Cultivating a Memorable Corporate Culture
In recent years, corporate culture has become a much-discussed yet essential concept for any business. With confidence, after many years in the business world, I can say that a company’s business culture is what makes it stand out—it is what defines and differentiates it, provided it is taken into account from the very beginning.
Take note: whether you actively work toward cultivating your business culture or not, there is no such thing as a business without a culture. Simply put, if you invest in shaping it, you offer the public something organized, refined, and well cared for—something that is always evaluated positively and has a tangible impact throughout the entire course of the business.
If there is one thing your competitors can never replicate, it is a strong and carefully cultivated culture that inspires and guides you as an entrepreneur, as well as your company’s employees, partners, and audience.
Below you will find some tips on how to build a business culture that not only wins over its audience but also makes them say “wow.”
The motivation for making this record came from studying the book “Delivering happiness” by Tony Hseih, CEO of Zappos. This company, in my view, is a benchmark example, as it sold shoes but did so in such a way that it truly turned them into a billion-dollar acquisition by Amazon. If you read it, you will see how the company’s culture played the most crucial role in its evolution into a corporate giant.
10 Tips That Will Contribute to the Creation and Cultivation of a Strong Business Culture
- Communicate your company’s vision and purpose, and create the conditions necessary for it to be realized.
The vision and purpose of businesses often tend to take the form of phrases like “the leader in customer service.” Sorry to say it, but that is not a vision—that’s a cliché. Your vision, and your company’s culture, need to be focused on what you have to offer the world beyond and above any financial benefit or profit. Profitability is a goal for any business; however, profitability is not measured solely in numerical terms, but also in qualitative ones.
- Be clear about what you want to achieve, both within the internal environment of the business and in its external environment.
Your personal priorities, your values, your principles are what define your culture. The best way to clarify these is to record both the manner and the worth you attribute to your staff, your customers, your suppliers, and your partners.
Keep in mind: People follow you for what you do, the way you do it, and not for what you merely say.
Above all, people follow your BIG WHY—that is, why you do what you do.
- Design your business so that it is aligned with what it needs to achieve.
This includes the groundwork you must do to identify the skills and capabilities you have at your disposal in order to build a strong competitive advantage, as well as the path you and your partners must follow to make this a reality. Traditional methods in promoting your business, in sales, in developing your products or services, often lead to mediocrity. Design your business excellently, in every detail, focusing on what makes it stand out from everything else in the market.
- Choose the right team: do it quickly.
Especially for new businesses, knowing where you will be supported, in which area you need partners, and which people you must hire is very important knowledge as well as self-awareness. We cannot do everything and all things. We need help that sometimes we do not seek. And that is a mistake. To truly be helped, hire people with more talents than you in the field where they have expertise. These people will help you significantly; they will be your hands and feet, but they need you to “orchestrate” them, to guide them, to inspire them.
- Innovate in every way and through every means carefully.
Innovation is a concept often repeated and overused. Be careful! It does not refer only to a novel, brand-new product or service, but it can also involve improvements and smart approaches in the application of your business model, in your customer service, and in your processes. Never become complacent in this area. This helps you stay in the market without fearing competition.
- Set your standards high.
If you believe in your team, in your product, then set high standards in quality as well as in what you want to achieve. Nothing goes unnoticed. A good and efficient team will face challenges, and your customers will recognize the spirit and the excellence in the way they are served by you. They will see that in your business there exists what we simply call 🙂 “the culture of excellence.”
- Keep training continuously. Train all the time.
Education of every kind greatly helps to keep your mind and senses open to ideas, to new things, and to the future of your work. Education, training, and the interaction it creates are benefits of high effectiveness. Education and coaching are the cornerstones for the creation of outstanding entrepreneurs-leaders in their field as well as exceptional businesses.
- Create events that will promote joy within the business and also serve to remind what is truly important.
Create one or two events each year that will be important for you and your team, your partners, or even your customers. Organize them in such a way that they will enjoy themselves, find meaning in them, and be inspired to move forward even stronger into the future.
- Think like a winner, act like a winner.
Customers have a sharp sense of who they are dealing with. They understand when an entrepreneur or a team is motivated to create memorable products and services, and whether what they do truly has meaning for them. They do not like defeatist people or teams. Your customers want to buy from a winner in the market. That’s why make sure that neither you nor your employees ever apologize for the price or the quality of the products or services your business offers, and also ensure they never miss the opportunity to thank your customers.
- Live the myth you desire to live.
If you do not know what your ultimate purpose is, you will never reach fulfillment. If your team does not know why this business exists, there will always be a gap. You may not be Steve Jobs, who lived and created a myth. What you are is unique and special, and that is why you can create your own myth and direct yourself professionally based on it.
The right business culture does not need a cult-like atmosphere to be created, but it certainly requires a mindset and reasoning that go beyond conventional thinking and the existing status quo. What is certain is that culture needs to be built around ideals of deep meaning, with high creativity that rises above and beyond mere financial gain and reward.
Don’t forget, people buy from you not because of what you do, but because of why you do it. Watch this video of Simon Sinek’s talk at the TEDx events to understand exactly what I mean.
