Pressures from the Corporate Culture
If a strategy is incompatible with a company’s corporate culture, the likelihood of its success is very low
Foot-dragging and even sabotage will result as employees fight to resist a radical
change in corporate philosophy.
Precedents from the past tend to restrict the kinds of objectives and strategies that are seriously considered.
The “aura” of the founders of a corporation can linger long past their lifetimes because their values are imprinted on a corporation’s members.
In evaluating a strategic alternative, strategy makers must consider pressures from the corporate culture and assess a strategy’s compatibility with that culture. If there is little fit, management must decide if it should:
Take a chance on ignoring the culture Manage around the culture and change the implementation plan
Try to change the culture to fit the strategy Change the strategy to fit the culture
Further, a decision to proceed with a particular strategy without a commitment to change the culture or manage around the culture (both very tricky and time consuming) is dangerous.
Nevertheless, restricting a corporation to only those strategies that are completely compatible with its culture might eliminate from consideration the most profitable alternatives