There’s a phrase by Peter Drucker, made famous by Mark Fields, President at Ford, that goes “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” and in my opinion possibly lunch and dinner, too! Of course, culture is only critical to strategy if your strategy is sound, so assuming it is, and you’re like me, your culture will play an important part in whether your business is really successful, or just mediocre. 

Our business is entirely dependent on having excellent customer relationships and creating an amazing customer experience. If our employees aren’t engaged, if they’re not willing to go the extra mile on every single conversation and interaction with our customers, then we will not have the competitive advantage that we need. We also won’t have sales.

Our competitive advantage is our company culture. Our employees are, quite frankly, an amazing bunch of dedicated, loyal, people. Tie that culture into the ability to act quickly (that’s executing that sound strategy and fast) and you can create an unbeatable force. 

Now, I’m not trying to blow our own trumpet (I’m fully aware of what a tall poppy is) but to put this conversation in context you need to know that we’ve had 10 years of solid growth, and in a mature market like sign and graphics, that’s remarkable, and I put a big part of that down to having a great culture.

So how do you do that? We started implementing great ideas by design, and to do that you have to turn off the corporate sat nav and put humans at the centre of everything you do. Great ideas, executed well, can drive a business forward and if you put humans at the centre, you also put your staff there. I believe if you put your employees first, it will flow down the customer chain.

We started by making a really clear cultural statement. A cultural statement is something practiced by all of us, everyday, and contributes directly to our job satisfaction and our success in the market. And of course, having a clearly defined vision sets the bar for everyone, because our culture defines the basic pillars, objectives and values of our actions.

What is our Cultural Statement here at CL Group?

“To have a unified and happy workplace that encourages a relationship first culture that shines through the customer experience for every metre sold.”

At the heart of this statement is our desire to put our staff first. We think if we put our employees first, if they feel we trust them and believe in them, then that will shine through in every interaction they have with our customers.  And we kinda like them too, so we want to contribute to their happiness scale. So how do we get our employees to buy into that statement? 

1. Meaning

Firstly, people have to feel that they are working towards a greater good. That they are a part of something greater than themselves. In our company, we talk a lot about our heritage as early pioneers in the technology that disrupted our industry 35+ years ago. We love to roll out our founder, Noel Morrison, because we think he epitomises the values and integrity of what our company stands for, and that is more meaningful. And of course, everyone loves him! But that’s not really enough. What can we do to be a good corporate citizens? What can we do in our local community to make the world a slightly better place to live? These are the questions we are asking ourselves right now, and we have staff itching to put their hand up to be on “The Pizza Team” to look into this (an idea stolen from Jeff Bezos, basically an internal innovation team that can be fed with two pizzas). On our ‘Pizza Team’ there are no stupid questions because when we question the obvious, innovation comes. It empowers people to speak up, and that’s really cool, because it also tells me they’re engaged enough to want to give discretionary effort, that is above and beyond what they have to do.

2. Progression

Secondly, people need to feel that they are making progress. That they’re not stuck in the same job without end and with no hope of promotion. That doesn’t mean you can promote everyone, but by having really solid training programmes and courses that the company will sponsor or pay for, then staff can feel they’re getting ahead, and when they leave (and they will at some point) you want them to leave much better experienced, with better skills, than when they arrived. If you can do that, you’ve been successful, and so have they.

3. Trust

The third key pillar is trust. Trust is really a cornerstone of performance and well being at work. Above all, humans just want to belong and feel connected, so having trust in them is important. But also, they need to have trust in you that they know what you stand for and that you will do what you say you will. They need to feel safe and secure, that you’ve got this, and that you’ve got their back. But trust, and its close friend, autonomy, don't exist in a vacuum.  People still have to earn that right, until they fail and you may have to bring it back a bit, that's really where accountability comes in. But, all in all if you can achieve the safe feeling that trust brings then you’re 75% there.  

4. Communicate

And lastly, communication kind of pulls it all together.  If you have a clearly defined vision that they actually know about and can buy into, then everyone pulling together in the same direction gets you there stronger and faster. 

You want a one boat culture. You won’t always get everyone on the boat, but those that are will be loyal and will give you 110% all of the time. That’s the unstoppable crew you need.

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Arlette Farland is a Director at Computaleta Group and has a post-graduate degree in Journalism.  She has a strong interest in the future of the industry and is passionate about strategic direction, customer experience and marketing.

Connect with her here.