Culture first, then strategy

I’ve led a couple of multimillion-dollar projects during my long and comprehensive career. I’ve drafted a huge collaboration between Royal Dutch KPN, my present employer, and the Swedish streaming music service Spotify. Four years ago, I was the initiator of a big new business project, which eventually was launched a while back. Being ‘in charge’ of these projects gave me the paramount opportunity to be visible for the CEO and the other members of the board of directors, which was definitely appealing to others. Looking back and reflecting on some of these projects, I could have done better, much better. In the road leading towards these ‘signature’ projects, I should have put culture first and strategy later.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

Peter Drucker was an American author and consultant, famous for introducing ‘Management by Objectives’. Now, in 2020, it sounds a bit old-fashioned, and some people might not accept this ultimate form of micromanagement. There is nothing wrong with predicting performance, but as a Harvard Business Review article stated in 2003 about MBO: ‘it’s one of the greatest managerial illusions because it fails to take adequately into account the deeper emotional component of motivation’. I couldn’t agree more. However, Drucker also came up with a lot of different perspectives about leadership that are still invaluable today. I actually use one of his quotes very often: Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast.

The strength (or weakness) of your culture

Culture is the social order of an organisation. It shapes attitudes and behaviours. So, in order to make a change, it’s fundamental to assure the culture is ready for a change. However, there is more. Not everyone within the company has an aptitude for change. Those who favour stability (no response to change) tend to follow rules, use controlled structures and reinforce hierarchy. Those who favour flexibility tend to prioritise innovation, openness & diversity. I’ve read (another) fascinating article in the Harvard Business Review about the discredited accountancy firm Arthur Andersen. It was not what happened with Enron that drove the company into bankruptcy. No, it was the culture that actually brought the company down. Neither quality nor integrity were the most important of principles. The first and foremost thing was to beat its competitors, in revenue. As a result, the culture within Arthur Andersen became toxic, and a lot of employees were actually open to take unethical risks and cross moral lines. 

Likeability within a large corporate is the strongest currency

Looking back at the achievements that I’ve accomplished during my career, I can look back with a proud smile. Despite some failures, I’ve accomplished some incredible feats. But I don’t want to give myself a big pat on my back. Knowing, what I know now, I would have done a lot of things completely different. Without compromising on my likeability factor – the strongest currency while working within a large corporate – I’d actually relied too much on the power and less on the culture. I hate to say it but it’s true: I’d actually misused my approach towards to the board of directors to enforce decisions.

Jim Collins

It was Jim Collins’ business masterpiece ‘From Good to Great’ that actually opened up my eyes. He not only gave me various unique perspectives but the ideas were also supported by a lot of scientific research. I’d always thought the success within a company was based on carrying out a powerful strategy. This is only partly true, because here’s the thing: it’s better to find the people and involve them into creating a different strategy than to find people to execute an existing one.

My new approach

You can translate this belief into your daily way of working and that’s exactly what I had done.  Whilst I used to create an idea and/or come up with a strategy, later to find people to execute this with me I now tend to focus on people first. Even if I have some very concrete ideas in mind, I now tend to focus on creating the team first. With this team, I then start by ‘selling’ the idea but if the group eventually is not willing to adopt my idea, I tend to follow them. This way of dealing with the group actually improves the idea or strategy; it’s now everyone’s responsibility. Moreover: it creates a greater ‘buy in’, everyone in the team is then fully committed to make it work.