Why poor business culture in Kenya has killed the capacity for business growth

A lot of times you will hear somebody – whether a new CEO, an employee, a management guru, or a leadership consultant talking about the urgent need for change in organizational culture. This makes a lot of sense, especially in ethically developed economies such as Japan, Germany, the United States etc where consumer preference is largely influenced by the culture of businesses. However, the number of people complaining about organizational culture who are not offering solutions are just as many as the people complaining about the weather. The reason we are not seeing a great deal of solutions being forwarded is that; instant and wholesale culture changes is almost impossible, let alone desirable within organizations.

What most of us fail to appreciate is that a company’s culture is its basic personality - the backbone of how people interact and work with each other to satisfy a need in the market. However, a good company culture is both an elusive and complex entity that evolves and survives through shifts in leadership and business strategy, among other circumstances.

Most Kenyan Companies Lack Personality

By now, as you may have noticed, in countries such as Kenya, the corporate culture for the majority of businesses is either very poor or non-existent; that is, they lack personality. Most companies have failed to build a desirable persona of themselves that the staff can relate to and draw inspiration from. Such personality would enable them to perform their duties ethically and in alignment with the company’s goals. Eventually, bad corporate culture manifests itself in how employees treat and relate to the consumers. This may be the reason why it is rare to come across a Kenyan company that can guarantee you consistent high quality delivery in goods and services. One of the reasons why companies like Apple have remained so successful is due to their impeccable business culture. For instance, this is how Apple describes itself:

“We’re perfectionists. Idealists. Inventors. Forever tinkering with products and processes, always on the look out for better.” - Apple

With such a clear and powerful definition of the company’s culture, working for a company such as Apple stops being just about the paycheck and insurance benefits. Your staff members want to feel that their work is contributing to the greater good of the community and the world at large. Ultimately, the staff at Apple conjure up mind-blowing products that customers camp outside stores to get. The workplace should be a fun place, not stressful and miserable. After all, your employees spend at least 8 hours of their days at work.

It is Never too Late to Begin Working on your Company's Culture

Corporate culture cannot be copied or easily pinned down, which means the kind of culture you cultivate in your company takes root and if it is undesirable, uprooting that culture takes too much effort. Similarly, this implies that you cannot switch your company’s culture for another one as if you were updating a software. Corporate develop and evolve slowly over time, and are on constant self-renewal depending on the internal and external work environment.

How people feel and the beliefs they cultivate in themselves is naturally reflected outwards. This is why formal efforts to change a culture using strongly worded memos or large banners portraying the company’s values rarely works to actually change the culture. People will, in all probability, go on about their business as they have before right under those signs. Cultivating culture is something that needs to be deeply rooted in a person's mind.

The complexity of starting and maintaining a great business culture should not deter leaders from making it work for the good of their business. For instance, if your company is too large to change all at once, you can start with re-aligning some of the most important cogs in your machine. You may be asking: If it is so difficult to change culture, why should we even bother trying? Well, an organization’s culture affects the morale of the workers to a great extent. Therefore, executives who can instill a positive corporate culture can greatly accelerate both operating and strategic imperatives. When the strategies of a company are in sync with its culture forces, companies automatically gain a competitive advantage in that it builds a better brand name for itself. This is through better interaction with consumers, stakeholders, partners, and so forth; positive energy always reflects outwards and rubs off on whoever you are dealing with.

As a Business Owner/Founder you Should Spearhead Culture Development

Research shows that companies that use more informal emotional approaches to influence behavior are more successful in creating a positive and lasting corporate culture. There is however, no formula or silver bullet that you can apply to change your company’s culture, only a measure that you can take to regain or instill the corporate values that your company was founded upon. The next part of this blog will cover how to change or regain your company’s corporate culture.

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