Steve, the CEO of Kodiak Building Partners, is focused on managing independently operating companies in the building materials industry. He believes that corporate culture, which includes mission, vision, values, and established norms, can be leveraged to differentiate a brand, reach more customers, and attract and retain top talent. However, only two in 10 employees feel connected to their company’s culture, according to Gallop. As companies grow, they must be more intentional about protecting the key attributes that contributed to their growth and focus on tactics that reinforce culture while adapting to growth.
Netflix has found success by focusing on people to leverage corporate culture as a competitive advantage. The company uses values such as independent decision-making, transparency, candidness, and effectiveness to define its culture. By connecting these values to business outcomes and enabling employees to engage with the culture, Netflix has created a successful corporate culture. Other business leaders can follow this blueprint by investing in management practices that communicate culture and provide feedback loops to align and engage employees with the company’s culture.
To build trust in large organizations, executives can take actionable strategies such as transparency, communication, and training and development. Transparency is critical in creating an open, communicative workplace and limiting the need for hierarchies to keep information flowing. Communication, particularly through managers, ensures that the company’s culture flows from the bottom up and the top down. Training and development empower employees to make sound decisions and contribute to a culture of continuous improvement.
Business leaders must integrate feedback mechanisms into culture-building efforts to refine corporate culture effectively. By collecting feedback through performance evaluations, peer reviews, surveys, and informal channels, executives can gain valuable insights to shape and refine corporate culture. Leveraging feedback enhances the effectiveness of culture-building strategies, leading to improved business outcomes. Companies that prioritize feedback are more likely to score high on measures of job satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty.
In the past, corporate growth required layers of management and process, which could chip away at the heart of culture. Today, creative ways such as streamlining organizations and putting more weight on people to drive results are being used by large companies. By putting people closer to the decision-making process and establishing a foundation of trust, business leaders can demonstrate faith in their employees’ ability to make good decisions. This promotes a positive, valuable, and people-driven corporate culture that can drive success in the business world.
