Know where your culture is being driven from
Ask yourself this question – is there a functional department within my company that sets the tone for my overall company culture? If your answer to this question is yes, the natural follow-on question is do I like the cultural tone that department is setting for my company?
When the day comes that you want to present your company to a potential acquirer, they will assess what they believe your company culture is as they place a valuation on your business. For this reason, years in advance of attempting to sell your company, you want to ensure you’re driving the right culture.
Over the years of running various businesses, it was clear to me multiple times that there was a lead department in terms of driving the cultural tone of the company. Whether it be a negative or positive culture, I found a particular department was primary in setting the tone. It was my job to determine what the company culture was and if it wasn’t enabling to building our company enterprise value, my job was to identify what the root cause of the culture problem was. Most often I found the root was a particular department and addressing that area of the business put the company on a much better footing for driving progress. And the reverse can be true, a positive culture that as the leader of the business I wanted to ensure I was protecting and nurturing.
Your goal is to have an enabling culture across all of your company department’s and you can’t afford to have some departments supporting your desired culture and others that are not. If you’re not pleased with your company culture, think about it at the department level. In the majority of cases, if you’re not pleased you will find that it is emanating from a particular area of your business. It’s our job as owners and CEOs is to protect and build our company culture and the reward will be leading a team that creates enterprise value that will reward you when the day comes you want to attract an acquirer.
