Clarify your values: your internal and external culture determines the potency of your customer experience--which influences your ability to cross-sell. If your culture is ineffectual, that shortcoming will undercut even the best marketing efforts.

• Author: Clapp, Bruce
• Position: Corporate Culture

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Your institution has an external and internal culture. Knowing the key differences, and ensuring that your internal culture is defined, refined, and aligned with your goals is the key to Success.

Your external culture encompasses, among other things, your reputation, your brand and the collective experiences of customers. Your internal culture is based on the mindset of the staff, the philosophy of managing the work force, and the focused goal of the organization.

The institution's culture is the environment that either creates and expands behavior, or stifles and constricts behavior. Regardless of what you may think, every organization has a culture. Similar to water that will always find its own level in any given situation, an institution's culture will permeate all levels of and organization whether it is encouraged or not.

An inherent danger in ignoring your existing culture is that it may not be a culture that will enable your bank to be successful in your market!

A clearly defined culture starts with the executive management, is refined and defined by senior management, clearly managed and reinforced by the front-line management, and implemented every day across every department and function by the line staff. A culture helps define the "moment of truth" of how decisions are to be made, what variables are acceptable, and how the communication will occur.

So what exactly is a culture? We will define it simply as the silent guiding force that models actions, guides decision making, and acts as an operating principle for the staff and the organization. Examples of company cultures across several industries:

* Apple: innovation and breaking paradigms.

* Nordstrom: Yes, the customer is right.

* Southwest Airlines: Work hard, have fun, do it right.

* ESPN: looking at life from the sports enthusiast's chair.

* Umpqua Bank: innovation designed to get closer to the customer leads all priorities.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Each example illustrates a culture that manifests itself in the "how," "why," "when," and "with what speed" decisions are made. Apple and its employees don't stop being innovative based on the constraints of existing technology. They constantly evolve their products and technology to meet the perceived needs of their customers.

How are decisions made in your institution? From the customer viewpoint? Ensuring it is currently operationally feasible? To improve profit? To gain more customers? Are new hire decisions made at the branch level or at human relations level? Are new employees merely sent out to fill the position? Each is very telling about your culture.

So how do you develop, influence, redefine or change your culture? Easy. Just go flip the "culture change" switch on the wall (don't you wish it were that simple!). In reality, your culture changes and is reinforced daily. The key variables to establishing or developing your culture revolve around four areas:

* The leadership at the CEO and board level.

* The leadership at the senior management level.

* The leadership at the customer level.

* The inspection of expectations at the staff level.

A culture needs daily upkeep and constant vigilance to ensure it takes hold and evolves in the direction that supports the goals and vision of an institution.

Board/CEO leadership

This is where the cultural tone of an organization is set whether it is sales centric, customer service driven, or customer centric. A culture is not simply a "memo" that mandates behavior or outlines expectations; it must come with support, definition, mentoring and constant vigilance to be successful.

Even the best teams combined of the top individual talent need a great coach to put them on top. The board and CEO must articulate the culture through policy and, more importantly, through accountability that supports the desired outcome. If your organization does not have a board-CEO leadership focus that creates and defines your internal culture (or at least one that assists in supporting a marketing philosophy), then it is imperative that you communicate the issues and the challenges of the internal environment upward to the board and CEO, a process that can be fraught with pitfalls. Be...