Leadership: Culture Flows from the Top
I really enjoy the Wall Street Journal and read as much as I can in the limited time available. I have particularly enjoyed many of Carol Hymowitz’s columns. The new one, published just today, is “New CEOs May Spur Resistance If They Try to Alter Firm’s Culture”. She talks about the “roller coaster of changes” that usually follows a change at the top. Her main point is this:
“New leaders typically reshape their senior executive team and the company’s growth strategies. The most wrenching adjustment occurs when a CEO changes the corporate culture – the core values and ways of doing things that bind people to their jobs.”
Ms. Hymowitz illustrates her points with several examples culled from large corporations. I am reminded of my own experience at IBM during the “wrenching adjustment” (to use Ms. Hymowitz’s excellent choice of words) of the early 90’s. That was when Lou Gerstner came in as CEO, the first outsider to take the post in the company’s very long history. In hindsight, I see the necessity of bringing in the fresh viewpoint of an outside executive. It was a very tough time in IBM’s history and change was critical to survival.
As an employee at the time, however, I remember the magnitude of the change as it hit the average employee. It was like a solar plexus blow. We were all left gasping for air initially. For example, the company experienced its first layoffs – ever! Even during the Great Depression, IBM kept its employees working, building machines that were warehoused due to lack of sales. We were all steeped in this tradition, “dipped in blue paint” during initial Big Blue training, as we used to say.
IBM survived the upheaval and thrives today, but with a very different culture. This is the usual “good news, bad news” fact, I am sure. Ultimately, the news is good because a great company still exists, producing products, services and lots of jobs. Could the changes have occurred with a less traumatic approach? I don’t know.
Ms. Hymowitz offers the example of Staples as a different way of affecting much needed change. Kinder and gentler? How about other examples? What are your experiences with company cultures? Did you experience a change in leadership? Has your company experienced a merger or acquisition? How did that impact the culture?
Read Carol Hymowitz’s excellent article, consider your personal experiences, and let me know what you think.