“The fact is, culture eats strategy for lunch. You can have a good strategy in place, but if you don’t have the culture and the enabling systems that allow you to successfully implement that strategy, the culture of the organisation will defeat the strategy.”

– Ricard Clark, CEO of Merck (2005-2010)

In a study conducted by Bain Consulting in 2008, 91% of the 1200 senior executives at global companies agreed that “culture is as important as strategy for business success”. It further revealed that 81% of executives agreed that “a company without a winning culture was doomed to mediocrity”. In a more recent study by Booz and Company in 2013, 96% of the 2200 respondents agreed that “culture change is needed in their organisation” while 51% agreed “that their culture needs a major overhaul”.

These are starting numbers. If organisational culture is so important, why is it not one of the top items on the agenda? In the second of this 6 part Change Management series, we outlined the importance of communicating your change and actively engaging your stakeholders. In this article, we discuss the importance of designing and building a culture that supports your vision.

This article was first published in Print Singapore Issue #004/2015, a bi-monthly publication of the Print & Media Association.

Read More: 2015 Jul-Aug, Page 34

Author: Jacqueline Gwee, Director, aAdvantage Consulting

Jacqueline has had over 25 years of broad-based human resource, change management and business excellence consulting experience in both the public and private sectors. She leads the Research & Insights, Business Excellence & Human Resources solution areas within aAdvantage Consulting.​ She has worked with clients from a range of industries including property, banking & finance, software development, electronic manufacturing, trading, chemicals, government services, healthcare and construction & engineering.​​

Her areas of consulting experience include organisational reviews, design and conduct of organisational and public perception surveys, compensation and benefits advice, job evaluation and performance management systems, executive search & selection, organisational development, corporate restructuring, change management and career & outplacement counselling. ​