Culture comes up a lot in business and organisations, especially in the academic side around the subject. Despite this though, many people are ok with just accepting a business culture and going along with it, believing that once a culture has come into play, it can’t be changed.
Culture is one of the main reasons that companies fail. Even with a great idea, a culture can cripple an organisation from the inside out.
In today’s article, I would like to discuss the 5 reasons why culture is so important.
Having the Right People
It can take years to acquire a team of the right people. Yet that team could ultimately be the failure of the business, because it doesn’t fit together, the culture doesn’t work.
Let’s use a football team as an example. Real Madrid and Barcelona of late are the perfect examples. Real Madrid have always been seen as having best players in the world, they spend millions and millions getting these players so that they can compete, but then Barcelona beat them, because they still have great players, but they have built a team…
It is exactly the same in businesses around the world. The best companies don’t necessarily always have the best employees, but they have employees who fit with the rest of the group and work well together.
Projecting a Brand Image
People often don’t think of this, but a culture within an organisation can be a deciding factor of what kind of brand image is projected to people outside of the company.
Take Google for example, a few years ago they were gaining a great brand image from the culture they had, of allowing employees 20% of their time to be their own time, to work on their own projects and expand themselves. More recently as this work practice has been cut, comments about Googles culture aren’t as impressive.
If people see how happy others are working for a company, they are more likely to use that company. We are now in a world, where residents in first world countries don’t just want good service and products, they want to see companies who treat their staff well, and that all comes under company culture.
Motivation
The right culture can be a massive motivational culture. This can be seen in the rise of technology companies who focus on innovation and learning. By giving their employees a space to learn and innovate within the industry they love, the culture becomes one of self-improvement and motivation, helping to increase the productivity and work ethic at the company.
A great example of this is the start-up Buffer, who have a culture so set up for learning, self-improvement and self-actualisation, that they have people from all over the world throwing themselves at working for the company.
Obviously not all companies can work like this. Working at a factory can’t be set up in an innovative way, but they can be set up so communication is allowed, lower level employees can talk to managers, express their ideas and have their say. All of these culture defining elements can increase employee motivation.
Culture in a Nutshell
We will finish off with the definition of Culture to get you thinking of how you can change your company and increase performance, motivation and ultimately, profits.
Cultures in organisation is defined by how the organisation is run, how the personalities within the organisation interact with each other and also how the structure of the company is set out.
