The Power Of Culture: It's Good Business!

Forbes

09-07-2025

Most adults spend the majority of their waking hours engaged with work in some fashion. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2024 American Time Use Survey, American adults spend an average of over eight hours a day working every weekday, and an average of over five hours working every weekend day.
This gives our workplaces incredible power in our lives and our society. The energy in the organizations for which we work affects us deeply. Unfortunately, workplaces more often than not contain negative energy that drains people.
Now, imagine if your employees could leave work at the end of the day energized by what they've accomplished and feeling fulfilled because they are valued. What if each person in your organization knew precisely how their actions that day embodied the mission, vision, values, and strategy your organization has created? What if your teams were prepared to make decisions, lead, and innovate as needed? What impact would that have on your organization? Would it help produce results?
I can answer that last question with an unequivocal yes. I have seen it over and over in the companies I have worked with. Let me share just a couple examples from my experience.
When I came on board as a consultant at the global tire retreading company, Bandag, Incorporated, the company was in the process of undergoing a cultural transformation. After consulting for two years, I decided to go full-time to help Bandag complete this transformation.
Nine years later, Bandag was acquired by Bridgestone America, LLC, and they soon realized that they had purchased Bandag's retread technology and a very strong culture with extraordinary leaders. This contributed to Bridgestone's own interest in a culture transformation, so I took what I had learned at Bandag and applied it to this gigantic global company. I remained at Bridgestone for the next seven years, then went to work for Barge Design Solution, Inc., a national engineering and architecture firm, for nine years.
The cultural transformations we accomplished at each of these organizations were immensely successful. At Bridgestone, after we set the purpose, vision, values, and strategies and aligned the company around this culture, creating a premier place to work, the company more than quadrupled its financial results, exceeding expectations across the globe.
When I started at Barge, the company had an 18 to 20 percent turnover rate. Within a year or two of implementing the culture change initiative, the company was down to single-digit turnover, way below the industry average. We calculated that this alone saved the company at least a million dollars yearly in turnover expenses. We also continued to complete an annual survey from the Great Place to Work Institute, and year over year, more and more people were saying we were a great place to work. At the same time, our profits were rising—in fact, during the process of creating a great place to work at Barge, profits increased sevenfold during my tenure!
In my experience, the financial results consistently surpass expectations. And the evidence is not just anecdotal. It has been proven that healthy organizations produce better financial results, and the business community is now recognizing this. As McKinsey reports, 'Twenty-plus years of proprietary McKinsey research tells us that one of the main reasons is organizational health. … McKinsey's Organizational Health Index (OHI) continues to show, for instance, that, over the long term, healthy organizations deliver three times the total shareholder returns (TSR) of unhealthy organizations, regardless of industry. Other findings point to greater resilience and higher financial performance in healthy organizations.'
A good culture can drastically improve our lives by making our work an energizing force. A good culture aligned throughout the organization uplifts, motivates, and engages everyone who works there, across every part of the company. When this happens, everyone benefits.
Culture isn't just fluffiness. It isn't everyone singing Kumbaya. It is real business, and it pays off. I am glad we are finally seeing how culture can stop being abstract and become the force transforming performance and people.