There is a growing awareness of culture management

Why is it necessary to go beyond traditional management, as the book argues? How can corporate reputation be strengthened by adopting a broader management approach?

Bethany – Reputation is related to what the company is and not to what the company says it is. Reputation is linked to the company's values, to what it actually puts into practice, to its purpose, which we call its reason for being. Management that goes beyond what is traditionally encompassed, its reason for being, is what will give consistency, over time, to reputation. It articulates all the elements of management, all the stakeholders, so that the results, which go beyond the financial, are admirable. Admirable results are also related to reputation.

Louise – Going beyond traditional management means going beyond the traditional, but also beyond fads. In the book, we articulate a way to avoid falling into these traps, both traditional and fads, which are just as dangerous.

How can we prevent mergers and acquisitions from destroying value, as the book warns?

Louise – The first point is to be very clear about the reason for the merger or acquisition. Is it to acquire competence? Market share? The reason for acquiring the company changes the way the process is conducted. Another point is to understand whether the acquiring organization has the necessary skills and management strength to make the change. When an organization is acquired and a merger between cultures and people occurs, it is necessary to understand the culture of that organization, its reason for being and its values, to know what can be used and what needs to be removed.

What is the difference between rationalization and revitalization and what do you consider to be more efficient for the business?

Bethany – What is more efficient? It is doing both at the same time, which is what we call bittersweet management. The management of an organization needs to have one eye on the short term and the other on the long term. When we talk about bittersweet management, it is precisely the combination of these two things.

What is the corporate disease called “underperformance” in the book? How does it affect the company in relation to stakeholders, especially in relation to the trust they have in the organization?

Louise – A simple example illustrates satisfactory underperformance: I can get a 10 on my math test and I need a 6 to pass the year. I get a 6.5 and pass the year. I get results, but below my potential. Satisfactory underperformance is when people are not in an optimal state of performance, both individually and collectively and as a team. It is a silent disease because, in the short term, I continue to get results. But it prevents me from going further.

Bethany – What is also important is that successful companies gradually become what we call “warm and comfortable.” To change this pointer, intervention is needed.

Are technological advances and societal transformations, in themselves, a lever to overcome so-called traditional management or is it necessary to go further?

Louise – Technological innovation alone does not make organizations go further. Another point is that we often tend to only look at the positive side, when in fact technology and innovation are sustained because there is another aspect that is invisible to outsiders. There is an experimentation that is connected to discipline. When we are talking about bringing innovation, whether from a technological or management point of view, it is necessary to combine this with what is truly valuable to the organization, today and in the future. And understand that innovation enables the future, but there is hard work on the other side, in terms of discipline and accountability. It is necessary to combine these two things to actually do what generates value for the organization. And then, yes, technology and innovation become a means to go further.

Review

It is necessary to go beyond the traditional in companies, proposes Betania Tanure in a new book written with her daughter Luisa

The book also lists companies that do not submit to a type of “satisfactory underperformance”. In addition to Itaú Unibanco and WEG, Banco Central, Dexco, Embraer, Gerdau, Localiza, MRV, Natura, Porto, Suzano and Votorantim are cited as paradigms of organizations that operate in the country and make up the broad category “Corporate Brazil”. “What they can do, others can also do. The Brazilian reality, with all its challenges and opportunities, does not summarize what is special about these organizations.”

Changes in organizational culture do not always occur

Traditional organizations are losing – and will continue to lose – ground, the authors predict. “We are on the threshold of a very different management model, in which the most traditional ones will not find satisfactory answers unless they abandon their already known solutions and, more than that, leave aside their old assumptions, their old ways of understanding and solving problems, their successful way of dealing with people in the past, regardless of their position, whether they are internal or external to the organization.”

When expansion occurs through M&A, there is not always a change in organizational culture. Cultural changes are more common. The issue of organizational culture is complex because it involves identifying what is essential, what cannot be changed and even needs to be reinforced or rescued, and what must, at the same time, be removed, reinterpreted or renewed, in order to evolve or transform the culture based on these verbs beginning with the letter “R”.

If an organization loses its essence, it will lose its competitive advantages over time. Therefore, going beyond traditional management also means removing, reinforcing, and sometimes even rescuing, redefining, and renewing the essence at the same time. Values are seen as the cornerstone that underpins the philosophy and definition of essence, which distinguishes organizations from one another and explains why some thrive while so many others stumble and are even banned from the market. The big change, the consultants believe, is precisely to generate value for everyone, valuing people, not systems.

. Clovis Malta is a journalist
clovis.malta@ankreputation.com.br