Every company has an existing corporate culture, regardless of the length of history, and the difference in industry and scale. Examining the existing corporate culture, then exploring and shaping a new and suitable corporate culture is the key to improve the competitiveness of a company.

Corporate culture is about diversity and there’s no absolute right or wrong. The focus should be the kind of working environment that is the most suitable for the company to grow. As the first step, it is necessary for business owners to understand the current situation and initially evaluate the company’s cultural style.

Understand the existing culture

Business owners need to observe the current way of operating the organization, the values, the behavior of employees and the source of cohesion. Analyze the current corporate culture, including the company’s history, values, leadership style, team status, and more. Find out the strengths of the current cultural style and analyze the impact on the organization.

To understand the existing culture, let’s have an in-depth dialogue with your colleagues. Colleagues can be invited to discuss the following issues according to the actual situation of the company:

• What do you like most about the current organizational culture?
• What behaviors and mindsets would you like to change?
• What is the leadership style of the organization?
• What are the characteristics of the most successful people in the organization?
• What are the most common reasons why newcomers fail to succeed in existing cultural styles?

Next, the desired corporate culture must be clearly defined. A successful corporate culture must align with the company’s strategic direction, execute with priorities, and reflect the requirements of the external business environment. Sound cultural transformation goals should be specific and achievable.

Examine strategy and external environment

Assess the current and future external conditions, the company’s strategies, and analyze which cultural styles need to be strengthened and which need to be weakened accordingly.

Define cultural goals based on the current state of the business

Align cultural goals with the organization’s change priorities, focusing on the real problems to be solved and the value created by solving them. Through active discussions with colleagues and formulating the corporate culture together, guiding the organizational culture transformation.

How to promote corporate culture?

Business owners need to demonstrate their determination to shape their corporate culture, via internal communication, education and training, and implementation and practice of management. It is especially important for business owners to lead by example, and they must persevere in order to create a “strong” corporate culture. In the process of promoting and implementing corporate culture, it is best to go from top to bottom (policies, measures, management systems), coupled with bottom-up (spontaneous participation and input of colleagues), in order to make the corporate culture successful.