The evolving role of culture: why innovation is crucial for building a resilient business

If you ask business leaders what first comes to mind when you mention the word “innovation”, it is unlikely to be associated with culture. Compared to product innovation or innovating services, culture often isn’t seen as something that should continually evolve – and this is where we see businesses struggle to develop a thriving culture that drives performance and growth from within.

Dianne DeSevo, Chief People Officer at Dow Jones, and Rajiv Naithani, Chief People Officer at Infogain, who recently joined our webinar, Innovate or Stagnate: Leading CPOs on a New Approach to Building a Culture, echoed this sentiment.

“Building a strong culture is a journey, not a destination. [Leaders are] always evolving the organization [to be more] strategic, innovative, and empathetic,” says Naithani. This same approach should be applied to an organization’s culture.

Both DeSevo and Naithani have had to adopt a flexible and evolving mindset, particularly when leading their team through times of significant change. Here are the key learnings from our discussion:

Mobilizing your people to drive performance

Culture has emerged as a pivotal element in organizational success.

As DeSevo emphasizes, "People join companies for the culture; they also quit because of culture."

CEOs and the C-Suite are recognizing the significance of a thriving culture as it helps to not only attract and retain the best employees, but to motivate them to work together to reach the business vision. It directly impacts engagement, which equates to success in a business.

Naithani likened culture to being the strong foundation of a house: “Imagine building a house…no matter how beautiful or innovative the design be, if the foundation is weak, the house won’t stand up. Culture is that foundation for any organization, and it has become a strategy conversation at the C-Suite level because a strong positive culture is essential for long-term success and resilience.”

Overcoming barriers to change initiatives

Yet, although leaders recognize its importance, culture change initiatives are difficult to get off the ground. Businesses often see culture as something that is too nebulous and that lacks tangibility, sitting invisible in an ether outside of business. To truly change culture requires a shift away from this thinking.

“At Infogain, we have been remodeling an old, cherished home to make it fit for modern living. Because we transitioned from being a founder-driven company to one owned by private equity, we realized that changing our mindsets was crucial to this transformation,” says Naithani.

For Naithani and his team, rebuilding trust was imperative to reaching a cultural transformation that saw the business increase its trust index from 55 to a whopping 80 in just four years.

DeSevo, too, had to overcome her own barriers to change.

“Any change is hard, whether big or small. What [has worked for us] is bringing employees along for the ride, and being able to pivot and change,” she says. “What doesn’t work, quite frankly, is when you're shoving culture down somebody's throat. It needs to be bottoms-up; it cannot just be a top-down approach.”

Building culture during pivotal business moments

Following an acquisition, aligning and integrating cultures becomes business-critical. Naithani shared Infogain's experience of transitioning from a founder-driven culture to a private equity-backed model. This shift required a significant cultural transformation to improve employee engagement.

“One of the biggest struggles I faced is changing mindsets. People get used to operating and conducting themselves in a particular way,” he notes. “I joined the organization when we had merged two major companies but lagged integration. Decision making was decentralized, largely driven based on power centers, leading to inconsistencies, higher attrition, and low employee engagement.”

To address these issues, Infogain had to undergo a complete transformation. Adaptation is crucial. For Naithani, what led to success is clarity and nurturing a culture of behaviours that the business was aspiring to promote.

“We shared the story with [our employees], showed them the core values, took their inputs and refined them, and then finally sealed them as our values, which we live by all the time.”

Naithani stressed that having the support of the executive leadership team was integral to this successful change initiative. If he were to go back and improve one thing?

“The challenge is when you have a short-term view of the business or the market, and that takes precedence over the consistent way. We could have been firmer and said that although we understand there's a ‘here and now’ situation, we need to not get into the tactical aspects of dealing with it, but let's be much more strategic,” he emphasizes.

Final thoughts

Building a strong organizational culture is an ongoing journey that requires an innovative approach.

As DeSevo stressed, culture is ever-evolving and never-ending: “You always want to move faster, you always want to do more. You can never give too much to your employees. People come to work to find purpose and to learn and grow.”

Both DeSevo and Naithani highlighted the importance of aligning culture with organizational goals to engage employees at all levels. As Naithani concluded, "By putting our people at the heart of our strategy, we can create dynamic and thriving organizations."

For the full insights from our discussion with DeSevo and Naithani, head here.