Organizational culture is a quiet, but driving, influence on our perception of a company, whether as a consumer or as an employee. For instance, we know Southwest Airlines as laid back and friendly. We think of Google as innovative. To almost every well-known company we can assign a character. It is now well recognized that corporate culture has a significant impact on organizational health and performance. Yet, the concept of corporate culture and culture management is too often tantalizingly elusive.

In this book, Flamholtz and Randle define culture, identifying and explaining the five key dimensions that determine it: a customer orientation; a people orientation; a process orientation; strong standards of performance and accountability; innovation and openness to change. They explain why culture is a critical factor in organizational success and failure—a key determinant of financial performance. Then, they provide a theoretically sound, highly practical, and field-tested method for managing corporate culture—presenting a set of international and domestic cases that show how actual companies have leveraged culture as the ultimate source of sustainable competitive advantage. In addition to well-known companies such as Starbucks, Ritz-Carlton, American Express, IBM, and Toyota, the text presents lesser known culture stars, such as Smartmatic and Infogix.

Eric G. Flamholtz is Professor Emeritus at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and President of Management Systems Consulting, which he founded in 1978. He also teaches at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in China and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of 99 Cents Only Stores. Flamholtz is the author of a number of published books, including Leading Strategic Change and Growing Pains, Fourth Edition. He has consulted with renowned companies around the world. Yvonne Randle is Executive Vice President of Management Systems Consulting, which she joined in 1983. She is a Lecturer at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She has extensive consulting experience with companies that range in size from small entrepreneurships to multi-billion dollar enterprises. With Flamholtz, she has co-authored several books, including Leading Strategic Change and Growing Pains, Fourth Edition.