Culture is the only truly sustainable competitive advantage and is at the root of delivering strong long-lasting business results.

Many leaders under pressure, look at their business purely through a short-term evidence and measurement based lens. Remembering the Wendy’s fast food chain TV commercial of the 1980′s, it begs the question “Where’s the beef?”.

Executives often embark on “programs” or “initiatives” to improve performance but are only conditionally committed to them.These “programs” usually fail to deliver on expectations or projections over the long-term. Hence the question “Where’s the beef?”

Part of the reason for disappointing results is leaders often fail to realize that success is largely tied to the underlying culture. Culture is where the beef is. 

Culture is also the  magic differentiating sauce that is crucial to having any chance of long-term success. Short-term opportunistic or hot products can and OFTEN DO deliver short-term results, but without a strong culture companies seldom endure.

Research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology revealed that 85% of a company’s financial success is due to skills in human engineering, ones personality and ones ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. Shockingly, only 15 percent is due to technical knowledge and competence.

But working on human engineering and culture brings challenges.It is very very difficult. It is often viewed as being soft and fluffy but we believe this view is a defense mechanism that many executives use to avoid facing reality.

Consider how many companies are unhappy with their performance AND their culture. Paradoxically this in and of itself provides evidence as to how important and how hard this soft stuff is.If it was easy,people would not shy away from it so much.

The work in this area requires discipline, effort and a willingness to confront and challenge many of our personal beliefs. When leveraging external resources it also requires delicacy, compassion and authentically understanding what is at stake for people in making change. There needs to be massive levels of trust, confidence, maturity and courage for all involved.

Personal change involves knowing and conquering our fears. It is probably the most difficult undertaking for all of us. Many times the change needs to be trans-formational.

The pace of change can vary. It often it occurs one conversation at a time,  one executive at a time,one team at a time,one region at a time,one division at a time and finally one company at a time.

We recommend that this kind of work begin with individuals and in small groups and build from there. We also recommend beginning at the TOP of the organization.

Are there stakeholders in your business ecosystem asking “Where’s the beef?”  If there is, you better go to work to serve some up or the consequences could be very unpleasant.

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