CORPORATE CULTURE
Culture As The Driver Of Corporate Performance
By Dr . Wale Akinyemi
I was at the Murtala Mohamed Airport in Lagos on my way to the UK . As I waited on the queue for my turn , a policeman escorted someone right to the front of the queue . This happened three times before I made it to the front .
A few hours later we were on another queue at London Heathrow and you can imagine my anger when standing behind me in very orderly fashion were the same people who could not line up in Lagos . What altered their behavior in just a few hours ?
I see people who have no regard for red lights in Africa become very law abiding drivers in Europe . Conversely I also see people who are very law abiding drivers in Europe totally throw caution to the winds in Africa .
If you have ever doubted the impact of the environment over behavior I hope you are beginning to see it with all our examples starting from the polar bear example which I gave recently .
Actually we do not need to go very far . Nature itself has taught us and continues to teach us every day . When I was growing up , stories about apples did not make sense to me because I grew up in tropical West Africa and apples do not grow in the tropics . Apples grow in cool climates and so even within the tropics there are few pockets of places where apples can grow but these are high altitude places which are very cold .
When I was young my dad used to enjoy palm wine and we had a supplier who would bring it straight from the palm tree . Palm trees do not grow in cold places - at least not the kind of palm trees that produce palm wine or palm kernels which are used for palm oil .
Strong national institutions are built with a bigger picture . The picture of nationalism over partisanship . The culture of patriotism and loyalty to the constitution must overwhelmingly supersede the culture of partisanship and loyalty to a political party , an individual or to self-interests . Strong institutions are the visible expressions of strong cultures .
Climate plays a major role in what can grow and what cannot grow . The seed is the strategy and expectation you have of your team and your company . The culture is the climate . No matter how good your seed , if the climate is not right for that seed , it will not produce what you desire .
There is no good climate or bad climate in absolute terms . There are just conducive climates . The cultural environment in an organization is the greatest determinant of performance in the company . Think of the number of African footballers who were struggling in Africa and became big once they got to Europe . They are not more talented in Europe . It was just the environment .
A company may have the most intelligent minds in the world but without the right culture their intelligence will amount to nothing . What then is the right culture for an organization ? It is the culture that best enhances the goals and objectives of the organization . Culture can never be a copy and paste thing . Many people see the culture in a place like Google and instinctively want to copy it . It doesn ' t work that way .
Attempting to embark on a culture change program without understanding the goals and objectives of the organization is like going on a ship without a compass . Remember that the ultimate purpose of culture is not to tick a box that a culture program was done . It is to create the right environment for the goals and objectives of the organization in every single area to be achieved in the most efficient manner .
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