Drucker quotes culture eats strategy for breakfast

They suggest that what truly counts cannot be reduced to a spreadsheet.

The phrase also endures because it is short. Culture reveals what people believe about how to act on it. In "Heroides II," written 1,500 years earlier, the Roman poet Ovid writes, "Exitus acta probat," which translates to "the outcome justifies the means."

Churchill was given so much credit for things he never said that Rees, the gnomologist, coined the phrase “Churchillian Drift” to describe the process “whereby the originator of a quotation is elbowed to one side and replaced by someone more famous.” Here’s one example of a Churchill-ism that business speakers often use incorrectly:

“Success is not final, Failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

Possible correct source: Don Shula, the legendary coach of the Miami Dolphins football team.

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

Edison never said it.

You examine what people actually do and what that behaviour signals about what is normal and what is prized.

A simple practice can keep you honest:

• Write your top three strategic aims in plain language.

• For each aim, list the two or three behaviours that would make success likely.

• Compare those behaviours with what is currently admired, promoted, or quietly punished.

• Where there is clash, choose one concrete shift in practice and one shift in symbol.

  Bennis said that “successful CEOs see themselves as leaders, not managers. In their detailed study, Vuori and Huy (2016) describe how fear and defensiveness spread among managers as the smartphone market changed. It begins with leaders paying attention to what they themselves reinforce. What matters is fit—how well the shared values and everyday behaviours support what the organisation is trying to achieve.

  In one of the earliest empirical studies, Daniel Denison (1990) found that firms with cultures emphasising involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission tended to perform better financially.

  The words offer a gentle rebellion against managerial rationality. I’ve quoted Angelou to convince executives I’m coaching on the importance of using stories that elicit emotion, rather than dry statistics, to win over their audiences.

  But there’s no proof that Angelou said it.

  

  As operational issues become all-consuming, such as in times of severe downturns, then strategy tends to get pushed aside—“Culture eats strategy for lunch.” This is similar to dismissing the sales staff during downturns in revenues or orders. But people will never forget how you make them feel.”

  Angelou has been cited by many people—including me (!)—to make the case for human connection, particularly in communications.

  It is sales staff that should bring in the new business, yet they just walked out the door.

  An “Instructor’s Manual” with a copyright date of 2000 contained a related saying. Culture supplies the habits, stories, and informal rules that turn those choices into daily work. There is no record of the line in Drucker’s writings or interviews.

  With a genuine passion for helping small businesses grow, Emily is all about making complex topics accessible and creating content that can help make a difference. A clumsy version of “culture trumps strategy” was included:⁷

  It was while working with respected Wall Street investment advisory house Sanford C.

  Bernstein Research in the mid-1990s that Halliwell says he identified what he regards as the single largest factor in determining the success of a company.
  “It always comes down to people,” he says.
  “It’s about the whole team and the culture — it trumps strategy, it trumps financial position.”

  In 2008 “Harvard Management Update” reported that a pharmaceutical executive had invoked the saying:⁸

  And although our survey found that nine out of 10 executives put culture on a par with strategy, some, like Merck CEO Richard Clark, go one step further: “The fact is, culture eats strategy for lunch,” he told World Business.

  His name was attached to the saying by 2011.

  Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

  The 1985 book “Organizational Culture and Leadership” by Edgar H. Schein included a precursor expression between quotation marks suggesting that it was already circulating:²

  More and more management consultants are recognizing these types of problems and are noting explicitly that, because “culture constrains strategy,” a company must analyze its culture and learn to manage within its boundaries or, if necessary, change it.

  Schein also included another precursor expression:³

  Yet, if culture determines and limits strategy, a cultural mismatch in an acquisition or merger is as great a risk as a financial, product, or market mismatch.

  In September 2000 a paper industry trade journal asserted that the “breakfast” version of the adage had appeared in a publication of the Giga Information Group as mentioned previously.

  The December 2000 issue of the trade journal “Health Care Strategic Management” contained an article by Scott A.

  Mason that referenced the variant with “lunch” instead of “breakfast”. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is one of those lines. (He also didn’t invent the light bulb. Companies with highly engaged employees are 21% more profitable and 17% more productive than those with disengaged staff, according to recent research by Gallup.
  

• Builds a good brand reputation: Internal culture impacts how companies are represented to external customers.

  It appears on PowerPoint slides, posters, and social media feeds, usually without question. Gandhi wrote that having a pure body and soul would prevent animal attacks—pointing to the ability of Indian mystics and ascetics to live among tigers, jaguars, and snakes as his evidence.

  Some believe the true author is, improbable as it sounds, Arleen Lorrance, a Brooklyn high school teacher who co-authored a book titled The Love Principles.

  “Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is.”

  A whole generation of business leaders—including Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs—have quoted hockey legend Wayne Gretzky on the need to anticipate future trends before other companies.

  Problem is that it was Gretzky’s father, Walter, who said this.

  They emerge in conversations, in what people laugh about, and in the decisions made when no one is watching.

  Changing culture does not begin with slogans or training programmes. QI has not yet verified this citation in hardcopy. It’s ultimately what motivates employees to have the same purpose of driving the business forward.
  

  Understanding the quote

  The quote itself means that no matter how strong your strategy is, your business won’t succeed if your employees don’t live by your culture.