Sumber tertinggi terbentuknya Corporate Culture adalah barasal dari sang Founder perusahaan. Untuk melestarikannya, integritas dan gaya kepemimpinan top management memegang peranan penting.
Berikut saya bagikan pendapat para founder dan CEO dari perusahaan-perusahaan hebat mengenai Corporate Culture:
“We continue to build and strengthen Corporate Culture for all employees in accordance with the Company’s values, which are: customer satisfaction, product quality and business ethics.” Sabana Prawirawidjaja, founder $ULTJ
“Our attitude at Costco is that culture is not the most important thing in a company, it’s the only thing.” Jim Sinegal, co-founder Costco
“Why is The Home Depot still so successful? It is the culture of the people." Bernie Marcus, co-founder Home Depot
"A strong corporate culture with its own unique personality, on top of the profit-sharing partnership we've created, gives us a pretty sharp competitive edge." Sam Walton, founder Walmart
“Sam’s establishment of the Walton culture throughout the company was the key to the whole thing. It’s just incomparable. He is the greatest businessman of the century.” Harry Cunningham, founder K-Mart
“Culture is the fundamental part that makes us successful.” Dick Wood, CEO Wawa
“The company culture is the glue that keeps the organisation together, that makes the company different from all others. It is, quite simply, the soul of the company. To keep it strong, therefore, it has to be integral to everything you do.” Anders Dahlvig, former CEO Ikea
“The culture of a company is the place where people are front and centre, where the richness and complexity of human beings resides, where your humanity shines through. As such it is the most powerful part of the business. When it is consciously affirmed, nurtured and developed over time, it becomes both a true differentiator and the ultimate competitive weapon.” Walter Robb, co-founder Whole Foods Market
“The culture and atmosphere of your business may ultimately be even more important than your product.” Barnett Helzberg, founder Helzberg Diamonds
“Implementation and internalization of GCG principles is an important part in the Company’s strategy implementation and establishment of cultural values, in order to realize the Company's objectives and targets sustainably.” Eddy Hartono, CEO $SMSM
"Deep-seated habits are the result of neurological pathways in one's brain that are extremely difficult to eliminate and replace. That's why culture is so hard to change." Charles Koch, former CEO Koch Industries
“Culture and values are the most important elements that make a business unique and make it different from others competing for the same customer and market. No one can give it to us and no one can take it away.” Peter Schutz, former CEO Porsche
“Many factors influence a company’s financial results, but the most important ingredient for Watsco’s success is our unique culture. Often underestimated, culture is a powerful driver of performance and results.” Aaron (A.J.) Nahmad, CEO Watsco
“Astra employees should consistently sharpen a culture of continuous improvement and innovation as a form of implementation of Catur Dharma, such that Astra Group remains relevant in the era of disruptions today and in the future.” Djony Bunarto Tjondro, CEO $ASII
"Without a doubt, Nucor's culture is its most important source of competitive advantage, and always will be." Ken Iverson, former CEO & Chairman Nucor
“Culture is a huge flywheel.” Bob Chapman, CEO Barry-Wehmiller
“In every long-lasting business, the methods of conducting business may constantly change, but the values, the culture, and the philosophies remain constant.” Yvon Chouinard, founder Patagonia
“The Company continues to encourage Sido Muncul people to implement and elaborate the corporate values (SIDO Values) with the highest standards in every business process.” David Hidayat, CEO $SIDO
“Fedex’s great achievements are the results of the unique corporate culture established many years ago and a corporate philosophy that empowers every level of the organisation.” Roger Frock, co-founder Fedex
“The very foundation of Starbucks, our true competitive advantage, is our culture and guiding principles.” Howard Schultz, former CEO Starbucks
“The hardest thing for a competitor to match is your culture and the spirit of your people and their focus on customer service because that isn’t something you can do overnight and it isn’t something that you can do without a great deal of attention every day in a thousand different ways.” Herb Kelleher, co-founder Southwest Airlines
“The Company believes that sustainable growth can only be achieved through the implementation of Good Corporate Governance (GCG) practices. GCG practices are the pillars on which a culture is built that drives performance and accountability. GCG is also embedded in the Company's values - GT SPIRIT.” Sugeng Rahardjo, CEO $GJTL
“Our most important asset [is] our people. They are the company. You can replace our technology, data, reputation, and clients, but you cannot duplicate the group we've put together and the culture they've developed.” Michael Bloomberg, founder Bloomberg L.P
“At the end of the day, what is most distinct about Reckitt Benckiser is its people and culture. I can tell in three minutes if someone would be a good fit for our company. We’d rather have a position open for a long time, if necessary, than put the wrong person in place. It’s that important.” Bart Becht, former CEO Reckitt Benckiser
