Hard to define but hugely important for every business, culture can make or break companies, powering-up or alienating their workforce. Simon Kent investigates what culture means.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” says Jeff Dewing, CEO at Cloudfm. “Not because strategy doesn’t matter, but because even the best-laid plans will falter in the wrong environment.”
Dewing’s assessment is not wrong. Try and do anything in an organisation without the buy-in and support of your employees and little will happen. However, culture can be an intangible thing: sure you can do things which support it, but it remains an essence – something that permeates everything but try and pin it down and it’s like catching water in a sieve. “It’s the invisible force,” says Dewing, “that determines whether your strategy gets embraced or ignored, whether your team shows up with energy or disengagement.”
A theory of culture
According to Sean R. Martin, Donald & Lauren Morel Associate Professor at Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, one of the most widely used definitions of organisational culture is that of business theorist and psychologist Edgar Schein, who referred to it as a shared, taken-for-granted set of values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours that guide action in an organisation. “Put simply, it’s the assumed rules for how people like us behave in a place like this,’” he says.
In more detail, Schein viewed organisation culture like an iceberg – the level below the water representing underlying assumptions and beliefs about people and what is necessary to achieve what the organisation wants.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast.
Continuing the metaphor, Martin says the level above sea is then the espoused values of the organisation. “These are the things that people say are important or prioritised,” Martin explains. “For there to be a clear and consistent culture, these espoused values should reflect the underlying assumptions.”
At the top of the iceberg are the things referred to as cultural artefacts: “These are the aspects of the culture that can be experienced and are often thing things people use to diagnose what kind of culture exists,” says Martin. “These include what stories are shared around the organisation, who the organisation lifts up as heroes, the rituals and ceremonies the organisation performs in big and small settings, the slogans and phrases that may mean something to those within the organisation but not to those outside the organisation. These artefacts should reflect and reinforce the espoused values.”
Martin concludes that companies with clearer cultures have alignment between each of these levels. “When there isn’t clear alignment, the culture becomes murkier and harder to discern,” he says. “People may come to very different conclusions about what the culture is in practice. It is then that we can say a culture is becoming a weak culture.”
From an expression of values to real impact
“Workplace culture is the living, breathing ethos of an organisation,” asserts Magali Delafosse, Group VP HR at Crown Worldwide. For Delafosse this amounts to “a collective expression of values, behaviours and interactions that shape the daily experience of its people. It is the human element that binds a company together, moving far beyond policies and surface-level benefits.”
This may seem a little esoteric but Crown have put in place clear programmes to backup and support the culture. The company have invested heavily in employee well-being and DEI and there are initiatives to give everyone the support they need to shape their own career paths. Delafosse also indicates the clear impact of culture within the workplace: “Last year was a year of momentum,” she notes. “Our people leaned into learning, embraced inclusion, and showed up for one another in ways that truly reflect our culture. And we’ll be building on this momentum in years to come.”
It is the human element that binds a company together, moving far beyond policies and surface-level benefits.
Culture at Crown supports curiosity, ambition and connection. There’s a strong sense of community that includes prioritising relationships and encouraging people to grow together. These values can appear to some to be aspirational and simply nice to have, but Magali is able to list some direct impacts on their people – the apprentice who found their footing, the team member who felt recognised during DEI week, the colleague who shared a bold idea on Innovation Friday and saw it take flight.
“Ultimately, a good culture drives engagement, retention and sustained business success,” says Magali, “but this is only achievable through recognising that people are at the heart of everything.”
Leadership evolution to power up culture
“Culture is at the core of everything we do at Cloud,” says Jeff Dewing. “Over the years, the way I view my role has changed. As CEO, I don’t believe in directing every decision – I see it now as being the ‘Chief Energy Officer’, inspiring and motivating people to do their best work.”
Dewing has sought to create an autonomous and high-performing team, giving him the opportunity to “step back and let the team shine”. The approach has underpinned an average eNPS (employee net promoter score) of 80 with 77% promoters over the past year.
Recognition, employee development and wellbeing have all been tangible elements to support in building the current culture: “We not only dedicate significant resources to employee development but also to their wellbeing, with a dedicated health and well-being hub, internally appointed Wellbeing Guides, and a monthly wellbeing calendar,” says Dewing. “We also embrace flexible, remote-first working instead of performative hybrid policies.”
“I’ve always believed that happiness at work is more than just perks or balance,” says Phillips Pham, Chief People Officer at the fashion industry company Mainetti. “It’s about creating meaningful, human-centered experiences. After all, when people feel well and supported, they naturally bring their best selves to work.”
Mainetti addressed their culture through a significant initiative called Happy Mainetti in 2022. Pham says this had a simple but profound goal: to create space for people to pause, connect, and grow – both personally and professionally. The programme was inspired by the philosophy of Gross National Happiness, and it invites employees to care for themselves and each other through mindfulness, learning, and purposeful action.
Having measured the impact of the Happy Mainetti campaign, Mainetti Vietnam has reported a notable increase in employee satisfaction. The branch’s Total Happiness Index rose from 78% in 2023 to 83% in 2024, while its Good Governance score – reflecting employee trust in the company – improved from 78% to 81% over the same period. Additionally, employee turnover has significantly decreased, falling to just 1% per month.
Pham is more than happy with these results, but sees it as an ongoing exercise: “It is evident that Mainetti is making significant strides in cultivating a workplace culture that supports and benefits all employees,” Pham says. “Looking to the future, we plan to expand our efforts by conducting additional surveys across our global facilities, enabling a more comprehensive assessment of the Happy Mainetti campaign’s impact and our contribution to employee wellbeing.”
Culture may be hard to define, but it can be worked on and developed. In a workplace where technology, automation and workflow is becoming increasingly dominant, it is also a critical piece of the jigsaw for companies that still want to deliver for its people and want to get the best from and for everyone.
