Misunderstanding of corporate culture

A strong and market-competitive corporate culture is the dream of any company. Cisco often lectures to customers, and one of the most popular courses among Chinese customers is Cisco culture.

It is so sought after because an excellent corporate culture is the source of a company's longevity. This has long been proven by Chinese and foreign companies. "Resources will be exhausted, and only culture will continue to thrive" was written into the "Huawei Basic Law". And according to six years of research by James Collins, companies that are built to last have a "sectarian culture."

However, in the process of corporate culture construction, there are still many companies that fail to grasp the essentials. The common misunderstandings are as follows.

Misunderstanding 1: Blindly transplanted at the time of establishment

Corporate culture is an objective existence, and any company has it. But whether this culture is conducive to competition is a question mark. Copying the culture of a great company becomes a popular practice when one's own culture does not help the company grow. After all, there are many companies in the world that are famous for their corporate culture, such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

This is indeed the easiest way to do it, but it's also the least productive one. In China, Haier's corporate culture is very famous, but "although people visit Haier every day, no one makes a second Haier". Zhang Ruimin's statement also shows that corporate culture cannot be simply copied.

Because culture has personality, it is closely related to the situation of the enterprise itself and the environment in which the enterprise is located. One kind of culture has the driving force in one company, but it may not have in another company. Transplanting it may have no effect or even have a negative effect.

For example, risk-taking innovation is a good corporate culture for the high-tech industry, but not for the banking industry. Another example is the currently popular authorization, which is necessary for the ERP industry, but not necessary for large-scale manufacturing factories. Because the former needs to respond quickly to customer requirements, while the latter pursues more quality excellence, there is no need for workers on the assembly line to have free authority.

Even companies in the same industry will have different cultures due to different specializations or development stages. As a pharmaceutical company, Roche pursues the most advanced chemical synthesis drugs, so it attaches great importance to professional requirements in its culture, while Pfizer is keen to create and invent the most exotic drugs, so its culture has Help to develop employees' creative thinking. As a real estate company, the 20-year-old Vanke pursues continuous growth and leadership. Compared with speed, it values steady progress; while for 10-year-old Shun Chi, the top of the core values is mission-like. passion to support the rapid expansion and development of the company.

"Corporate Culture," co-authored by Alan Kennedy and Terence Deere, is one of the most representative works on corporate culture. Competitors, technology, government relations and other conditions are different, and the conditions faced in the market are also different. The company environment is the most important factor in shaping company culture, and different company environments will produce different company cultures."

Therefore, just seeing a certain culture is very effective in a certain company and trying to copy it without considering its own situation will not have a positive effect on the development of the company. Managers must comprehensively consider the current situation, their own goals and objectives, and market competition to create a corporate culture that suits them.

There is nothing wrong with learning the culture of an excellent company. After learning, it is necessary to think and judge whether it can arouse the recognition and resonance of employees, whether it is conducive to the competition of the enterprise, can promote the development of the enterprise, and whether there are corresponding supporting management measures. and many more. For an excellent corporate culture, you can learn from it, but you can't copy it all.

Misunderstanding 2: Inconsistency between words and deeds in the process of establishment

Inconsistency between words and deeds is the most common misunderstanding for domestic enterprises in the process of building corporate culture. It has two typical manifestations, one is just talking and not doing. Companies are obsessed with superficial forms such as slogans, ceremonies, meetings, corporate logos, etc., without paying attention to changes in the behavior and thinking habits of management and employees. A more serious one is the contradiction between words and deeds. The company advocates a culture, but the actual behavior is completely the opposite.

The former form is very common. Many companies put cooperation, forge ahead, innovation, etc. on the wall, but do not put them in the hearts of employees. These words actually have no guiding, motivating or restraining effect. If it's not reflected in action, what's posted on the wall can't be called culture, it's just slogans. According to John Cotter and James Heskett's book "Corporate Culture and Business Performance", corporate culture consists of common values and departmental codes of conduct. Those superficial symbols are not a necessary part of corporate culture at all. In other words, even without any fancy slogans, as long as a company has common values and it has good market momentum, its corporate culture is appropriate.

If talking and not doing is a pipe dream for shaping a company culture, then conflicting what is said and what is done is a nightmare. A typical example of the contradiction between words and deeds is Lenovo, which was more controversial last year. Lenovo once advocated a family-friendly culture to improve employee satisfaction and cooperative spirit. Liu Chuanzhi also mentioned the need to "add moist air" to Lenovo. But Lenovo's layoffs last year completely destroyed employees' understanding of family culture. Such a move not only leads to the collapse of the current cultural system, but also makes it very difficult to establish a new culture in the future. Because this behavior has destroyed the trust relationship between employees and leadership.

To change the situation of inconsistency between words and deeds, we should start from two aspects: managerial behavior and institutional norms.

First, managers use behavior to demonstrate the existence and effectiveness of the culture. That is to say, what managers advocate and what they oppose, they must practice and spare no effort to preach. As Tom Peters said in "The Pursuit of Excellence": "Value is demonstrated by the actions of top managers every second, every second, year after year."

Managers lead by example to employees, Cisco Chambers would be late to the boardroom for a phone call with an important customer, because Cisco's culture is about "customer first." In the early days of Vanke's development, the corporate culture was not strong enough. The top managers promoted by Wang Shi were first of all people who had a deep understanding and recognition of their culture, so as to strengthen the influence and penetration of the company's culture. The establishment of corporate culture is based on the consensus and recognition of the values of all employees, especially the leadership.

