Corporate Culture and Performance

John P. Kotter

• Publisher: Free Press
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781439107607
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Management

Going far beyond previous empirical work, John Kotter and James Heskett provide the first comprehensive critical analysis of how the "culture" of a corporation powerfully influences its economic performance, for better or for worse. Through painstaking research at such firms as Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, ICI, Nissan, and First Chicago, as well as a quantitative study of the relationship between culture and performance in more than 200 companies, the authors describe how shared values and unwritten rules can profoundly enhance economic success or, conversely, lead to failure to adapt to changing markets and environments.With penetrating insight, Kotter and Heskett trace the roots of both healthy and unhealthy cultures, demonstrating how easily the latter emerge, especially in firms which have experienced much past success. Challenging the widely held belief that "strong" corporate cultures create excellent business performance, Kotter and Heskett show that while many shared values and institutionalized practices can promote good performances in some instances, those cultures can also be characterized by arrogance, inward focus, and bureaucracy -- features that undermine an organization's ability to adapt to change. They also show that even "contextually or strategically appropriate" cultures -- ones that fit a firm's strategy and business context -- will not promote excellent performance over long periods of time unless they facilitate the adoption of strategies and practices that continuously respond to changing markets and new competitive environments.Fundamental to the process of reversing unhealthy cultures and making them more adaptive, the authors assert, is effective leadership. At the heart of this groundbreaking book, Kotter and Heskett describe how executives in ten corporations established new visions, aligned and motivated their managers to provide leadership to serve their customers, employees, and stockholders, and thus created more externally focused and responsive cultures.

APPENDIX

EXHIBIT A. 1
THE FIRMS IN THE FIRST STUDY

Industry	Firms
Aerospace	Allied Signal, Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed, Martin Marietta, McDonnell Douglas, Northrop, Rockwell, Textron, United Technologies.
Airlines	American, Continental, Delta, Eastern, Northwest, PanAm, Piedmont, TWA, United, US Air
Apparel/Textiles	Hartmarx, Interco, Kellwood, Liz Claiborne, Manhattan, Oxford, Phillips Van Heusen, VF
Automotive	American Motors, Borg-Warner, Chrysler, Dana, Ford, Fruehauf, General Motors, Mack Truck, Navistar, Paccar
Banking	BankAmerica, Bankers Trust, Chase Manhattan, Chemical Bank, Citicorp, First Chicago, First Interstate, Manufacturers Hanover, J.P. Morgan, Security Pacific
Beverages	Anheuser-Busch, Brown-Forman, Coca-Cola, Coors, General Cinema, G. Heilman, PepsiCo, J. Seagram
Chemicals	American Cyanamid, BASF, Celanese, Dow Chemical, Du Pont, FMC, W.R. Grace, Hercules, Monsanto, Union Carbide
Computers and Office Equipment	Apple Computer, Control Data, Digital Equipment, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM, NCR, Pitney Bowes, Unisys, Wang Laboratories, Xerox
Food/Packaged Food	Archer Daniels Midland, Borden, ConAgra, CPC Industries, General Mills, IC Industries, Kraft, Pillsbury, Quaker Oats, Ralston Purina, Sara Lee
Forest/Products Paper	Boise Cascade, Champion, Georgia-Pacific, Great Northern Nekoosa, International Paper, Kimberly-Clark, Mead, Scott Paper, Weyerhaeuser
Life Insurance	Aetna Life & Casualty, Connecticut General, Equitable, John Hancock, Metropolitan Life, New York Life, Northwestern Mutual, Prudential, Teacher...