The importance of culture

One thing that I have observed over the years is how big an impact a companies culture has on it’s success. In my opinion the most successful companies are the ones where the workforce has a clear line of sight to the organisations goals and feel that they can make a valid contribution in the achievement of those goals, there has to be a feeling that everyone is pulling in the same direction. Businesses which have clearly defined values which have been successfully embedded into the way things are done tend to find it easier to mobilise their work forces, what also helps is having a culture of friendly rivalry where people have visibility of how well (or badly) their unit is performing versus other units within the business. Alongside this culture of friendly rivalry you need (again in my opinion) a commercial culture where unit managers have mastered the day job to a point here they can be a little more strategic I their thinking.
The list above is not exhaustive however over the years, companies that exhibit these qualities have outstripped their competitors.