Culture Beats Strategy

Famous management guru Peter Drucker once said "Culture Eat Strategy for Breakfast". Drucker, of course, did not mean that strategy was unimportant. Rather, he wanted to say that a strong corporate culture is a safer way to lead companies to success than a solid strategy. In making a company innovative, the last, most permanent and the most successful phase is to create an innovation culture.

Company culture consists of a shared beliefs and values system, acceptability patterns in people’s minds, and unwritten rules learned through experience. It is the company's self-preserving feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and behavior patterns. It is not a beginning, but a result of steps taken over time. There is no better way to create a common company culture than innovation. Because employees embrace innovation, as their ideas are valued and their work contributes significantly to the company. Although it takes time for a new culture to set in, change can begin immediately by focusing on a few critical behaviors.

So why is an innovative culture more important than strategy? Because strategy can be created quickly, but culture takes time. Strategy has a lifetime, culture is permanent. Strategy can be copied, but culture not. For this reason, it is not enough to visit known innovative companies and note everything observed to create the same! Employees remain loyal to an innovative culture. An innovative culture provides resilience in difficult times. Culture creates a competitive advantage. Culture also creates a great internal discipline. Employees own the discipline themselves. Culture also has a serious impact on the profitability of the company.