wanderings of a curious mind

I was reminiscing about a past life and got to thinking about some of the work that Jim Collins has done on corporate culture and vision.  I went to his website and he now has a bunch of short pieces available where he talks about many of his ideas.  (BTW - Jim is the author of some best selling business books including 'Built to Last').

This little clip addresses what is on my mind at the moment. Link The key take away from this is a company's core values are not something that are defined in an executive retreat at a posh resort.  Rather, the collective behavior of the company, driven by the personal values of the leadership itself, create the corporate values...and related, the corporate culture.

I needed to be reminded of this.  Despite the fact I used to use Jim's work in consulting a lot it is easy to forget and to fall into the trap of being influenced by smooth talking people who try to convince you a tiger can change its stripes.

Change at companies is possible, but usually it involves a change in leadership.