Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast!

Peter Drucker is noted for saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In our Goldman Sachs 10KSB meeting today, we talked about what that means.

To help me understand this, I made the analogy that culture is like Commander’s intent in the Marine Corps. The Commanding Officer might say “take that hill.” What he doesn’t do is say, “Take that hill by doing X, Y, and Z.” Circumstances might change to make that strategy untenable or obsolete. You can’t plan for every eventuality. So rather than doing that, Marines know that the general intent or culture is to “close with and destroy the enemy.” With that as their overarching goal, “take that hill” can be achieved in many different ways. So it’s the same with culture.

Having a culture of integrity means that you don’t have to outline every ethically challenging situation and how to react in each instance. Having a culture of integrity would mean acting in a way that your good reputation stays intact before, during, and after such an encounter. A rule for every occasion is strategy (and also impossible!), but a culture consists of the core values that guide the independent thought of key members of your organization. It’s fluid, just like your business. And that’s why culture eats strategy for breakfast!