Securing success with ‘soft’ factors
It is undisputed that businesses have their own identity and represent certain values. The question is if their business culture and values are known beyond business marketing or management directives. It is also indisputable that the business culture, the manner in which the people within the organisation, both consciously and unconsciously thinking and operating, displays a considerable competitive factor and drives towards business success.
Our understanding of cultural change
Under the term "supervised culture change", we understand the bringing about of planned social transformation, with the ultimate goal being a behavioural and attitude change which focusses on the management and employee approach to work. This might happen if the person affected make experiences which are more positive, more enriching and more successful than the common, traditional behaviour patterns within the company. Here, we support your management teams and employees in reflecting on their attitudes and behaviour. This reflection process enables all staff both now and in the future to adapt their own attitude and behaviour positively to the strategic business needs. The self-consciousness of your employees during the culture change will grow in line with the working through of any problematic situations and from reflective internal and external observations.
Corporate values as a guideline for action and as a basis for identity
Only half of the employees in Germany know the values of the companies they are working for. But the importance of corporate values and their interconnection with the individual value systems of the employees is getting more and more important. Corporate values are standards and guidelines for the employees’ behaviour within and beyond the company. Even if your company did not set any official corporate values in the companies’ culture – they do exist informally. They find their expression through the employees’ behaviour, shape the internal and external communication, define the companies’ culture and lead to a building of identity.
What are our values? How do we deal with identity? These are questions which should not only be answered by marketing campaigns. Much more expedient and sustainable is a companywide involvement with what constitutes your company, how it defines itself and what makes the company unique, internally and externally visible. A discussion about the fundamental core values and about what keeps the company together and the benefits of the core businesses for your employees, the customers and the environment and society, makes the corporate identity more visible for all persons involved.
Occasions for cultural changes and the examination of corporate values
Especially within the context of strategic repositioning, fusions or take-overs or a change caused by a generation change in the owner family concerning leading positions and responsibilities, a detailed examination of the corporate values and the possibly cultural change might be expedient.