Brand is often first to blame when marketing tactics aren’t converting, customer churn and employee attrition rates are increasing, the team is not performing, or financial performance is declining. How many times have you said or heard the phrase, “We have a brand problem”? And sure, the brand could very well use some love, but this is merely a symptom of a bigger underlying issue. In fact, the real source of the problem isn’t brand. It’s culture. And, as it turns out, these two things cannot be inextricably decoupled. Culture is hungry (and it never gets full) Thanks to Peter Drucker, one of the forefathers of modern management, we know “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” The problem is, once it does, it’s still hungry for more. After strategy, it then turns to the rest of the brand for lunch, dinner, and every snack in between. When culture, which we simply define as your organization’s internal environment, erodes, it tends to leave a trail of devastation in its wake. Adding to the challenge is the fact that the elements of this environment––your culture––are invisible. Yet, when there are issues, they manifest in very real ways. They might manifest in a broken customer experience, poor converting websites, declining employee performance, and the list goes on. Culture impacts how employees behave and the decisions they make. How your team acts internally then impacts how consumers experience your brand, and that ultimately determines whether your customers convert and if they’ll become brand champions. In other words, your brand is only as successful and profitable as your culture allows. It’s never about the logo. Culture is the glass ceiling, and it is an aspect of the brand that cannot be [...]