Culture and Strategy. It's a dance.

"Does Culture eat Strategy for breakfast?" No

“Culture eats Strategy for breakfast.”

How often have you heard this statement? Every second day.

How often have you believed it? Always

The statement just ‘feels’ right.

Even if you have a doubt, you don’t want to be known as the person who does not believe in the value of culture.

The result?

‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast,’ is now chanted as a mantra. Leaders just love chanting it at every possible opportunity. The idea is now accepted as a universal truth. It is not a hypothesis anymore.

Does this idea qualify to be a mantra?

The intent of the phrase, ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast,’ is to emphasize the importance of culture. No problem with that. Who can argue against the importance of culture?

The problem is the emphatic claim that culture is more important than strategy.

Not true.

Culture is not more important than strategy.

Strategy is a formula for success. It is a set of choices to win in the market. These choices relate to target markets, product or service features, pricing, investment, organization, market share, and revenue ambitions.

You make smart choices – you win. You make dumb choices – you lose.

Can culture help you win even if you make dumb strategic choices?

The generally accepted answer to the above question is:
A right culture would prevent you from making dumb choices.

This answer, while somewhat true, reflects an incomplete understanding of the business world and the strategy creation process.

Strategy creation requires a team with the right experience, industry knowledge and strategic expertise. As all chess players are not grandmasters, all teams are not equally strategic. Of course, a great culture would make a team more effective. However, ‘culture’ cannot compensate for lack of experience, expertise, and inherent smartness.

“First, you find eagles, then they learn to fly in formation.” (Wayne Calloway, PepsiCo)

In fact, a great culture cannot be created or sustained in a void. Sustaining any culture requires reinforcement. This reinforcement comes from success. Success convinces people that their culture helps them win. When a business is under-performing, it is difficult to sustain a positive culture. Culture needs success. Success needs strategy.

Culture and Strategy exist in a mutually reinforcing relationship. You need one for the other. They are dancing together.

One is not more important than the other. One is not eating the other for breakfast!

When we don’t recognize this dance of strategy and culture, we start to believe if we simply create a great culture, everything will be great. Leaders, CHROs and consultants start brainstorming values, conducting surveys, becoming ‘inspirational’ in town halls, participating in workshops, appointing culture champions, and acting as if a great culture is the only goal.

The unintended consequence of all this frenzy is that the company becomes internally oriented and behaviorally focused. Without realizing, it starts to lose focus on the external market and commercial outcomes.

Culture without context is a waste of time. Strategy helps create context. Culture is a cause and an effect. It is not always the cause.

Understanding this important characteristic of culture will help build a culture that propels strategy. And outlining the contours of a desirable culture is part of strategic thinking. It is a dance.

A unipolar, unconditional drive on culture will not lead to culture eating strategy for breakfast. It will lead to culture eating your business.