“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 organization will defeat the strategy.” Richard 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% agree “that their culture needs a major overhaul”. These are startling 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.

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT SERIES (6 PART): PART 3 IMPLEMENT CULTURE AND CHANGE ALIGNMENT:
Design and Build a Culture that Supports Your Vision
By Soh Chin San, Senior Consultant, and Jacqueline Gwee, Director, aAdvantage Consulting Group Pte Ltd
“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 organization will defeat the strategy.” Richard Clark, CEO of Merck (2005 – 2010)
In a study conducted by Bain Consulting1 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 20132
, 96% of the 2200 respondents agreed that “culture change is
needed in their organisation” while 51% agree
“that their culture needs a major overhaul”.
These are startling 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.
Culture is a foundation, not an outcome.
If we were to ask the man on the street, what are some organisations with strong cultures that breed
success, he would probably say “Google”, “Disney”, “Starbucks”, “Ritz Carlton”. These are organisations
known worldwide for their prevalent and consistent culture. However, many leaders have the
misconception that culture is an outcome of growth.
The study of these organisations revealed that culture was one of the key foundations to their success.
Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, said “I’ve said for years that the most important aspect of our
company is the culture. And people laugh at that, but that’s the truth.”
1 “Creating and Sustaining a Winning Culture” http://blogs.hbr.org/2008/02/creating-and-sustaining-a-winn-1/
2
“The 2013 culture and change management survey” http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/global/home/what_we_do/services/ocl/culture-
and-change

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Today, organisations such as Zappos and AirBnB have shown the world how start ups grew within a short
span of time and achieved phenomenal business success – with a strong focus on building the culture as a
foundation.
Alignment between Strategy, Structure, Culture = High Performance
One of the golden rules in consulting is: if an organisation is able to align the Strategy, Structure and
Culture of the organisation, they can achieve high performance. Strategy is the Vision, Mission, business
goals and key thrusts of an organisation. Structure is how an organisation is organised to create value.
This includes the organisation structure, the roles, processes and tools used. Finally culture is the way we
work, act and collaborate. It is about the values, competencies, attitudes and behaviours of the people.
Imagine if an organisation declares: “We want to be customer centric and achieve customer loyalty.” That
is strategy. “We want to restructure into a matrix organisation to deliver solutions and be responsive to
customer needs.” That is structure. Finally, “we want to ensure teams share information, collaborate, and
put personal agendas aside.” That is culture. But wait, behaviours do not change overnight. And if the
behaviours and mindset do not change, then the culture has defeated the strategy.
More and more leaders are beginning to realise, they cannot ignore the design and building of a strong
culture, yet they do not know where to start.
Culture change starts with personal transformation of the leaders
Culture change starts with leaders asking themselves first, “What is the vision and mission of our
organisation?” From there the next question is “What are the values and behaviours that must exist to
achieve the vision and mission?” Once that is articulated, leaders can start to communicate the culture to
the rest of the organisation.
There are times when values seem to sound the same. Many organisations possess the values
“Collaboration” and “Customer Focused” The difference lies in the actual behaviours. To one
organisation, “collaboration” may mean an extra effort to collaborate across product teams to bring
value adding solutions to the client. To another, “collaboration” may mean putting aside personal

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agendas and thinking win-win for both individuals. It all depends on what are the behaviours we want to
encourage and discourage in order to achieve business goals.
Finally, cultures do not change overnight. While there is no short cut to success, there is nothing more
powerful than having the leaders transform and role model the way. If leaders expect a culture of
coaching, encouragement and collaboration, they need to walk the talk and set the example. With a
detailed plan, strong buy in from the senior leaders, there is a strong chance of succeeding at building a
compelling culture.
The following case study highlights the steps taken in “Implement Culture and Change Alignment”.
In Part 4 of this Change Management Series, we will be outlining the next critical step towards a
successful and sustainable change – Develop Leadership Capacity & Stakeholder Commitment
CASE STUDY
Change Objective: To design the desired culture that supports the organisation’s new Vision and
Mission.
Step 1: Uncover the current culture: A Cultural Values Assessment was conducted across the
organisation to uncover from the employees i) who are the people within the organisation ii) how they
described the current culture and iii) what is the desired culture to achieve high performance in the
organisation. The Cultural Values Assessment was followed by focus groups with staff and managers to
understand the words chosen in the Cultural Values Assessment. The focus groups gave employees an
opportunity to provide ideas on how to close the gaps between the current and desired culture.
Step 2: Design the desired culture: The results of the Cultural Values Assessment was shared with the
leadership team. The leaders of the organisation took time to understand the root causes of limiting
behaviours of the organisation and the impact to employee morale, customer satisfaction and
profitability. With this information, the leaders relooked at their current set of values and behaviours
and considered words that need to be reviewed in order to achieve the business goals and address
limiting behaviours.
Step 3: Leadership training and alignment: All people managers of the organisation were introduced
to the new values in order to achieve buy in, and to communicate the expected behaviours. This ensures
that people managers begin to set the example of behaviours expected.
Step 4: Communicate new values to whole organisation: A launch event was created to communicate
the case for change, the new vision and mission, and the values in relation to the new vision. Besides
the launch event, employees had to attend a “Values Cascading Workshop” for the values to be
introduced and internalized.
Step 5: Incorporate new values into systems. The values and behaviours are updated into the HR
systems including recruitment, orientation, training and performance management. This ensures that
the right people are recruited, the values are introduced at the start of their careers, and the expression
of the values are measured and reinforced.