Page 227 - Executive Warfare

Culture

Culture is one of the more overused
words in American business. It’s true that all organizations, like it or not,
have a culture. It’s also true that the actual culture of a place only rarely
corresponds to the things the CEO and top management say about it.
For example, in the founders’ letter attached to its IPO prospectus,
Google made one of the bolder cultural statements in recent history:
“Don’t be evil.” Then, in 2006, Google did something less than saintly: It
agreed to censor its Internet search results in the People’s Republic of
China in order to please the Chinese government.
At least Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have the wit to
laugh a little at their own sloganeering. When asked at the 2007 Global
Philanthropy Forum conference about “Don’t be evil,” Brin joked, “A lot
of people misinterpret that. They miss the implicit second-person sub-
ject, because, of course, we’re not evil. It’s you don’t be evil. We’re speak-
ing to the rest of the world. So, to enforce this concept ...Larry,tell them
about the laser.”
“Culture” is a convenient little weapon for many organizational lead-
ers. Some invoke it when they want to set arbitrary rules for their people:
“We don’t turn off our cell phones, ever. We’re a 24/7 culture.”
Other bosses use the concept to pat themselves on the back. “It’s not
our culture here to openly show your ambitions,” they might say. “We’re
all team players.” Meanwhile, the place is full of piranhas.
People constantly make stuff up and call it a culture. And the mission
statements that somehow embody the goals of this culture? They take
months, if not years, to write, and a committee to do it, and usually there
is tremendous back and forth, and lots
of emphasis on bringing the highest-
quality services to clients worldwide PEOPLE
while also being the highest-quality CONSTANTLY MAKE
workplace. Meanwhile, nobody men- STUFF UP AND
tions the underlying ruthlessness that CALL IT A CULTURE.
characterizes most organizations.

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