That Strong Culture breeds sustained success is a no-brainer; challenge is to build a strong culture

“Discover A Passion”, “Bhala uski kameez meri kameez se safed kaise, Yeh dil maange more, Darr ke aage jeet hai”, “Aur Dikhao Aur Dikhao”, were Not Merely Iconic Tag Lines.

They defined the organization culture of the respective organizations of the time. “Discover a Passion” actually reflected an organization culture which believed it placing large bets and going for it, all guns blazing. Not surprisingly this organization became a multi-industry conglomerate in India. The tag line of the product which said “Bhala uski kameez meri kameez se safed kaise” was one which believed in hiring and developing the best of the talent in the country and it led to intense (and healthy) competition within the organization as top talent of the country rubbed shoulders with each other on a day to day basis. Consequently, not just that this organization stood way above competition for years but also produced C-suite executives for numerous organizations across industries in India. “Yeh Dil Maange More” and “Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai” were the tag lines which co-incidentally propelled the organization from a zero market share in the industry in 1989 to reach a market share closer to the 45% mark in an industry which is essentially a two-horse race, in a period of 25 years from a scratch. This clearly indicated a culture of not being satisfied with the ordinary and going the full nine yards, hurdles notwithstanding. “Aur Dikaho Aur Dikhao” clearly suggests a culture which heavily focused on providing the maximum choice to the customer and therefore keeping the customer at the center stage. And it is no surprise that this organization has been able to capture the hearts of the Indian customer in a big way despite being one of the late entrants in the industry in India.

What is common amongst all these organizations is that they have a very strong culture. You may like the culture or you may hate it; but one thing for sure is that you would never be able to ignore the culture that exists within. What is also common is that these organizations defined their culture which suited the business results which they desired to achieve.

Organization culture has an immense impact on organization results. Hence the culture that the organization builds needs to be sync with the results that the organization desires. Successful organizations create a culture in sync with the results that they want to achieve instead of letting the culture getting formed sans the desired results. How does an organization influence the culture that gets formed within it? Simplistically put, cultures get formed or modified based on the experiences that people within it have. The experiences leads to beliefs and the beliefs lead to action. The actions are visible to all and that becomes the culture of the organization. The actions, in turn, influence the results that the organization would get. Now if the desired results are not being achieved, then obviously, the organization needs to change the culture and that can be done only by changing the experience that employees are getting on a day-to-day basis.

An organization has a strong culture when people yearn to stay connected with each other long after the organization boundaries have disappeared and conversely, when people hesitate to connect with each other within the same organization boundaries, then that organization should seriously look at revamping its culture. Needless to mention that organizations which have a strong culture have a long history of consistently high performance over a sustained period of time.

This holds true whether it is an educational institution or for-profit business organization or defense organization or for that matter any kind of organization where people get-together for a purpose. All such organizations that I have known or experienced have created a very strong bond which had a shelf life much beyond the physical existence within the organization.

What do we mean by culture? Simply put, organizational culture is the way people think and act. A strong culture is one where there is a strong unison of thinking and action. It is not the same thing as “group think” where there are no contra views; but, on the other hand, these are places where there are certain beliefs which are strongly held by all those in the organization. Those beliefs cannot be superimposed nor can they be mandated by any policy or procedure – they are beliefs which most people within the organization carry because it resonates strongly with their own personal beliefs. And when a significant proportion of the organization has beliefs which resonate with their individual personal beliefs, that organization is likely to have a strong culture. These beliefs cut across geographical or cultural boundaries and are so fundamental to human beings that it resonates strongly across cultures, nationalities, and socio-economic boundaries.

If I go to a different field altogether – educational institution. Two of them I am familiar with are the ones with very strong cultures within: St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and XLRI, Jamshedpur. No matter which market research organization does what survey every year, these institutions come out as best in class in India year after year, decade after decade. Their ability to remain in the top rung is primarily driven by the fact that they have been able to define a very strong culture for themselves which is not dependent on people who run these Institutions but is cast in stone and has become the DNA of these places as they were. Last few decades have witnessed innumerable changes in the environment in which these Institutions operate but the basic culture in these places have not undergone a change. That is what is meant by a strong culture.

Let me try and explain with some other examples away from business and educational institutions. The Indian Armed Forces (and this would hold true for an armed forced of any large country) has people from various socio-economic and linguistic backgrounds from across the country. However, there is a strong belief of preserving the integrity and security of the country from external and internal threats which binds this organization consisting of more than a million members spread across thousands of miles. No one can serve in the Indian Armed Forces for too long unless he (and now increasingly she as well) has personal belief which resonates with this organizational belief. This creates a strong culture within the armed forces which remains long after people have retired or left armed forces. This is a bond which keeps bringing them together wherever they may be and much after they cease to be part of the armed forces.

The second example, from a completely different field, but an organization with a very strong culture is NASA. This organization has people from different nationalities from across the globe and there are significant cultural differences amongst them. However, the organization as a whole has a very strong culture because for people who have worked in NASA for any reasonable period have exactly the same beliefs about flight research and pioneering work in space technology. There is a bonding which develops amongst people working in NASA for any reasonable period of time, which perhaps stays with them for the rest of their lives.

Hence it is not the purpose of the organization which determines whether it would have a strong culture or not. These have created a very strong culture because there are a large proportion of the people within them who genuinely share very similar set of beliefs.

What is intriguing is that all organizations with a strong culture tend to do very well over a sustained period of time. They not only consistently achieve and surpass their goals but they do so in a manner people want to be a part of that organization for a prolonged period of time. What leads to such superlative performance is not too hard to decipher. When there is unison of thought and action, results are bound to follow. Where hundreds and thousands of people row the boat in the same direction with their heart and soul, there can be no surprise that the boat would reach its destination no matter how chirpy the waters may be. And when people believe in the direction of the boat, the strength the row the boat comes from within and it is not for show only. When together people achieve a goal, the sense of belongingness and bonding increases several folds. Success not just breeds success, it also brings people involved in that success much closer together than would be the case otherwise.

This is actually a virtuous cycle. People with similar beliefs are likely to work together well and therefore are likely to succeed more; and with every success, they tend to have a greater unison of beliefs and a sense of bonding which is likely to lead to further success. People with similar beliefs would work much more in cohesion than would otherwise be the case and people with similar beliefs would put their heart and soul behind the goals if those goals are in line with their personal belief system. When these two happen, the probability of success increases several times. And each success becomes the stepping stone for the next one.