“Your business plan is what you are, but Culture is who you are.”
– Gary Kelly, Chairman and CEO, Southwest Airlines
Every organization has a culture, sometimes referred to as its personality or organizational DNA. An organization’s culture grows out of the values, behaviors and norms that its top management encourages, rewards or – in some cases – simply allows to exist.
Key Point. Research has long shown that organizational culture has a significant impact on bottom-line performance.
For instance, a comparative study of high versus low-performance corporate cultures by John Kotter and James Hesket in 1992 found revenue growth of 682 percent versus 166 percent, stock price increases of 901 percent versus 74 percent, and job growth of 282 percent versus 36 percent.
Do I have your attention now?