It can be easy to define a company’s cultural identity by the social opportunities it promotes and the incentives it offers its staff. But company culture goes beyond free coffee Friday and an annual gym membership.
According to Jay Doran, companies that invest time into the deep evaluation and clarification of their underlying cultural values will reap financial rewards. Put simply, defining culture is good business.
Jay Doran is the CEO and visionary mind behind Culture Matters, an advisory firm that helps companies grow without losing sight of who they are and why they started in the first place. He is making it his mission to bring clarity to core company values. He wants to make competence, meaning, productivity, and fulfillment the forefront of cultural identity.
Jay believes the profit in well-defined company culture comes from how effectively employees interact with each other and their customers. He says, “More profit is a result of more productive interactions.” He adds, “A brand’s acceptance in its marketplace is a result of how people in an organization interact with each other in that space.”
When a company is clear about its values in the context of productivity, strategy, vision, profit, and brand alignment, the payoff is exponential – both financially and emotionally.
Culture is not an easy, tangible concept to define, and it is something that has become an obsession for Jay Doran. Fascinated by how other people interact and think, he has spent his life trying to understand the world to better understand himself.
Jay is on a personal journey to become someone, to do something worth doing. He says, “I want to live a life helping people think, act, and do in more beneficial ways.” For him, this focuses on advising business founders and organization leaders to solve problems as they arise in all facets of company life.
For companies that champion diversity in thought and are open to constant growth and inclusivity, Jay Doran can provide clarity on their underlying purpose, goals, and mission. The challenge for Jay has been in practicing what he preaches.
He says, “People know good culture when they feel it and see it more than when they listen to me talk about it. The biggest issue we face is the level of responsibility it takes to embody great culture in order to teach it.”
Clearly defined company culture breeds a working environment that drives productivity and unifies staff. As Jay Doran says “Every facet of an organization is affected by its culture and culture starts with how the founding leadership interacts”. Defining culture from the top down enables an organization to ensure it filters effectively into every member of staff, every goal, and ultimately into increased profit.
Understanding that cultural development goes beyond tick boxes and buzzwords and that it takes serious methodical work to embed into core business functions is a vital step forward. It is an approach that can take a significant investment in terms of finance and time, but the returns are invaluable.
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