Fast Company published an article on their site entitled “Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch.” I barely got halfway through before my inner blogger started screaming “DISAGREE! DISAGREE!”
The major hypothesis of the article is that culture is more important than strategy, because without an organizational culture which favours accountability and responsibility, you can’t actually implement any strategy. I agree with that, but I also think many of the points the author, Shawn Parr, makes in support of his hypothesis actually prove that the relationship between culture and strategy is a two-way street.
A strong culture flourishes with a clear set of values and norms that actively guide the way a company operates. Employees are actively and passionately engaged in the business, operating from a sense of confidence and empowerment rather than navigating their days through miserably extensive procedures and mind-numbing bureaucracy.
There are lots of businesses out there that have a great culture. They are wonderful, nice places to come to work. Everybody’s having fun, everybody loves the company… but the company is slowly going bankrupt. Why? Because employees cannot productively engage in the business without knowing the purpose and direction they should be making an effort. That direction comes from… you guessed it… the strategy. Employees without a sense of the company’s strategy will engage all right… but in a shotgun scattered approach.
The article talks about accountability, which is a fabulous concept, but it depends on something: accountability to what? If there are no goals, no roadmap in place then you can have all the accountability in the world but it still doesn’t give you a successful company (or organization).
A poor culture can hamstring a good strategy, that is true. But a lack of strategy or a poor strategy can make the best culture in the world into nothing more than a big dance party on the Titanic. It’s going down… but aren’t we having fun?


What kind of impact do you make?
It’s been my pleasure to have some discussions with several successful and talented people in small business and not-for-profit organizations recently around the topic of impact. More specifically, what is the impact we make on our clients and society as a result of our actions?
For entrepreneurs, impact is most often measured by the profits generated by the company. If you are financially successful, it is assumed that you’re offering a product or service that your customers view as having value, so they exchange money for it. You are able to generate that product or service for less money than what people are willing to pay. Henceforth, profit – and out of the jobs we create, the taxes we pay and perhaps the charitable donations we make, we can say we have a net positive impact on society.
On the not-for-profit side, impact is less easily quantified. What is the scorecard to be used in measuring how successful an organization is at saving dolphins, enriching lives, or protecting the weak? The Census doesn’t ask people subjective questions so there isn’t a statistically reliable (or not, alas) way to measure quality of life. I think this is one of the great challenges facing non-profit Boards: to define the social good in such a way that they can demonstrate a positive impact. And even if they could, they are still bound to a financial measure in that they have to be able to attract enough funding to deliver their services in a way that allows them to break-even or have a reinvestable surplus.
Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) has penned an addendum to that notable work, Good to Great for the Social Sectors. It’s actually available on Kindle (I read it on my iPad, having downloaded it via BC Ferries’ wifi connection last week – I ♥ mobility!) as well as printed form. It’s a quick read, and it will actually benefit people in for-profit, not-for-profit or anywhere in between, because it will make you think about your impact. Thanks to the fine folks at Power to Be Adventure Therapy for telling me about this book!
I also just watched the first 15 minutes of this video about Financial Planning for Startups, which talks about why money is important for startups: because the ability to generate money is the sign of a sustainable business model. I think the ability to generate money is one thing, but the ability to use it wisely – to create an impact – is something entirely different and much more important in profit and not-for-profit organizations. (Maybe if more people in the tech-start-up field were trying to use money wisely rather than just generate money, we’d have been spared the tech bubble and the ludicrous valuations of tech start-ups that do very little aside from look good and play foosball. But I digress).
I’m going to watch the rest of this video now… I just had to pause for this blogging moment.