A companys key to success is in its heart and soul.

Why has Dell been able to outperform its competition consistently over the past decade? Strategy, certainly. Operational discipline, without a doubt. Talented people, of course. But when asked in an interview with Harvard Business Review what best explains the companys spectacular success over the years, Dell founder Michael Dell and CEO Kevin Rollins focused on something else. While Dell does have a superior business model, said Rollins, the key to our success is years and years of DNA development that is not replicable outside the company. Added Michael Dell, Culture plays a huge role. Theyre hardly alone in their belief that culture is at the heart of competitive advantage, particularly when it comes to

sustaining high performance. Bain & Company research found that nearly 70% of business leaders agree: Culture provides the greatest source of competitive advantage. In fact, more than 80% believe an organization that lacks a high-performance culture is doomed to mediocrity.

At a time when enterprises can stretch around the globe, culture is the glue that holds a complex organization together. It inspires loyalty in employees and makes them want to be a part of a team. It motivates people to do the right thing, not just the easy thing. At companies with winning cultures, people not only know what they should do, they know why they should do it. Yet, while business leaders recognize cultures crucial role, our research also indicates that fewer than 10% of companies succeed in building a winning culture. According to a Bain survey of 365 companies in Europe, Asia and North America, even those firms that manage to foster high-performance cultures often find them hard to sustain. The best companies succeed, we found, on two dimensions simultaneously. First, every winning culture has a unique personality and soul that cannot be invented or imposed. Based on shared values and heritage, the companys character needs to be discovered from within. Second, winning cultures usually embody six high-performance behaviours that are common to all high performersbut only to high performers.

Neither element is enough by itself to sustain a winning culture. A company can have a strong personality and soul, but still underperform if it lacks the values and behaviours that motivate people in the organization to do the right things. Similarly, high-performance behaviours pursued independently can shift an organization into permanent overdrive and sever the connection that employees feel with the enterprise. Its the combination of both elements that produces a winning culture.

A distinctive personality
The personality of an organization is often taken for granted. Often the values of the founder are instilled in the organization and shape its culture going forward. We try harder at Avis, or Always low prices. Always, at Wal-Mart are foundational values that have become ingrained into the very fibre of each business, informing day-to-day decisions and behaviours. Procter & Gamble, likewise, has managed to place the consumer at the heart of the companys culture, which keeps employees focused on touching lives, improving life in every market in which they participate. Traditions also count. Rituals, heroes and language give a company its unique feel. One of SC Johnsons defining moments, for instance, came during a 1927 Christmas Eve speech by H.F. Johnson Sr., who introduced a profit-sharing plan, a 40-hour work week and a pension planunusual benefits in those days. The goodwill of the people is the only enduring thing in any business, Johnson said. Eighty years later, his words still hold meaning in an organization that proudly calls itself a family company. A distinct personality can help a company attract people who, in turn, embrace its culture. The strongest cultures bind people together across both hierarchy and geography, guiding them to make the right decisions and advance the business without explicit direction. One Southwest Airlines

Key attributes of winning cultures

High aspirations and a desire to win: For employees in high performance cultures, good is never good enough. They are always pushing to go farther, better, faster. Its not just about short-term financial performance. Its about building something truly special and lasting. External focus: Companies with high performance cultures focus their energies externally on delighting customers, beating competitors and caring for communities. They dont get caught up in internal politics or navel gazing. A think like owners attitude: A hallmark of a high performance culture is that employees take personal responsibility for overall business performance. They strive to do the right thing for the business, putting aside issues of personality or territory. Bias to action: High performance cultures are impatient to get things done. They are doers, not talkers, keeping an eye on where the value is to ensure their actions will enhance the business. Individuals who team: Winning cultures encourage people to be themselves and help individuals develop to their full potential. They also recognize the importance of teamwork, being open to other peoples ideas and debating issues collaboratively. Passion and energy: Everyone in a high performance culture gives 110%, striving to go beyond adequate to exceptional in the areas that really matter and bringing an infectious enthusiasm to everything they do. employee captured that notion well when he

said, We all work hard, but to do anything else would be like letting your family down. To turn commitment into strong performance, a companys personality needs to be complemented by behaviours that motivate employees to excel over and over again. Bain research has identified key behaviours that most winning cultures share. First, they aim high, so that employees remain fundamentally dissatisfied with the status quo. Energy gets focused externally on customers and competitors, rather than internally on issues of politics or turf. Employees think and act like owners, taking personal responsibility for overall business performance, not just their slice of it. They also exhibit a clear bias to action, with little patience for bureaucratic debate. People in winning cultures are team players who display high levels of passion and commitment, which usually includes hard work. Of course, the actual expression of these attributes within a company will vary. A consumer products company, for example, may focus on the customer by blanketing the offices with lifestyle posters featuring its particular target customers. A professional services firm might send out a weekly communication with updates about important clients. The true test of a winning culture is whether the expectations of high performance and the desire to winare understood and widely shared.

McKinsey: Our mission is to help our clients make distinctive, lasting, and substantial

improvements in their performance and to build a great firm that attracts, develops, excites, and retains exceptional people. Bower began to carefully shape the firm into its present form by insisting on a few core values: Client interests must be placed before those of the firm. Engagements should only be undertaken when the value to the client was expected to exceed the firm's fees. The firm's ownership should be restricted to active partners. Firm members must be professionals trained and motivated to do outstanding work and make a permanent career with the firm.

Out of the two dimensions that are part of every high performance culture organization, McKinsey performs well on both.

One,

a unique personality and soul that cannot be invented or imposed. It initiated the idea of Value Billing. Ignoring the time sheets, McKinsey started billing clients on What it thought was of value to the clients. It termed itself as High price, high volume consulting firm that involved great professional obligation to the client, a promise to be met. High fees are a warranty on the impact needed to justify them.

Two, with regard to the high performance

behaviours, High aspirations Expanded to 102 offices around the world in 2013. Focus on offering advice only on top management issues for important companies. External focus There is an unrelenting focus on clients, as quoted by the values. For e.g., the evaluation of a director was based on questions such as: What is the quality of your client relationships? Are we doing good work for these clients? Are we changing the directions of the clients business in a positive way? Also, the firm viewed its 26000 alumni as a strategic asset and developed a large and sustained effort to maintain connections with its alumni. Individuals who team Offices were judged in relation to the level of internal collaboration, teamwork with other offices, and the importance of office to its local community. Passion and energy The work was rewarding though there were long hours and lot of travel. This instilled a sense of responsibility and excitement in the employees at McKinsey.

As seen in exhibit 2, the core values exhibited by McKinsey are as follows: Adhere to highest professional standards

Create an unrivaled environment for exceptional people

Improve client's performance significantly

In McKinsey, there is a continuing dedication to the set of core values, first articulated by Marvin Bower and his colleagues in the Firms earliest years. These are still the bed rock of what the firm stood in 2013 and appeared on every PC in the firm.