Conversation #7 - Care About Culture

The need to care about culture is the topic of the last of our key conversations for 2011 and we believe it could also be the most important. We define culture as the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterises an organisation and the society in which it operates.

The need to care about culture seems to be a constant theme in everything we see and read, and is implicit in all of our other conversations i.e. creating the right culture is critical to keep businesses optimistic, even in tough times, and to ensure business values are well embedded. The right culture is needed to ensure that evidence-based commercial thinking is balanced by an environment that nurtures the creativity required for breakthrough innovation and communication etc.

So how can you create the right culture? Needless to say that it doesn't happen by accident. Firstly there is a need to identify the values and behaviours you want to establish. These then need to be supported by practical systems and ways of working i.e. the design of organisational structures and roles, recruitment policies, motivating rewards and skill development programmes.

And, most important of all, marketing leaders need to ensure that they themselves have the right mindsets to drive this change. It is crucial that they think not just about what they are doing, but also about who they are 'being' in the way that they inspire and engage people across the organisation as well as how they engage and connect with their customers and consumers.

Only by genuinely caring about culture and their role in creating the culture of their team, the marketing department, and even the business as a whole, will marketing leaders be able to play a central role in driving the growth and success of their business in the coming year.