No single person owns or controls it. Its exact nature is hard to pin down. Yet its influence is everywhere. And sooner or later, anyone working to drive change in a complex organization runs up against it. What can you do to make this run-in successful? And how should you, as marketing leader, be thinking about culture—and putting those thoughts into practice? Let’s take a moment to pause and reflect.
- Long seen as the domain of HR, culture is now catching the attention of business leaders in general and CMO’s in particular. In a recent survey by Spencer Stuart, 53% of marketing leaders said that that the CMO is“very responsible” for shaping not just the culture of their team but that of the broader organization
- Marie Gulin-Merle, CMO of Calvin Klein, sums up the most clear-cut reason: “The consumer side of marketing cannot be different from the culture side of the company, because customers can smell if there are two worlds. It’s part of the CMO’s role to ensure they’re consistent.”
- Others point to the importance of culture in creating a more customer-centric organization.
- And many now recognize its vital role in innovation and digital transformation.
Word of Wisdom
If you’re ever wondering what impact you as a leader have on workplace culture, consider this perspective.
Try this
The culture map is simple tool for assessing and understanding your current culture—and identifying opportunities for positive change.
