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Culture Trumps Strategy, So What’s Holding You Back?

by Rich Lazzara

Flashing, Flashing, road block ahead!

We’ve always done it that way.  Oh that will never work. No one will pay for content.

As an entrepreneur each of is faced with trying to formulate ways of bettering our business. Whether it’s increasing revenue, attracting more leads or monetizing new endeavors it’s a constant challenge to improve. The problem is we tend to let things get in our way. Many fall prey to the belief that “the past dictates the future” or  the belief that they just can’t come up with ideas, however that’s not the real issue.

Your ability to change, evolve and grow your business has nothing to do with good ideas.  In fact if listed the ideas you’d probably have so many that you’d get overwhelmed at where to start. Your lack of evolution has more to do with the culture of your company (and industry) then your ideas. Whether your a lone entrepreneur or a small business there is a culture ingrained at your company and within your industry.  Your ability to constantly push, lead and evolve that culture is paramount to your success.

The Last Breakthrough Idea

Print media is facing a complete metamorphosis of it’s an entire industry.  Here is paragraph from a recent article by John Byrne, past executive editor of Business Week

As John Gardner once observed, most of the things that prevent the renewal of an organization can be found in the mind. It’s not a matter of new ideas. “There is usually no shortage of new ideas,” wrote Gardner in Self-Renewal. “The problem is to get a hearing for them. And that means breaking through the crusty rigidity and stubborn complacency of the status quo.” Yet the rules, customs, and procedures in organizations always favor the past. That’s why culture trumps strategy all the time. The cultural cues are that print (the past) is more important than digital (the future).

Read that paragraph again and ask yourself if your allowing the status quo to derail you from your goals. It may be a bitter pill to swallow but the road block you face may be yourself .

The Next Breakthrough Idea

Face it, we all harbor old habits. We tend to hang onto things of the past and sometimes that clouds are ability to really breakthrough to that next level.  Stop that kind of thinking today and embrace a culture of change.  Weaving a culture of change into your personal and companies DNA is core to embracing new ideas and avoiding road blocks.   The business world evolves at such a blinding pace you have to not only be prepared for new ideas you have to completely embrace them.

Hanging onto something just because “its always been that way” is a sure sign of future failure.

What do you think?

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  • I love this Rich. It reminds me of career conversations with my parents and their advice to "Get a solid job with good health insurance, work for 30 years, retire." That's the safe way and the way it's always been. But in today's world, it's not necessary.
  • Jenny, those days are completley over. Working for a company for life and then retiring is a thing of the past, plus it's boring ;) Good thing you didnt listen to your parents. Keep up the good work on your blog...funny stuff. Thx for the comments.
  • Rich,

    I'm definitely against the idea of doing something because it's always done that way. To me the most successful people continually adapt to their environment. Without adaptation they let everything pass them by.
  • Srini, good point, adapt or face extinction. thx for the comments
  • Good point. That's something that separates entrepreneurs from workers: our ability to think of things in a way that challenges the status quo. Those that don't, quickly become workers again.
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