By Adeyinka Salami
Copyright thisdaylive
Oluchi Chibuzor
Business leaders have been urged to rethink how they approach workplace culture, moving beyond slogans and values to treating culture as a direct driver of revenue strategy and productivity.
This call was made during Workplace Culture Champions Conference organised by Winbox consulting, where experts and organisational leaders drew a clear link between behavior in the workplace and financial performance and productivity.
Speaking at the event held in Lagos, the convener amd the CEO, Winbox Consuslting. Dr. Deji Osasona, who said for many CEOs revenue is the ultimate measure of success, revealed that culture is the missing link that determines whether strategy translates into profit.
He noted that while most organizations dedicate significant resources to building strategic plans, only a small fraction achieve proper implementation.
According to him, a recent surveys highlighted that more than 80 percent of companies spend heavily on strategy, yet barely 5 percent successfully execute their plans.
He stressed that culture must be intentional, modeled by leaders, and embedded in daily operations if it is to influence results.
According to him, “Culture is what you live and lead. Whether intentional or not, every organization is already promoting a culture. It is either one that unleashes the power of your people or one that holds them back. And that, in turn, determines productivity and revenue. Even the most sophisticated strategy will fail if the daily actions of employees do not align with it.”
Delivering his keynote speech, CEO, Business School Netherlands International in Nigeria, Prof. Lere Baale, opined that cultural transformation must be driven from the top.
He stated that transformation does not occur unless people understand strategy which cannot be implemented unless the leader is driving cultural transformation.
According to him, “So what you call turnaround is actually a transformation. Cultural transformation drives what you refer to as turnaround. So when an individual comes to an organization to lead a turnaround, the first thing he looks at is to look at what is working well. What culture are these people using?”
