How Your Company Culture Could Save Your Company

What is “Company Culture” anyway?

“When we think about culture, we think about a common set of behaviors, plus the underlying mindsets that shape how people work and interact day to day.” This is a quote by McKinsey’s talent expert and partner Brooke Weddle taken from the McKinsey Talks Talent podcast; a great and clear definition of the essence of company culture.

The most important part of what Weddle had mentioned in the podcast is that shared mindset. Imagine running a company with a group of teams that think differently, value different things, and have different goals. Not only does that mean your company is run by silos, but it also means that your company will constantly struggle to meet its ultimate vision and goals because everyone envisions something else or operates on a different mindset.

Having a shared mindset, shared set of values, and most importantly, a shared vision of the company are what defines “healthy or good company culture.”

The Top Three Reasons Why Company Culture is Important

#1 Your company will be much more resilient

Resiliency is a trait most leaders and managers strive to achieve for their own organizations—when you’re resilient, nothing can bring you or your company down, which is why it’s such a desirable and sought-out trait amongst executives. While your first instinct might be that resiliency comes from having assets and resources on-hand or maybe having investors ready to jump in to support your company, research has shown that your company culture is actually where it starts.

According to McKinsey & Co., companies with a consistent, healthy organizational culture are more likely to adapt to changes in the global business market better than their counterparts. In fact, those with unhealthy company cultures not only respond poorly to change, but also have an even higher chance of completely failing. The same research shows that 70 percent of company transformations had failed in the past few years, most of them due to culture-related issues.

Another study conducted by PWC also found that about 69 percent of companies and organizations that survived and succeeded during the pandemic attributed their success to their great company culture. Despite the volatile state of the business market during that time, these organizations still managed to prevail and rise above the struggles caused by the pandemic, mostly because of their dedication towards maintaining a healthy company culture.

#2 Your company will perform better

Better overall performance, better services and/or products, right? If you’re struggling to up your company’s performance and find yourself stuck not knowing where to start, go ahead and take a look at your organizational culture.

PWC’s Joint Global Leader for People and Organization Bhuhsan Sethi has emphasized that organizations and companies that put effort into maintaining and cultivating a healthy company culture “respond to customer needs better, innovate with a higher degree of success and deliver better business results.”

When you create and build a healthy company culture, you’re unknowingly building a more agile company culture in the process. Having a unified mindset that your employees, executives, managers, and everyone in the company can loyally adhere to will mean that everyone’s on the same page, which will also drive results faster and help increase your chances of success.

#3 Your company will have the upper hand

Haven’t you always wanted to give your company an “edge”? Something that separates them from the competition? It turns out, you can do just that by simply taking care and nurturing your company culture.

The same study by PWC found that 70 percent of organizations reported that their culture was what gave them a competitive advantage in their given markets. The reason why is that cultures are not as easy to copy or replicate as products and innovative ideas. During a time in which business were scrambling to get their hands on the latest statistics and data on market demands in hope of finding innovative solutions to them, healthy company culture that involves teams that have similar growth mindsets is a hidden secret weapon that is difficult for competitors to mimic