Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Rick Nichols, Managing Partner of TechCXO's Sales & Marketing Practice. We hope you enjoy Rick’s wisdom and perspective.
We define corporate culture as a shared pattern of values, beliefs, and expectations. These values produce rules for behavior and pressure to conform on the job. Tom Peters’ timeless book In Search of Excellence tells us that “excellent companies are marked by very strong cultures, so strong that you either buy into their norms or get out. There’s no halfway house for most people in excellent companies.”
Fortune magazine pointed out in an article several years ago that it may be easier to change a company’s people than to change its culture. In the long term, the key to culture is whom you hire and promote. People often get jobs and move up more based on the degree to which they fit prevailing cultural norms than for any objective reason. For hiring leaders who must interview and hire candidates from outside the company or industry, this carries very important implications. We need to know if candidates will fit into our culture.
