- Question!
- It doesn't.
- How to change the culture of a company?
- On the basis of hitting and exchanging people, I answered.
(silence).
We were in a room, 20 people, students and staff, of my Customer Conversion course.
The answer was like an arrow.
I was asked by the owner of a company that had just celebrated its 114th anniversary.
114 years of existence. It has gone through two world wars, economic plans, currency exchange, labor laws, the impact of globalization, and everything else that has happened in Brazil and in the world in 114 years.
Then at home it hit me, and maybe I should soften my answer. The correct thing would be for me to answer:
- Don't change anything, you are 114 years old. It's working. Why would you want to mess with something that has been working for 114 years while most companies don't go beyond 2?
Think with me, dear reader.
Think back 114 years. This company should be a national case study. It should go into the academic books and become an example.
This company should be a source of studies. I am very serious.
After all, why are we here besides paying the bills for school, health insurance, and eating pizza on Saturdays?
We want our company to last, to thrive, to create value and jobs, and we want it to do this for years on end, decades. Centuries!
A century-old company has in its culture resilience, tenacity, and something that, I repeat, should be the subject of academic study.
The book "Made to Last" (Editora Rocco) talks about the characteristics of these long-lived companies in the United States.
Now, it is one thing to last operating in the United States, where the circulation of currency is much greater and things can come down to improving competitive practices.
I am not simplifying, but I want to relativize.
Where is it easier to prosper: Here or in the US? Here in addition to competitive competence you need to operate in a system that fluctuates in waves of shocks from economic packages and where the circulation currency disappears from the production shelves and trickles down into the financial system.
It is very different.
In any case, the owner of this company clearly sees the need to change something in its gears.
He didn't come to my course for a walk and still brought 2 close collaborators.
You came because you feel that something must change.
Then I must again rephrase my answer.
Going back a bit and "rewinding the tape":
- How to change the culture of a company?
- Well, if your 114-year-old company is seeing this need to change its internal culture, it's because the same resilient DNA is now commanding: "something needs to be done. Seen that way, my best response then is (the same): By beating the crap out of people and changing them.
But from the bottom of my heart I don't feel up to answering that question, because I am simply still processing the fact that your company is 114 years old and you are here in my living room. Actually I should be in yours, learning.
And come to think of it, now that I'm writing, I'm going to ask for it.
These are the facts that teach us and surprise us, just by being in the course of life.
