I was chatting with Ruth Sanderson the other week from blue pea POD about the importance of business culture.  Ruth calls it the silent assassin because a business with cultural conflict will struggle to survive.

Business culture is intangible, yet every business is defined by it and lives or dies by it.

Culture is the values of a business in action.  A healthy, profitable, sustainable business will match brand values, the values on the wall and the practised values of that business.

In the early stages of a business the culture of that business will be created by the values of the owner. As a business becomes established the values of the business need to be understood, managed and reflected externally and internally for the business to thrive.

Customers need to do business with a consistent, collective culture not just one individual.  All stakeholders need to have and be part of that collective understanding.

Ruth helps businesses understand their culture and where, if anywhere it’s misaligned.  Understanding what a business’s values are and eliminating any mismatch is vital to success.  Creating the correct business culture requires a conscious effort.

Using communication, business processes and systems, business culture can be consistently applied throughout and can become the basis of all decision making. Ruth helps businesses develop and execute action plans to achieve that consistency. That internal consistency then has to be reflected externally.

Recruitment plays an important part in maintaining business culture. Read more about that next month from Rachel Flanagan.

Ruth Sanderson is giving a seminar on “Creating Brand Value Inside and Out” with me and Rachel Flanagan on July 9th at Sci-Tech Daresbury.