The Culture Is The Strategy

Over the course of my career, many people have quoted to me the following phrase by Peter Drucker: “Culture eats strategy for lunch.” On one level, it is true. The culture of a company can shut down the execution of strategy. However, when great leaders hear this phrase, they know that it is only happens in dysfunctional teams, departments, and companies. 

Years ago, Jason Jennings in his book, Less is More: How Great Companies Use Productivity as a Competitive Tool in Business (Penguin Putnam, 2002), wrote: “In productive companies, the culture is the strategy…. Unlike other companies, productive companies know the difference between tactics and strategy. The difference is the foundation that allows them to stay focused and build remarkable companies. They have institutionalized their strategy.”

This is a mind-blowing insight. In productive companies, they understand the phrase: “They have institutionalized their strategy.” They recognize that it is directly connected to the company’s ability to institutionalize it’s a specific culture, resulting in a high degree of clarity and alignment over time. 

The classic definition of culture is an integrated pattern of shared knowledge, beliefs and behaviors translated into a collective commitment toward shared values, goals, and practices/systems. The late, professor of management at MIT Sloan, Edgar Schein wrote the following definition of organizational culture: “A pattern of shared basic assumptions invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that have worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.” 

Now, within both definitions are some important and key points about culture. The first one is shared knowledge, beliefs and behaviors. The key is in the sharing and building of a collective understanding and commitment. 

The second one is that have worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems. The key is that teaching this culture to new members, namely new employees, is the right way to make sure they perceive, think and feel the correct way when dealing with external adaptation and internal integration. 

This week, remember that the culture is the strategy in highly successful companies. And that this culture needs to be taught in order to be successful over time. 

© Geery Howe 2025

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change