Values, culture & global effectiveness - impact of corporate culture on international success - Panel Discussion

Chief Executive, The, April, 1998 by J.P. Donlon

WINNING THOSE MVPs

Dunphy: To me the best definition of culture came from the person I consider to be the high priest of culture, Marvin Bower, who has really been the main influence in the development of McKinsey over the years. And he called it "the way we do things around here" - which goes beyond values and all that good stuff into instinctive recognition of what the goddamned right decision is under pressure. So you don't have to look up the procedure book or the human resource book or call somebody. You instinctively know what to do.

Sorrell: What was it that the McKinseys have done most consistently and productively? The recruitment of young people.

Dunphy: I think you give them a little too much credit there. Money has something to do with it. [Laughter]

James Berk (Hard Rock Cafe Int.): What it really comes down to for me is passion. If

you're passionate about something, that's going to override the financial issue. When I got out of pre-law and went to teach in South Central L.A., that was passion over financial interest. Stupid, according to my mother at the time, but the point is the choice was made because I was acting because I believed in what was going on.

Griffin: Our attitude is we recruit every conceivable place we can, whether it be a competitor or another industry. We want to look in all of those places and we have to work damned hard at it because it is a hell of a competitive market out there.

Berk: When the employee comes in, you have the front-end ability to make that employee the raving fan for that company. So when they are swept out, there's a level of retainment that will occur because they like the way it operates, and the values and culture of the company, what it stands for.

Johnson: The challenge to many of us is, how do we produce extraordinary results out of ordinary people? Because in essence, most of the people, probably including us around the room, are what you call ordinary people. And it's this issue of making people feel part of a team and creating an environment in your company where, because you're focused on the customer, the lowest level in the company is just as important as the highest.

Pascarella: When you look at the effect of keeping good people as opposed to going out and having to recruit people you don't know, who are unknown quantities, it's very important. And I think that starts at the top. We have a management executive committee that runs our business globally and in the U.S. We've got someone from Amsterdam, from France, from Latin America, so we've got a good cross section of people. And that teamwork really emanates from there, the trust and the feeling of commitment. If you do that and drive that down through the organization, I think you do retain people.

Marcy Syms (SYMS): Many of the things that have affected our culture, whether you have a human resources department or not, that we have to consider today, in running a company, attracting people, and making the right fit between people, is also considering factors we didn't have to consider 10 years ago. I wonder if a CEO here could comment on the effect that legislation and EEOC has had on culture?