Second, the system should guarantee the culture advocated, especially in the assessment and incentive system. Huawei's Ren Zhengfei once said that people will only become Lei Feng when they see that Lei Feng is not at a loss. Another example is LG (China), which advocates team spirit. It attaches great importance to team rewards in terms of compensation. TCL has also incorporated the construction of corporate culture into the KPI assessment indicators of cadres to promote the implementation of the culture. That is to say, only when the institutional norms that carry the culture can be established, can employees generally recognize the values and priorities emphasized by the company, and then accept and recognize them.

Misunderstanding 3: The method of implementation cannot be sustained

The core of corporate culture is values, and the deep penetration of values requires a process of long-term cultivation and gradual deepening of each employee and field of the organization. As IBM's Thomas Watson, Jr. said: "Respect for the individual is a simple concept, but IBM managers spend a lot of time practicing it." The most popular method to achieve the goal is brainwashing. When new employees enter the company, they will undergo short-term intensive training to instill the company's vision, mission and cultural characteristics. There are also some companies that advertised it with great fanfare in the early stage of construction, and then quietly disappeared.

This short-term behavior will produce two results. First, the grass-roots employees do not know much about the connotation of corporate culture and lack in-depth experience. Of course, it is difficult to form a consistent concept. Another result is that it is easy for employees to form the impression that the promotion of corporate culture is just going through the motions, and they cannot implement the training they have received into action.

Some experts believe that it takes 5-10 years for a company to develop a corporate culture. In order for the culture to slowly penetrate everyone in the long run, the activities of publicity and guidance cannot be stopped. Lin Zhenggang, vice president of Cisco China, mentioned when talking about Cisco's cultural construction that in the formation stage of culture, we must first formulate and do things. This principle must be communicated to everyone repeatedly, "It is not enough to say it once, it must be repeated through different means and through practical actions."

Procter & Gamble, for example, has formal and informal indoctrination procedures. Training and orientation courses are used to guide new employees into the company, and then have them study the company's biography, "Looking Forward to Tomorrow." The company's internal publications, senior executive talks and formal training materials all emphasize the history, values and traditions of P&G. At the same time, it also continuously attracts employees to devote themselves to the salary and benefit plan. Built to Last: "Throughout P&G's history, P&G has used complex and tangible mechanisms to enforce the desired behavior of the company, from strict dress codes, office settings that allow little privacy, to the world-renowned P&G The intention is to unify the communication style and limit the memo to be written on one page."

In addition to these continuous propaganda, the institutional constraints mentioned above are also a more important aspect of maintaining the continuous construction of the culture.

Only by sticking to the values and following the code of conduct year after year, can the culture permeate the enterprise like the air, so that the thoughts of the upper and lower employees are in step with those of the leaders, so that the enterprise leadership "doesn't need to" It is a state that can make the enterprise develop healthily.

Misunderstanding 4: Rigid, conservative and ignorant of development

Even if the first three misunderstandings are not entered, the corporate culture is well established, and the enterprise should also pay attention to the fact that culture has two sides. In a relatively stable business environment, it is a It is a powerful tool to unite people and inspire progress, but when the environment or enterprise changes, the culture that creates success makes it difficult for the organization to perceive that the environment requires a new response, and culture may become the culprit that hinders progress. So, be careful not to fall into the stereotype of the stereotype.

Apple once became famous because of its innovative culture, but later the direction of innovation was too product-oriented, or technology-oriented, and it did not realize the changes in market demand and lost the love of customers. The company once seemed self-appreciative and fell into a loss-making situation. Later, Jobs returned to Apple and brought the company culture to focus on customers. Jobs has said that this time he took the initiative to approach customers instead of sitting there waiting for customers to come to him. From the fourth quarter financial report of 2004, Apple's net profit exceeded 100 million US dollars, becoming the highest financial report in the fourth quarter in 9 years.

Oracle China has recently experienced frequent turnover of executives and high employee turnover. It is also directly related to the Westernization of high-level thinking, the rigidity of institutional settings in China, and the inability of its corporate culture to adapt to local culture.

Therefore, when a company's competitive environment has undergone major changes, or its own strategy has been adjusted, the once excellent culture may have lost its market competitiveness. At this time, it is necessary to evolve, revise and change the company's cultural elements. At present, there are three common changes in corporate culture. One is to develop with the growth of the company. For example, a company in the entrepreneurial stage will have a survival culture that emphasizes passion and a sense of crisis, while in the mature stage, it may focus on stable execution.

The other is that there are changes in form with the development of enterprises across regions. That is to say, its core values may not change, but its manifestations can be changed according to local customs. For example, one of Wal-Mart's core values "respect for customers" has not changed everywhere, but the form of greeting customers at the door can be changed.

The third is the changing competitive environment, which makes it necessary for companies to strengthen the market orientation of their own culture. Last year (2004), NEC asked Lu Lei, who had made great contributions to Motorola, to serve as the president of the Chinese company. An important consideration is that he will help to transform NEC, an "engineering culture company" into a "electronic consumer goods company".

It should be noted that the corporate culture is hierarchical, with various rules and regulations and slogans and quotations on the outside, and values on the inside. The deeper the value, the more lasting it is.