CORPORATE CULTURE MATTERS, ALSO FOR ENGINEERS

Do engineers have to worry about their company's corporate culture? Immersed in a world of machines and algorithms and trained in analytical thinking and problem-solving, they usually have little affinity with the elements and factors that nevertheless belong to the essence of the organisation. In his essay 'Corporate Culture and the Quest for Success', Marc van Aken examines why that is and whether it can be done differently.

The author immediately connects the dots: even in its scariest form, an engineering-centred mindset is also a corporate culture. "You cannot have no corporate culture. Like it or not, you have one, whether it is very visible or apparently hidden. What matters is its content, the extent to which it is carried within the organisation and, above all, how customers perceive it."

Pre-tech starters

Marc Van Aken is a dyed-in-the-wool engineer and entrepreneur. He boasts more than 30 years of experience in high-tech, complemented by more than 20 years in teaching business at the Open University Business School (UK) and communication and entrepreneurship at KU Leuven-Group T Campus. Currently, Marc serves as CEO of SO Kwadraat, a coaching organisation that has already guided more than 200 pre-tech starters in launching their own business.

Marc experienced the significance and importance of corporate culture in 1990 when he joined Network General, a Silicon Valley company that created the Sniffer Network Analyser. "A whole new world presented itself. Everybody from CEO to reception staff was on a first name basis.

Informal dress code was the norm and lots of celebrations were held. Open space and open-door policy. Goodies like t-shirts, caps, and travel bags. And much to my surprise coming from a more traditional environment: the explicit right to make mistakes provided that you communicated clearly about them, learned from them and did not repeat them. It was a master class in a completely new corporate culture for me."

Key components

In his essay, Marc tries to get a grip on the phenomenon of corporate culture in the tech sector. He calls it: "the heartbeat of the organisation, influencing how employees think, interact and create. It is the invisible hand guiding decisions, driving innovation, and shaping the customer experiences." On closer inspection, that invisible hand turns out to be a complex social construct consisting of several mutually reinforcing key components such as beliefs, norms, values but also behaviours, rituals, traditions, symbols and artefacts. This mix has a major impact on success factors such as employee engagement and retention, productivity and performance, innovation and creativity, customer satisfaction and loyalty and the organisation's reputation and brand image.

Narrow focus

Is there such a thing as a typical corporate culture in tech? Marc thinks so. He notes that in tech companies there is more innovation and risk taking, flat hierarchies, collaborative and cross-functional teams and agile and flexible work environments. But there are often downsides too. "One of the most significant issues is the potential for a narrow focus on technology at the expense of other critical business functions," says Marc.

"In many tech startups, a product-centric culture prevails where the focus is primarily on building the perfect product, rather than meeting the needs of the customers. The big challenge is precisely to create a culture that balances the strength of the engineering mindset with other essential qualities, such as empathy, creativity, diversity and customer-centric focus."

Core values

You don't create a customer-centric corporate culture overnight. "Everything starts with defining core values," Marc explains. "These values should be authentic, inspiring and actionable, reflecting the company's mission and purpose." You cannot impose or enforce such values.

"The process of defining core values requires input from employees at all levels of the organisation. Once defined, core values should be communicated effectively and reinforced through leadership behaviour, performance management, recognition programmes and incentives."

Once a positive corporate culture is created, it is not finished. "Culture is not static," Marc continues. "Therefore, it is essential to measure and monitor it over time through employer surveys, exit interviews and pulse checks." Even more important is to align culture aspirations with concrete objectives and measurable outcomes. In the final part of his essay, Marc elaborates on OKRs or Objective and

Key Results, a goal-setting framework used by tech companies to define and track progress towards ambitious goals. "The great advantage of OKRs is that they make the objectives clear and time-specific and the results quantitative, specific and measurable. On top of that, they can be used as a tool for reinforcing the company's performance level. And -last but not least -engineers can also use them,"

-Yves Persoons

 www.businessinspiration.be/ corporate-culture-quest-forsuccess