Culture
Culture and its impact on how an organization can best execute its strategy are a key element of our Stanford SAPM program. This article provides fascinating insights on how culture(How we do things here) affects design.
The newly released app-design guide reveals a lot more about Microsoft than they probably intended.
This great article from Booz’s Strategy+Business provides real usable insights from the latest advances in neuroscience. Any of us working with teams to execute strategy will benefit from this
Managing with the Brain in Mind.
by David Rock
Neuroscience research is revealing the social nature of the human brain and its implications for management. In a high-performance workplace, people’s social needs — for status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness — matter more than money.
In our Stanford program we talk about purpose and long-view intention as critical for organizational success. A recent HBS interview provides another reminder of the “power of purpose”.
Mats Lederhausen shares his philosophy of “purpose bigger than product.” Mats is a great entrepreneur and also had one of the most successful careers at McDonald’s where he was a driving force for its turnaround. He currently runs his private investment vehicle Be-Cause and is a Special Partner at our firm, Cue Ball.
Zappos.com and Lululemon Athletica
These two drastically different organizations use culture as a key driver of who they are, how they show up, and how they execute their strategy. Zappos.com explains their culture in videos, employee-written books about who they are and how they work. This page provides a view into their culture, as portrayed on their web site: core values, culture blogs, videos, and life coaches. Below is a listing of Zappos Core Values.
Lululemon Athletica (based In Canada) with Culture as one of the Key Headings on their home page. This includes a Blog by the founder, Chip Wilson, and the Lululemon Manifesto, see below. I have been in their Boulder, CO, store and the difference in “how it feels” from a Nike or other store is palpable. Fast Company’s April Issue has a story on Lululemon that is interesting and insightful, though I don’t see the cult concept at all.
