Chapter 12 Corporate Culoture & Leadership: Key to Good Strategy Execution

Question 1

What elements describe/make-up a company’s culture?

Answer 1

• Beliefs
• Values & principles
• “How we do things around here”
• Story telling
• “Sacred Cows”
• Traditions
• Ethical Expectations

Question 2

Strong Cultures

Answer 2

• Clear, widely-understood philosophy.
• Considerable time spent by management communicating and reinforcing values.
• Values are widely shared and deeply rooted.
• Well-defined corporate character, reinforced by a creed/values statement.
• Careful screening/selection of new employees to be sure they will “fit in”

Question 3

Weak Cultures

Answer 3

• Lack of a widely-shared core set of values
• Few behavioral norms evident in operating practices
• Few strong traditions
• No strong sense of company identity.
• Little cohesion among departments
• Weak employee allegiance to company’s vision and strategy

Question 4

Unhealthy Cultures

Answer 4

• Highly politicized internal environment
  a. Issues resolved on basis of political clout
• Hostility to change
  a. Avoid risks and don’t screw up
  b. Experimentation and efforts to alter status quo discouraged
• “Not-invented-here” mindset – company personnel discount need to look outside for
  a. Best practices
  b. New or better managerial approaches
  c. Innovative ideas
• Disregard for high ethical standards and overzealous pursuit of wealth by key executives

Question 5

High-Performance Cultures

Answer 5

• Standout cultural traits include
  a. A can-do spirit
  b. Pride in doing things right
  c. No-excuses accountability
  d. A results-oriented work climate in which people go the extra mile to achieve performance targets
• Strong sense of employee involvement
• Emphasis on individual initiative & creativity
• Performance expectations are clearly identified for all organizational members
• Strong bias for being proactive, not reactive
• Respect for the contributions of all employees

Question 6

Adaptive Cultures

Answer 6

• Willingness to accept change and embrace challenge of introducing new strategies
• Risk-taking, experimentation, and innovation to satisfy stakeholders
• Entrepreneurship is encouraged and rewarded
• Funds provided for new products
• New ideas openly evaluated
• Genuine interest in well-being of all key constituencies
• Proactive approaches to implement workable solutions

Question 7

Symbolic Culture Changing Actions

Answer 7

• Frugal
• no executive perks
• spend time talking with customers
• visible award to honor heros
• ceremonial events to praise people & teams

Question 8

Substantive Culture Changing Actions

Answer 8

• Benchmarking & best practice
• Set world-class performance targets
• bring in new blood, replacing traditional managers
• shake up the structure
• change reward structure
• increase commitment to employee training
• reallocate budgets

Question 9

things leaders can do to enhance strategy-supportive cultures

Answer 9

1. Build high performance spirit
2. Stay current/relevant
3. Nurture strategy-supportive culture
4. Keep organizations responsive
5. Empower champions
6. Deal with politics
7. Enforce ethical behaviors
8. Lead adjustments