An organisation's corporate culture directly affects its performance. The constant challenge for organisations to react nimbly to the ever-changing business environment means it is crucial they keep their corporate culture primed to support their strategic development.
Failure to do so can lead to lost opportunities and profits. If corporate culture is substantially out of kilter with an organisation's business strategies there can be a grave undermining of competitiveness or sustainability.
Reshaping corporate culture is usually the most effective solution to such a problem, but is no easy task in itself and carries considerable sensitivity as it primarily involves changing attitudes and mindsets which are notoriously inflexible. This type of exercise also tends to be meticulous and intricate, and needs to be well planned with full participation by staff and management to succeed, according to the Hong Kong Productivity Council's (HKPC) senior consultant Philippe Tang King-wai.
Speaking recently at seminar, 'Striving for Business Excellence via Culture Reshape', jointly organised by HKPC and the Classified Post, Mr Tang said effective culture reshaping needed to have a lucid target, and be comprehensively researched, carefully measured, and implemented with a clear direction. He said the efforts would pay off in the long term.
'There are ample research findings abroad to show that companies with a strong, befitting corporate culture perform better in terms of productivity, profitability, stock prices, employment growth, employee satisfaction and commitment. They also do better in attracting quality staff and retaining them,' he said.
'This shows that the corporate culture can be a great competitive strength if it is consistent with an organisation's objectives and strategies.'
