Culture Connection: How Developing a Winning Culture Will Give Your Organization a Competitive Advantage

Introduction
1. Know Thyself
2. The Answers Are in the Stars
3. The Few and the Mighty: Essential Tools to Align Culture in Your Organization
4. It Starts at the Top: How Leadership Impacts Corporate Culture
5. The Culture Conversation: Why the Best Organizations Are Great at Articulating Their Culture
6. The Train Drain
7. Culture and Celebration: How Celebration and Rituals Impact Culture
8. What’s Your Reason for Being? How Credos and Belief Statements Reinforce Culture
9. Measure Once and Cut Three Times
10. Culture Killers: Tips and Tricks for Identifying Things That Can Hurt Corporate Culture
11. Culture Change: Changing Habits, Systems, and People
12. The Culture Club: The Importance of Culture Champions
13. Culture Clash: Why Culture Is a Critical Component of International Expansion
14. Culture and Governance: The Role of the Board in Supporting Corporate Culture
15. Taking It to the Streets: Corporate Culture as Your Brand
16. Recruiting for Fit
17. Performance Management for Fit
18. Culture and Performance: Proof Positive That Culture Is More than Connected to Performance—It Drives Performance
Notes
Index

“Great companies, focused on long-term value creation, recognize that a deeply rooted, sustainable culture is the foundation of success. It is an asset to be managed like any other. Marty Parker has long understood this, and Culture Connection offers a blueprint to create, nurture, protect, and grow this most essential asset to a level of competitive advantage. It’s a leadership must-read.”
—MICHAEL MCCAIN, president & CEO, Maple Leaf Foods

“Marty Parker has captured a compelling collection of corporate culture insights and learnings in this book, making it a great tool for leaders at all levels in profi t-based, charitable and government organizations alike. Marty truly gets it that culture is the ultimate competitive advantage.”
—DARREN ENTWISTLE, president & CEO, TELUS Corporation/p

“This is perhaps the best book I have read on why a winning corporate culture is critical in today’s competitive global marketplace. . . . Culture Connection is a must-read for any current or future business leader or owner, and it will become a must-read for our leadership team.”
—DAVE MACKAY, president, Ceridian Canada Ltd.

“Marty Parker has developed a practical and insightful guide to establishing a company culture, enforcing it, and ensuring it endures for the long term. This has been a fundamental element of our success at Four Seasons and now companies everywhere can learn how adhering to a strong set of core values can bring tremendous rewards.”
—ISADORE SHARP, founder and chairman, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

“ Marty is one of Canada’s leading executive recruiters and an expert in culture. . . . This is a very insightful read and the takeaway from Marty’s interviews with leading North American executives is outstanding.”
—DON BABICK, director, Torstar Corporation; former president and publisher, National Post

“Marty Parker’s book is essential for anyone who leads or aspires to lead an organization if they truly want to understand how to unleash the potential of their people.”
—CLIVE BEDDOE, founding shareholder and chairman, WestJet

About the Book:

The business world is only now beginning to open its eyes to the fact that a powerful corporate culture can generate hard-currency results. But Marty Parker has known this for years. Since 2003, his executive search and cultural assessment firm, Waterstone Human Capital, has focused its recruiting strategy on employee fit and on the best corporate cultures. Each year, the firm’s “Canada’s 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures” program singles out companies whose cultures have led to measurable growth, increased profits, and a distinct competitive advantage.

Now, Parker reveals the best practices of some of the world’s top companies to help you generate extraordinary business results by spearheading cultural change in your own organization. Culture Connection helps you define your vision and gives you invaluable guidance on how to:

• Set the stage for improved communication, innovation, and performance
• Provide significant shareholder return
• Measure and align your organization’s efforts
• Recruit and retain the best people in your industry

Culture Connection is filled with advice from top business leaders, including Clive Beddoe, founding shareholder and chairman, WestJet; Isadore Sharp, founder and chairman, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts; Darren Entwistle, president and CEO, TELUS Corporation; Marc Tellier, president and CEO, Yellow Pages Group; and Michael McCain, president and CEO, Maple Leaf Foods.

These leaders know what they’re talking about: each represents an organization that has been a previous winner of “Canada’s 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures”, and whose performance has outperformed their peers. In fact, the 2010 winners of Canada’s 10 outpaced the S&P/TSX 60 by an average of 600 percent.

Culture isn’t just connected to performance; it drives performance. Today’s top companies invest in their corporate cultures, and they don’t pull back when times get tough. Even in the most challenging times, they behave like great companies. And that’s what they remain.

Learn their hard-earned lessons with Culture Connection—and establish the kind of culture that seizes and holds the competitive edge.