Company Culture: Role of Management

The people that fill the offices of the senior management team, CEO and every other title starting with a "C" and the Managers of departments are literally the architects and authors of every company's culture.

Invariably when I learn about a CEO that is out in the field with the direct employees, it is a successful organization. One recent example I encountered is retail monster Costco. The recently retired CEO (75 years of age btw) made a career of regularly visiting all of the Costco stores and actually talking with employees. He's on the company jet every week.

His successor shares his values and goals. This means there is a high probability that the positive culture of success will continue.

The essence of the culture came out when Costco's wine purchaser was interviewed. The question to her is how it felt to be one of the top wine experts in the business and her response was, "I'm an employee of Costco who knows something about wine." I couldn't write a script that would more perfectly illustrate an employee state of mind that fuels a successful company culture.

Culture starts at the "top" of the organization and permeates every employee and therefore every CUSTOMER.

When a positive culture is maintained from start-up to mega-company you are seeing business as good as it can get.

Lance