Sometimes executives I work with overlook culture as an important strategic building block of success. It may be that they see it as nonsense, and it may be they don’t see any return on the long and sometimes patient investment required to see results. But culture literally affects everything an organization does, even if it’s not visible on the surface. Here are some clear advantages companies with excellent cultures have today:
- Low employee turnover
Simply put, employees who enjoy the culture they work in don’t leave. This doesn’t mean you reap the benefits by paying them less, it means you benefit from employees who learn to be truly professional in delivering to your mission.
- Easier access to top talent in hiring
Prospective employees are attracted to companies with better cultures. Today, more than ever, a bad company culture will leak out online, no matter how much you try to police it. Given a choice between an employer with a great culture and one the has a poor culture, many of the best employees will choose the great culture -even if it pays less.
- Higher efficiency
A good culture helps your employees feel excited about your mission. While some missions are easy to get excited about, if you sell a boring product or service, you need a culture that celebrates the value you create for customers. Such a culture elevates productivity by helping all employees to remain focused on the right things.
- Fewer issues with poor decision making
In a great culture, bad choices will still be made, but they will be treated as learning opportunities and improve the business. Poor cultures often lead to rewarding people who avoid responsibility, which leads to ridiculous efforts to shift blame rather than to understand what caused a problem in the first place.
- A better bond with customers
Good culture doesn’t just mean happy employees, it means employees who are happy to deliver value to your customers. Too many companies assume customers can’t tell how good or bad your culture is, and that just isn’t true. I’ll go a step further and say that your attempts to whitewash a bad culture are likely super transparent to your customers as well, so you should probably avoid wasting time and money of trying to put lipstick on that pig.
- A stronger brand
A great culture is an incredible support for a great brand. Simply put, brands are worth building because they help customers understand the value behind them. A great culture can help make that value real and obvious to your market.
So, of course the answer is, a great culture is certainly an asset to a company that has one. I’ll go a step further and say that culture is one of the best strategic differentiators of great companies. The reason it’s so great is that culture is hard to build and nearly impossible to copy.
That brings us to the real problem most companies have with culture as a strategy: it’s difficult. You can throw a lot of time and money at culture and find you still have a long way to go. Don’t despair – the cultures of great companies that you know and admire were not created overnight. One secret weapon you have that can help build a better company culture is strategic planning with good execution.
I didn’t say just strategic planning. This is because most companies that do strategic planning have terrible execution, achieving about half the objectives that people who stick to Simplified Strategic Planning do. Execution doesn’t just give your strategy traction. Good implementation helps to build your culture because your team, when they see it, understand that your strategy isn’t just lip service. When you execute well, your team gets the message that your organization means what it says, and it will act on the vision and values you bring to the table.
One of our best – and most affordable – options for creating and implementing great strategy is the Monthly Simplified Strategic Planning program. Companies can use it as 1:1 coaching for the CEO or other key strategic decision makers, or they can actually complete a collaborative plan with the facilitation of one of our highly experienced professionals – you choose what works for you!
If you aren’t using Simplified Strategic Planning, or you did it years ago and want to revitalize it, this program is the easiest way to assure you get your strategic plan done and then implement your plan.
Sign up today and get your first meeting free!