What clients think of your organisational culture

By Julie Ahadi.

At the core of every firm, big or small, there are a handful of people who are not only responsible for directing the growth of the business, but who, by default, set the tone of the firm’s culture. Leading by example is not just a cliché, it is the life source of an organisation, and all that transpires emerges as a direct result. Greed and a disregard for professional ethics did not worm its way into and corrupt the global banking system from the outer edges, for example. Its leaders had themselves been the torchbearers of such behaviour and by doing so, actively or not, encouraged others to act this way. Just as a child’s behaviour is often judged as a product of a parent’s example, so too can the conduct of a company’s employees be seen as representative of that of its inner circle.

A few years ago, in an attempt to capture the essence of what made Source Source, the directors of the business created a bio of a virtual employee (“Judy Bright”). Judy’s personal and professional characteristics summed up those of our then-employees just as they do today, five years on. The initiative provided our customers and new recruits alike a sense of our unique culture, and the values we as a business hold dear.

For this to mean anything more than the paper it’s written on, however, it was, and continues to be, imperative that the people at the heart of the business walk the walk. And the verdict? Well, we’ll let our customers be the judges of that. The experience they have had working with any one member of the Source team should speak volumes about the team as a whole, and about the people manning the wheel of our humble ship.

What, then, of consulting firms and their respective cultures? Who’s doing it best? That’s a difficult question to answer, of course, because what best means is open to interpretation: organisational culture is, to a large extent, all a bit “je ne sais quois”–you know, you just feel it.

But, continuing the theme of looking outside of an organisation to measure what’s going on within, we asked hundreds of clients what they thought about the culture of consulting firms, and one firm stood out above all the others: IBM Global Business Services (we’ll call it IBM from here on). Globally, 87% of IBM’s “direct clients” (i.e., those with first-hand experience) described it as having very good or good overall culture, and 65% of indirect clients (clients who know it but haven’t worked with it recently) say the same–putting it top of the ranking by their reckoning, too. That’s a huge accolade; whatever the exact building blocks of “culture” may be, one of the most meaningful tests must be what clients think of it.

Indeed, with so little to differentiate the world’s leading consulting firms in clients’ eyes these days, we suspect all consulting firms would do well to pay careful attention to how their clients perceive their culture*. It is after all, one of the few things that can never be easily imitated, and when it’s done right, can provide great competitive advantage. Nice work, IBM.

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*Our suite of Client Perception Programme reports include client ratings on consulting firms’ “attributes”, which includes impressions of their overall firm culture. For more information please contact Sarah Burgess.