Leadership Spunje » Corporate Culture

What is “Organizational Culture” and Why Does it Matter?

Leadership Spunje — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:36:26 +0000

When you think of the word ‘Culture,’ what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Most of the groups Ii ask this question, usually say something like, ‘France’ or something like that. You know, a place where people talk differently, eat differently, drive differently than what you may be used to. The same goes for organizational cultures. A quick and dirty definition for organizational culture is this: How people behave and relate to these business realities:

getting the work done
conflict
decisions they didn’t make
mandates
internal change
market changes
new people etc etc

http://simondarcy.com/2009/02/what-is-organizational-culture-and-why-does-it-matter/

Imagine the atmosphere of your company at plus 80% levels of employee engagement—where more than 8 out of 10 say great things about senior management, align with directives and the mission, wouldn’t want to work anywhere else, and give extraordinary amounts of discretionary effort to make the company successful. Where they collaborate effectively and enthusiastically, execute according to plan, fulfill commitments, do what they say, and display confidence, integrity, pride and passion in their professionalism.

Crowdsourced or Elite Unit Innovation?

Leadership Spunje — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:47:43 +0000

A classic dilemma for companies is determining the best way to foster innovation. There are many good books with different approaches. Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma has influenced a generation’s thinking about innovation. He focuses management and entrepreneurs’ attention on the Big I: disruptive innovation.

One outcome of the popularity of Christensen’s book is the awareness people have that entrenched business practices can inhibit companies’ ability to recognize and address discontinuous innovations from new market entrants. Motorola, for example, is often held up as an example of this. The company continued to develop only analog cell phones even as the digital phones were getting traction. In clinging to analog, which it dominated, it fell far behind in the mobile phone market.

http://bhc3.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/crowdsourced-or-elite-unit-innovation/

Google is a good example of an innovation-led company. They mix the elite unit approach to innovation with the everyday encouragement for employees to innovate.

There’s not this dichotomy of “all disruptive/discontinuous innovation, or you’re just falling behind”. Rather, it’s a smart blend of the strategies.

reducing the environmental impact of business: what role can IT play?

Leadership Spunje — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:22:02 +0000

■ Businesses are being compelled to play their part in tackling climate change.

■ While there are lots of activities that can reduce an organisation’s environmental impact, there is no silver bullet.

■ A co-ordinated programme is needed – that addresses not just IT generated emissions but also uses IT to enable a low carbon transformation across the organisation.

With businesses under pressure to act, IT has a vital role to play in the move to a truly low carbon operation.

http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/EU/uk/about/sustainability/green_it_brochure.pdf

At Fujitsu, we believe IT has a crucial role in helping reduce the environmental impact of business. For too long the focus has been on simply reducing the CO2 emissions generated by IT. However, organisations must also consider how IT can be applied as part of a fully co-ordinated transformation programme – to reduce their overall carbon footprint, playing their part in addressing the issue of climate change.

20 Innovative Business Ideas

Leadership Spunje — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:09:39 +0000

Innovative business ideas are like comets in the sky. Nobody really knows when they’ll hit you, and even if you have never seen one, you’ll know that it is one the moment you see it. It doesn’t take much talent or education to know if an idea is workable, all it takes is a little gusto, common sense and a bit of adventurism to try out things that have never been done.

Each Company is Unique. And each company also has unique experiences. The best for company A may not be the best move for company B. What works for one company might not necessarily work for the other. Here lies the problem with being a copycat. Businesses can try to compete with each other, but an innovative idea from one business might be the undoing of the other.

Know how your business works, and whether it has an idea that can take off. What is the actual context of the company’s profile, operation and financial performance? What are the risks involved in innovation, and will you be able to afford to experiment? The amount of money that could potentially be gained if you are able to launch an innovative idea should also be assessed in measurable terms. Innovation is just a word, but a good innovative business idea is one that actually produces results.

http://www.bookfresh.com/resources/article/20-innovative-business-ideas/#

These are only a few innovative business ideas that have made the grade. Now most of these are considered the standard way of doing business, and taken for granted by the market. But at one time or another, some business people probably thought of these ideas as silly and unmarketable. See where these ideas are now.

A Good Way to Change a Corporate Culture

Leadership Spunje — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:40:03 +0000

“I’d like to talk to you about a big project,” the woman told me on the phone. “We need to change our culture.”

She was a senior leader in a professional services firm, where people really are their most important asset. Only it turns out the people weren’t so happy. Theirs was a very successful firm with high revenues, great clients, and hard working employees. But employee satisfaction was abysmally low and turnover rates were staggeringly high. Employees were performing, they just weren’t staying.

This firm had developed a reputation for being a terrible place to work. When I met with the head of the firm, he illustrated the problem with a personal example. Just recently, he told me, a client meeting had been scheduled on the day one of his employees was getting married. “I told her she needed to be there. That the meeting was early enough and she could still get to her wedding on time.”

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/06/the-best-way-to-change-a-corpo.html#

To start a culture change all we need to do is two simple things:

Do dramatic story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then let other people tell stories about it.

Find other people who do story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then tell stories about them.

What’s Your Corporate Culture?

Leadership Spunje — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:31:33 +0000

From Enron to Google, corporate culture says a lot about an organization’s character, influencing how it’s perceived by customers, employees and competitors.

Corporate culture is an ambiguous term: Every company has one, but its elements change depending on the setting.

A positive corporate culture may express itself through happy and secure employees in a friendly environment, while a negative one may be characterized by overworked employees or ill-defined team roles. Regardless of the specifics, culture can usually be found in a company’s overall philosophy and how it reflects on workplace dynamics.

http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2009/06/whats-your-corporate-culture-organization-customer-employee-business-relations.html

Perseverance is the central tenet of corporate cultural improvement. Temporary measures can’t produce the generational effect needed for a new workplace culture, which depends on organizational memory and the ongoing transmission of ideas.

An optimistic and productive corporate culture can allow a company to reap major benefits, and perhaps most important, it perpetuates itself by attracting the best talent. Given the option between coming to an open and engaging workplace every day or merely showing up for a job, which would you choose?

Aspiring Managers: Learn to Behave Like Adults

Leadership Spunje — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:14:39 +0000

It’s relatively easy to be a successful child. All you’ve got to do is learn how to be cute, get attention, and cry when you’re hurt or hungry. Learning how to be a teenager is much harder; I’m not sure anybody’s good at it. I certainly wasn’t. As for becoming an adult, I’ve been working on that for decades and making very, very slow progress.

Everything gets harder as you get older, and becoming a good manager is no exception.

http://blogs.bnet.com/ceo/?p=2833&tag=nl.e713

Become adept at 5 things: finance, selling, presenting, negotiating, and business communications.