Success Factor: Corporate Culture

Developing a Corporate Culture for High Performance and Long-term Competitiveness, Six Best Practices

Do corporate culture and leadership contribute to a firm's success? And if so, how? How can a company create and develop its corporate culture to compete successfully over the long term? Answers to these questions emerge in case studies of the business practices of six long-established and world-renowned companies: the BMW Group, Deutsche Lufthansa, Grundfos, Henkel, Hilti and Novo Nordisk. In a project initiated by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, researchers investigated these firms and analyzed the central characteristics of corporate success from a culture perspective. The case studies render a detailed picture of each firm's distinctive corporate culture and the factors that shape it. Based on these examples, Sonja A. Sackmann has identified concrete strategies and practices that illustrate how a company's management can make a significant contribution toward developing a dialogue-oriented corporate culture that supports a firm's viability. The appendix provides a checklist for readers who want to develop their firm's culture and practice culturally aware management.