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Instantly Uncover Your Corporate Culture

Best Definition of "Corporate Culture"

If you ask 10 people to define "organizational culture," you will get 11 different answers!

Fortunately, from my consulting and

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writing on leadership and organizational change, I created my definition of organizational culture:

"Corporate culture is how every employee knows she or he must act - even if no one is watching."

Knowing your company's culture proves crucial for multiple reasons, including:

+ Only organizational changes that fit into your company's culture will succeed.

Changes not fitting into the culture will fail and not achieve desired results.

+ Hire employees who fit into the corporate culture. That is, "Do not try to fit a square peg into a round hole!"

Fastest Way to Uncover Your Organization's Culture

From my consulting experience, I devised a super-quick way to uncover an organization's culture: Discover the story all employees know and tell other employees. In fact, hearing the company's signature story is a right-of-passage for new employees. Hearing the story implicitly tells a new employee the actions and values the organization expects.

Here are two examples taken from my book entitled, Absolutely Fabulous Organizational Change?: Strategies for Success from America's Best-Run Companies.

1st Story: Ritz-Carlton-Hotel Company

Leonardo Inghilleri, senior vice president of The Ritz-Carlton-Hotel Company, told me this story often is repeated among his company's employees.

"Ladies & Gentlemen Serving Ladies & Gentlemen"

When he was 14 years old, Horst Schulze -- currently president of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company -- worked in as an apprentice waiter in a very fine restaurant in his native Germany. Initially, he saw himself as a "servant."

Then, he realized the fine restaurant was staffed by highly skilled professionals. For example, he looked in awe as he repeatedly saw the maître d' chat with and entertain the diners. In fact, the maître d' spoke many

Writing may refer to two activities: the inscribing of characters on a medium, with the intention of forming words and other constructs that represent language or record information, and the creation of material to be conveyed through written language. (There are some exceptions; for example, the use of a typewriter to record language is generally called typing, rather than writing.) Writing refers to both activities equally, and both activities may often occur simultaneously.
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languages. So, he spoke German to the German diners, French to the French guests, and English to the English customers. He also expertly helped diners with their

A language is a method of communication. Human spoken and written languages can be described as a system of symbols (sometimes known as lexemes) and the grammars (rules) by which the symbols are manipulated. The word "language" is also used to refer to common properties of languages.

Language learning is normal in human childhood. Most human languages use patterns of sound or gesture for symbols which enable communication with others around them. There are thousands of human languages, and these seem to share certain properties, even though many shared properties have exceptions.
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food and wine choices.

From this experience, it dawned on Horst Schulze that a luxury establishment is composed of ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. He instilled this insight into The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company where he now is president.

Ritz-Carlton's Culture

Company president Horst Schulze's experience gives rise to The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company's customer care motto which precisely expresses its corporate culture: "We Are Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen." Note: The company's culture perfectly dovetails with Ritz-Carlton's big, exciting, compelling vision: "Our key goal is to be the premier worldwide provider of luxury travel and hospitality products and services."

2nd Story: Intuit

Brooks Fisher, vice president and general manager of Intuit's consumer internet

Food is any substance, usually comprised primarily of carbohydrates, fats, and/or proteins, that can be consumed by animals (including humans) for nutrition or pleasure. Almost all foods are of plant or animal origin. Many cultures have a recognizable cuisine, a specific set of cooking traditions, preferences, and practices.
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business, told me Intuit's signature story is the following:

"Follow Me Home"

Scott Cook, founder of Intuit, was so focused on understanding and fulfilling the customers' needs that he invented "Follow Me Home." He would go to a store where Intuit's

In economics, business is the social science of managing people to organize and maintain collective productivity toward accomplishing particular creative and productive goals, usually to generate revenue.

The etymology of "business" refers to the state of being busy, in the context of the individual as well as the community or society. In other words, to be busy is to be doing commercially viable and profitable work.
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software was being sold. Then, while a customer was buying Intuit software, he would ask if he could follow the customer home. At the home, he would watch how the customer installed and used the software.

Intuit's Culture

Given Intuit's story, what is the company's culture -- or main focus? Fisher says the story conveys Intuit's culture which is "The customer always is first." And, as Fisher puts it, "That's how you win." Note: The story also precisely meshes with Intuit's big, compelling vision: "Our key goal is to revolutionize how people do financial work."

Hire Applicants Who 'Fit Into' Your Company's Culture

You know it proves difficult to "fit a square peg into a round hole." Likewise, companies need to hire applicants who 'fit into' their organizational culture.

For instance, one company I consult to is ultra-

Computer software (or simply software) is the programs and procedures that enable a computer to perform a specific task, as opposed to the physical components of the system (hardware). This includes application software such as a word processor, which enables a user to perform a task, and system software such as an operating system, which enables other software to run properly, by interfacing with hardware and with other software.
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customer service oriented with super-friendly employees. When we did benchmarking studies for this company with the Abilities & Behavior Forecaster? Test - to customize the Forecaster? Test to help hire the best - we discovered successful employees in every job scored high on two of the test's scales:

+ Helping People Motivation, i.e., customer service-orientation

+ Friendliness

Such customer service-focused and super-friendly employees 'fit into' the company's culture, and prove most likely to succeed.

Message = Don't bet against your organizational culture when you aim to hire the best. Fortunately, you can do by

1. benchmarking your "superstar" employees in each job - by having them fill-out a validated pre-employment test to discover their "benchmark" test scores

2. focusing on hiring applicants whose test scores are similar to your company's "superstar" employees' test scores

Now, You Can Uncover Your Organization's Culture

To discover your corporate culture, you simply need to uncover the story that

1. employees hear in their first week on-the-job and repeat to new employees

2. perfectly conveys how all employees must act - even when no one is watching!

Usually, the story is about the company's founder. It typically conveys insights and actions that lead to remarkable, profitable success.

Michael Mercer, Ph.D., is a speaker, book author and founder of The Mercer Group, Inc. He delivers 50 speeches and seminars annually at companies and conferences. His five books include (a) Absolutely Fabulous Organizational Change? and also (b) Hire the Best -- & Avoid the Rest?. Dr. Mercer developed a widely used pre-employment test - Abilities & Behavior Forecaster? Test - which helps companies choose productive applicants. You can (1) get a free subscription to his Management e-Newsletter at http://www.DrMercer.com or (2) call him at 847-382-0690.

Customer service is the provision of labour and other resources, for the purpose of increasing the value that buyers receive from their purchases and from the processes leading up to the purchase. With the rising dominance of the service sector in the global economy, customer service has grown in importance, as its impact on individuals, households, firms, and societies has become widespread.
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