How CEOs can promote a strong market culture

Abstract

Purpose

The authors believe that corporate culture, if correctly aligned with the external environment, is the key to long‐term organizational success. The paper aims to explain how CEOs can take an abstract concept like culture, visualize it, and take steps to harness its power to create enduring competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on previous research, the paper hypothesizes that a strong market culture exhibits high ratings on six dimensions of corporate beliefs and behaviors related to: customer insight, competitor awareness, collaborative approach, criteria for decisions, CEO leadership, and a deep organizational commitment and contribution of all functions to creation of superior value for customers, profitably.

Findings

The case study of Telstra is presented to illustrate how their concept works in practice.

Practical implications

The paper offers the authors' 6Cs Model as an actionable framework for building a strong market culture. Significant steps can be taken in each of the Cs to strengthen a company's market culture.

Originality/value

The paper offers a prescription for market culture change. Each of the six dimensions of the 6Cs Market Culture Model is discussed, concluding with specific steps for leaders to foster the attributes of the dimension.

Citation

Brown, L., Gallagher, S.M. and Brown, C. (2008), "How CEOs can promote a strong market culture", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 36 No. 5, pp. 28-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878570810902095