Employees simply must embrace company culture

Apr 11 2012 - 1:41pm


Famous entrepreneurs across the ages have built their enduring companies upon a culture that attracted and retained loyal employees and satisfied customers.

Wherever there are two or more people aligned together, there is a culture. I define culture as the behavior or conduct between people. Culture, by nature, is closely linked to the collective character and shared values of individuals who make up a group of people.


I recall with great displeasure and sadness the loss of a major long-term MarketStar client some years ago due to the poor treatment its leaders received from my condescending employees. In effect, the client terminated our service contract. The economic loss was in the tens of millions of dollars. Nearly 150 employees lost jobs.


Our culture, which had been established on the theme of taking care of loyal patrons, had somehow changed to "it's not about customers, it's about us." We had begun to view ourselves as more important than our clients.


We had lost our way and we paid for it. In the midst of self-destruction, we looked in horror at what we had become. We noted to our chagrin that our collective personalities had morphed downward.



Loyal and dedicated employees who loved our genesis complained about how unhappy they were and wanted to go back to the original culture.


The process of changing the company was painful and complicated. It required courage, determination and an unbroken will to make things right. Many leaders and employees were asked to resign, others were terminated.


Here are three tough lessons I learned from this experience:

SBlt When hiring new employees, it is imperative to clearly describe to the candidate the declared culture of the company. The goal is to ensure that the prospective employee understands the conduct and behavioral rules that all are expected to honor.


SBlt If your organization has not established a cultural mandate on how employees behave, I would suggest that be done immediately. When complete, it should be communicated regularly and observed closely by every worker.

Consider the economic value derived from a particular philosophy. Apple, for example, has a winning culture that attracts the brightest employees and a loyal following of millions of customers. Due to its core mandates of innovation and creativity, it has parlayed its traditions into a company with an enterprise value that is greater than most nations.


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