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By Jack
Jeddman
Sometime
ago when I entered the business world in Australia I was made aware
of the smoke and mirror theories that are constantly used to
confuse. This of course does not apply to all business cultures in
Australia and New Zealand. There are some really good ones and like
most things in life there are some really bad ones
too.
What is a business culture? It is the
culture of the organization which is defined by the Owner/Director,
CEO, General Manager. In other words the person or persons at the
tip of the triangle of the organization define the business
culture. This person or persons defines the culture and how the
business operates within the culture. I have seen some classics
with this. I believe if you are in business and want to know
something about another business you might be engaging a business
deal with, look at the tip of the triangle. This person will define
the culture of the organization. So start your due diligence there
and really dig deep.
What due diligence generally reveals is
often not what the business may appear to look like from the
outside. I spent some time in America looking into business
cultures and in many cases Australian businesses have emulated a
lot of business culture from America and the way organizations deal
with employees there.
One of the greatest illusions of the past
decade is that governments has actually convinced people to
believe they are better off now than they have ever been on a base
employment level. This illusion has gone from the sublime to the
ridiculous.
All governments operate with a business
culture and it would be fair to say the tip of the triangle within
the Government is the culture at that time. A business with a truly
defined business culture is evident from the profitability and the
prosperity of the employees involved in achieving that
profitability. The ‘scarcity mentality’ will not exist in a culture
that rewards employees financially for their efforts. The ‘scarcity
mentality’ exists within poor business cultures and spreads through
organizations like a disease. No wonder there is such a high fall
over rate for small business failure.
Next time you are looking for a new job or a
new business to do a deal with, really look at the tip of the
triangle, it will reveal more than you could believe about the
organization you have your eye on. Smoke and mirrors can and will
create a lot of deception so look beyond this at the one person who
defines it all!
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