Recently, every employee at Time Inc. received a “culture card.” These business cards feature Time’s mission, vision, strategy and heritage, as well as the “TIME” expected behaviors: Teamwork, Innovate, Motivate, Execute.
Why does company culture keep making headlines—especially as it relates to CMOs?
According to Egon Zehnder, 95 percent of senior marketing leaders believe a company’s perceived culture affects consumer buying decisions. Yet only 60 percent of those surveyed believe their organization’s culture supports their brand.
Recently, our CEO Kristine shared how we documented the Allocadia culture through our “Culture Code.” For more inspiration and ideas for building a winning company culture and brand, I’ve been reading the articles below.
Build Trust and Transparency
“CMOs, whose main responsibility was once limited to marketing brands to the outside world, are being called on to help protect and improve the corporate culture in which those brands live. That’s because more consumers are shunning companies that they don’t trust, no matter how good the marketing is.” – Read more at Ad Age
Live Your Core Values
“Make sure that you have documented your core values (what defines your culture) and made them available for all employees to see. Without tangible reference, it’s easy for something like an idea to become twisted, with each person having differing interpretations of their experiences. And it isn’t enough to simply hand down these values and immediately put them out of mind as you move onto the next thing. It takes a consistent effort to maintain good practices until they become engrained as habit, so take time to make sure that your staff, as well as you, are living up to the ideals that you’ve set forth.” – Read more at Forbes
Encourage Autonomy and Responsibility
“Promote employee empowerment in your company. Let them be accountable for the tasks they work on. Also, if you give them more responsibility, this gives them a reason to learn more and move forward in their careers. When your employees accomplish their responsibilities, take the time to appreciate them.” – Read more at Business 2 Community
Resist the Urge to Add Formal Structure
“Don’t cherry-pick any procedures from outside your organization that you don’t need to. Instead, look at the organic patterns that have emerged among your own teams and build on those. Do lunch meetings with senior leaders take place naturally? Great—try setting up a “lunch-and-learn” mentorship program. Do managers already give feedback in real time, and is it working? If so, why would you ever want to replace that with a monthly review?” – Read more at Fast Company
Plan for Evolution
“’You’re not looking to maintain your culture. You’re looking to deliberately evolve it.’ That’s the tickling irony that surrounds all conversation around protecting your company’s culture. Ultimately, it’s going to change. And there’s nothing you can do about it. But, paradoxically, it’s your culture’s ability to adapt to the changing needs of the business that makes it a reliable force for growth.” – Read more at The Next Web
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