“To me culture is everything. It’s the glue that holds people in the firm together and it also provides the vision for all the people in the firm to know just what they’re driving to. Culture is really important. Tone at the top matters a lot. No one person can drive or create that culture, it’s more like a Oiji board where a lot of people have a handle on it, but what comes out of it is very important.” Jim Tisch, CEO Loews Corporation
“The ultimate advantage is a strong culture.” Jim Weber, CEO Brooks Running Company
“Every company has its own history, its own traditions, and its own unique culture. A healthy corporate culture can be a magic intangible that makes the difference between a winner and a loser.” Walter Scott Jr, former CEO Kiewit Corporation
“Our culture, without a doubt, is our most important competitive advantage. Competitors can copy our sales material, our products & even some of our systems, but they cannot copy our culture. It is invisible to the outside world & therefore impossible to replicate.’ Richard Farmer, founder Cintas Corporation
“In my experience, a high-morale group, properly motivated and incentivised, can out-perform a low-morale peer group by a factor of 5X or more. The typically untapped, latent potential of human beings is stunning, and can be unleashed by the right cultural framework. Unleashing that latent potential, is how, over three decades, Nucor and Glenair have respectively posted seemingly impossible compounded returns of 17% and 18%, with no losses or layoffs.” Peter D Kaufman, CEO Glenair
“All the business tactics we’ve deployed, every line of code we’ve written, and every marketing campaign we’ve dreamed up over the years are, in the end, ephemeral. Each one could be discarded and replaced at any moment as the world around us changes. It’s out culture’s ability to evolve with the pace of change, to live and breathe on it’s own, to be both familiar and dynamic, that really drives us forward. For businesses that want to have any hope of thriving in the future, culture - and the values that define it - is what will drive financial success.” Marc Benioff, co-founder Salesforce
"Strong cultures drive performance. Performance since companies that are united by purpose has been proven to outperform the general market 15 to 1.” Rosalind Brewer, CEO Walgreens Boots Alliance
“A home has a culture. A business has a culture. To some extent, a country can have a culture. And we try to do everything that’s consistent with that. We try to do nothing that is inconsistent with that.” Warren Buffett, CEO Berkshire Hathaway
“Culture – and that includes your attraction for great people – is the only alpha.” David Krakauer, President Santa Fe Institute
Saudara-saudara, bagaimana pun kinerja dan kondisi suatu perusahaan di masa mendatang, itu sebagian besar ditentukan oleh budaya dan orang-orang di dalamnya. Perusahaan-perusahaan yang saya sebutkan di atas masih beroperasi hingga saat ini dengan kinerja yang terus bertumbuh, meskipun diantara perusahaan tersebut bergerak di bisnis yang rumit seperti airlines dan retailing. Nah, coba pelajari lebih dalam penyebab jatuhnya bisnis Garuda Indonesia dan gerai ritel Transmart. Memang, ada faktor pandemi covid-19 dan pergeseran perilaku konsumen yang menjadi penyebab. Tapi kalo digali lebih dalam lagi, pangkal masalahnya adalah budaya perusahaan yang buruk.
Diantara perusahaan itu usianya sudah puluhan tahun bahkan ada yang berusia lebih dari 100 tahun, dan tentu saja mereka sudah berhasil melewati berbagai macam krisis atau masa2 sulit. Saya rasa quotes dari para founder dan CEO di atas bukan hanya kata-kata manis, itu semua bisa dibuktikan dengan eksistensi dan kinerja perusahaanya hingga saat ini.
Meskipun ada yang founder-nya sudah pergi meninggalkan perusahaan atau bahkan meninggalkan dunia ini, serta tidak ada lagi pihak keluarga yang mengelola atau pengelolaan perusahaan diteruskan oleh para profesional, namun perusahaannya masih survive bahkan masih bisa terus bertumbuh serta memperkaya pemegang sahamnya.
Simak juga bagaimana pendapat dari Founder Bridgewater Asscociates, Ray Dalio:
As I have run Bridgewater for more than 35 years, it explains Bridgewater's approach up till now. It begins at the big-picture, conceptual level, with an explanation of why I believe that any company's results are primarily determined by its people and its culture. It then drills down into what I believe are the important principles behind creating a great culture, hiring the right people, managing them to achieve excellence, solving problems systematically and making good decisions.
So, jangan mudah panik jika ada opini yang mengatakan perusahaan kita sudah mulai sunset, misalnya karena market share produknya ‘tergerus’ (ah….lu kate PUYER!!!). Cobalah luangkan waktu untuk mempelajari dan riset langsung bagaimana kualitas manajemen perusahaan dengan strategi2 yang mereka siapkan serta track record dan rencana capital allocation, dan cari tahu lebih dalam mengenai budaya organisasi yang dianut perusahaan tsb. Sekali lagi, pangkal masalah kehancuran perusahaan apapun di mana pun dan kapanpun, itu adalah BUDAYA PERUSAHAAN yang BURUK!
Oke, demikianlah insight tentang budaya perusahaan, sampai jumpa di artikel selanjutnya. Minggu depan insyaAllah saya akan berbagi insight mengenai Ray Dalio.
Catatan tambahan:
- Sebagian di antara founder tersebut pernah menjabat sebagai CEO dan Chairman, ada juga yang masih menjabat sebagai CEO hingga saat ini.
- Sebagian CEO tersebut ada yang merupakan generasi penerus dari founder.
