CHANGE TALK

Culture. Many pages have been written, many words penned, about this very elusive piece of the business enterprise. Culture is to a business what the persona and soul are to an individual. It defines who it is, how it thinks, what it does, and what are and are not the right ways for it to move into the future.

Everybody wants it, nobody seems to have it: A culture of innovation. But what exactly do we mean when we call for a culture of innovation? After all, how can we create a desired culture, if we don’t know exactly what it looks like?

Organizational storytelling is a new buzzword in the world of organization development. While for decades, nothing but quantitative data and process orientation mattered, we are now finally paying more attention to less tangible factors such as organizational culture and storytelling.

Faced with decreasing market share caused by the "Pepsi Challenge" taste-test battle, Coca Cola launched “Mission Kansas” in the 1980s to reformulate Coke. As Pepsi was going sweeter, New Coke was to follow the trend in an attempt to take over the lead again with the altered taste.

Pareto’s Law, or Principle as it is sometimes called, states that 20% of any input gives 80% of its corresponding output, and that 80% of input will only yield the remaining 20% of output. This Law shows up everywhere.

In a study released by Gilbert and Bower, the authors extrapolate that when companies face major disruptions in their markets, the way their managers perceive that disruption influences a company’s response profoundly.

 

Bill Gates once said that every business leader should have a coach. Also former Google CEO Eric Schmidt insists that the best advice he ever got was to work with a coach. How come some of the most successful business leaders of our times, recommend coaching so emphatically?

Dynamic and super successful organizations such as Apple, Google and Virgin Airlines are showing us that making a unique organizational culture the focal point of all business endeavors pays off and offers many bonuses along the way.

If there is one thing I know after recruiting for over two decades in the private sector and defense industry, it’s that military service members make great hires. Unfortunately, this talent pool is largely overlooked due to a lack of understanding of military culture and its ultimate purpose. To win!

On June 24, 2015, Erika Jacobi, Head Change and Innovation Consultant at LC GLOBAL Consulting Inc, was a guest on the VoiceAmerica™ Empowerment Channel.