Does culture eat strategy for breakfast?

Peter Drucker famously suggested that a strategy can fail if not embraced by the team. However, culture and strategy are essential, like harmonious notes in a jazz performance by the excellent John Coltrane. Or a well-executed grassroots football drill you’ve worked on for weeks; trust me, once that comes off, you’re on cloud nine.

A clear purpose, vision, mission, and values work in unison, each contributing to the success of the other, but you need to ensure you build from the bottom up.

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The foundation of any business

Culture forms the structure of any successful organisation, providing a solid base – the same as the foundational layer of Lego bricks. It’s solid and durable, and you’re confident in your ability to extend whatever comes next.

I believe at its core lie the 'Four C’s': Character, Culture, Customer, and Category.

Character – Who Are You?

Understanding your brand's character is crucial in defining its culture. We can shape our tone, messaging, and potential creative direction by identifying with specific brand archetypes (the Hero, the Sage, the Explorer, etc.). For instance, a brand embodying the Hero archetype might focus on courage and strength. Think of Nike's advertising around ‘find your greatness’. One representing the Sage emphasises wisdom and insight like the fantastic TEDx with their motivational talks, events, and community. Or even the Jesters who are there to spread joy with their humour and playfulness like Skittles with their wonderfully captured adverts around either struck by a rainbow or everything he touches turns to Skittles.

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Culture – What You Feel

Culture reflects the emotions, behaviours, and values that define our brand. It's the essence of why customers connect with us. Building a positive and inclusive culture empowers employees, supports innovation, and enhances customer loyalty. Employees who believe in the culture become brand ambassadors, driving authentic customer connections. Those customers become an extension of your ambassadors, doing the work for you. Now that’s cool.

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Customer – Who You Serve

Knowing our customers intimately is crucial, much like understanding our family members. It’s the same in business as in life. Everyone is unique, with specific needs, preferences, and pain points, including your customer. By empathising with our customers, we can tailor products, services, and experiences that resonate deeply. This customer-centric approach builds trust and long-term relationships around the promise you stand by.

Category – Where You Win

In a competitive landscape, positioning ourselves uniquely is vital, especially given that 95% of buying decisions are made by our subconscious*. Wow, think about that for a second. How we stand out as leaders, not followers, requires strategic awareness and innovation that hits home. If we’re the only something thing in the marketplace, then others notice it, are attracted to it, and want to experience that something different. ?

Consider Apple's iconic iPod with 1000 songs in your pocket. That was a WOW moment as nobody else was doing it, so Apple revolutionised the digital music industry, and we / our subconscious noticed. By identifying unmet needs or untapped markets, businesses can carve out a distinct category where they thrive.

Aim for the Moon, or is it Mars now?

Setting ambitious goals, like aiming for the Moon or Mars, inspires teams and drives progress. Clear mission and vision statements provide actionable plans that rally teams during opportunities and challenges. For example, John F. Kennedy's (JFK) bold vision to land a man on the moon ignited NASA's ingenuity and determination. Similarly, Elon Musk's mission to colonise Mars fuels innovation at SpaceX.

These leaders set out with a bold and aspirational purpose, but they are achievable. Mars is still in the pipeline, yet it excites people, teams, and investors, and that building block of ‘We will achieve A & B by doing X, Y, and Z' makes it realistic.

A vision statement helps people visualise it in their minds. JFK might have said that within five years, humans will not just walk on the moon; we’ll place a flag on it for the whole universe to see. Now I can picture that in my mind, and it excites me.

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Leadership starts from within

It’s just the right team that helps the culture and strategy to eat together. You need strong leadership to drive change and get it done from the organisation's core.

Steve Covey, famous author of ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ spoke around your circle of influence.

The core is in the centre circle. As it’s your organisation, you can heavily influence its culture and behaviours.

The next circle around your core is your customers. They are influenced by the team's energy, enthusiasm, and passion, which inspires them to tell others about your cause.

The last circle that goes around everything is out of your control; you cannot directly influence that. It might be customers who would never stumble upon you or any other opportunities to grow your brand.

However, with your teams’ consistent approach and passion at the core, your customers (middle circle) become advocates of your cause and start influencing potential new customers around your cause, mission and service.

Continue doing what you do well with passionate leaders driving culture and strategy, and you’ll gain lifelong customers, supporters, and promoters through the power of an internal and engaged culture.

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Top takeaway to consider:

1. Culture is part of the bigger picture. Consider the values you all hold dear, align around these, create behaviours and create culture ambassadors to keep the values alive.
2. A clear purpose, vision, and mission. It doesn't have to be complicated, but having a purpose and idea of what you want to achieve will help to give the team and company direction.
3. Set goals, whether SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) or OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). Keep them simple and related to where you want to go with relevant checkpoints to ensure everyone is aligned.
4. Lead from the core. Show that your senior leaders and customer-facing teams can all live and breathe the values.
5. Make it a place that others want to join. A thriving culture attracts and retains talent. It reduces hiring costs, as people want to come to you and stay to deliver the mission to see Mars one day. ?

By strengthening our foundational culture and aligning it with strategic goals, we pave the way for impactful leadership and sustainable growth. And, we create an organisation that is both value-driven and purpose-driven.

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