Culture as Competitive Advantage
Posted: May 31st, 2010 | Author: Karl | Filed under: Strategy | 4 Comments »I’ve just finished going through this presentation from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and I’ve got to say it’s probably one of the best explanations on how organizational culture effects the performance of organizations. Reed outlines beautifully how the scale of organizations drives organizations toward the common sort of toxic, calcified corporate culture that is so common. It really makes me think that organizational culture might be one of the most important aspects of an organizations success and ironically probably the least understood by many corporations.
I’ve always been fascinated by culture and it’s ability to almost surreptitiously drive behavior in organizations. One of the most interesting and dynamic cultures that is emerging is of course the cultures on the internet, it is like an electronic petri dish of all sorts of fascinating culture that drives a whole host of tacit behaviors that we are only just becoming aware of. Think about what culture dominates on various social networks like yelp, slashdot, digg, twitter, or even 4chan. All very different cultures with different norms, purpose, symbols, and stories that drive the behavior of the members.
