—how does a business inspire their people to reinvent and reimagine even when a company faces headwinds??

I often meet with senior executives, and as we look ahead into 2023, business leaders are feeling the immediate pressure to reinvent. And, they’re right to be – according to PwC’s 2023 CEO Survey, 40% of global CEOs think their organization will no longer be economically viable in ten year’s time, if it continues on its current course.?

In moving towards reinvention, the goal is to continually motivate employees so challenging conditions don’t turn into employees’ downturn. It’s important for everyone in an organization to feel empowered and to not only embrace change but to help inspire it. In today’s workplace, with some in the office, others working from home or a hybrid mix of the two, creating this culture is no easy feat.

Here are three areas management can consider to inspire a culture that embraces reinvention:

Seek out growth, but not at the expense of your people?

Companies and their leaders are always striving towards continued growth, and in today’s increasingly uncertain environment, executives are definitely feeling the pressure to find ways to sustain growth where possible and reinvent where feasible. But such growth shouldn’t be at the expense of the workforce as the demand for talent is still very relevant.

Talent continues to be critical, especially in highly specialized fields including AI, cloud, cyber and digital. Plus, these fields are key areas to help power reinvention across the business. Frankly, there isn’t enough skilled labor to meet pressing demands, making it harder to justify cutting wages and bonuses as a cost saving measure. CEOs are recognizing this, as 60% say they do not plan to reduce the size of their workforce in the next 12 months, and 80% indicate they do not plan to reduce staff remuneration either in order to retain talent and mitigate workforce attrition rates.?

Economic pressures make it easy to overlook the importance of investing across the long term, but critical to long-term success are the people that power your business. It’s important to continually recognize that when assessing cost saving measures and looking for ways to reimagine and reinvent.?

Long-term value relies on trust

Equally important is the need to collaborate with employees to build trust and deliver sustained outcomes to generate long-term value.?

Notably, when employees feel empowered to innovate it’s because they feel trusted. Innovation requires new ideas, new ways of thinking, being vulnerable and sometimes failing. To feel comfortable and empowered to share new ideas, employees need to know they can trust their employer.?

Trust is such a key factor that 71% of employees say they’ll leave a company if it loses their trust, according to PwC’s Trust: the new currency for business survey. But there’s a jarring trust gap between businesses and their employees–business leaders think they’re more trusted than they truly are. In fact, 84% of business leaders say employee trust is high, compared to 69% of employees who say they highly trust their employer.

Given how critical trust is to employees, business leaders should be intentional with their actions around building employee trust as a key way to drive innovation. When it comes to driving transformation, especially something as drastic as reimagining an entire business strategy, employees play a pivotal role in embracing that change to deliver transformative results. And if employees don’t have trust in their employer, it’s likely the chances of a new idea taking hold and finding success are slim.??

Spurring excitement with a clear purpose

Here at PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems, and by doing this, we aim to make a meaningful difference in the world. It’s what connects our firm—all the way from those who are accountants to consultants to engineers and everyone in between. Everyday, we strive to clearly communicate PwC’s purpose, especially across our workforce.?

To ensure that your business’s actions are aligned with its purpose and goals, it’s critical that leaders—and everyone throughout the organization—know their North Star. Having a clear understanding and alignment of a business’s purpose enables its people to understand the full breadth of what they are working to achieve.?

Ultimately, if employees fully understand and embrace the purpose of an organization, it becomes much more than just delivering a service or producing a product. That thinking opens up the potential for a workforce to think about how to achieve that given purpose in new and different ways. It sparks unique ways of thinking and helps unlock the reimagination needed to power a business during turbulent economic times.?

Worth the investment?

Inspiring a culture that embraces transformation and reinvention takes an investment and a consistent commitment. By outlining and sticking to a clear purpose, fostering trust with employees, and seeking growth opportunities without impacting your workforce, leaders will better position their organizations toward an environment that’s ready to embrace change and adopt transformation. And that transformative culture will ultimately steer businesses through likely turbulent times ahead and help unlock new, innovative growth opportunities.?