The inseparability of culture and strategy in hospitality
Culture is the unseen hand that shapes organisational behavior, procedures’ and employee actions. It is often described as “the way we manage or do things around here,” but it is much more than that—it is the overall character or personality of an organization or of any society.
In the context of hospitality, culture can influence the way that a business designs and decorates its establishment, the types of food and drink that it serves, the language used and the way that it treats its customers. Every time customers and hospitality employees connect, customers get a flavour of what the company is truly like.
The connection between culture and hospitality management is especially prominent in Japan, where cultural values and practices heavily influence the hospitality sector. Japanese culture is grounded in values such as respect, harmony, and meticulous attention to detail, all of which are integral to the concept of ‘Omotenashi” – known as the art of selfless hospitality.
Strategy on the other hand is the long-term plan that aligns resources and actions to achieve specific goals. It involves making deliberate choices about where to compete, how to compete, and what to prioritize. Strategy sets the direction for the organization, provides a roadmap, and is considered a primary driver of organizational success. Culture is viewed as something that has to be managed to support strategy execution.
Peter Drucker, the famous business guru, it is claimed, declared “Culture will eat strategy for breakfast.” Perhaps True. But even with the right culture, a business can flounder if the strategy is wrong. By the same token, the same business can still falter even with the right culture… if the strategy is wrong.
Some who have studied the correlation between culture and strategy conclude that the right culture executing the right strategy is what will deliver the key results organizations are trying to achieve. Winston Churchill once observed that, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results” Meaning: culture too is a powerful driver of results and the interdependence between culture and strategy should not be ignored.
Experts on organizational culture Roger Connors and Tom Smith, who co-authored the book Change the Culture, Change the Game: The breakthrough strategy for energizing your organization and creating accountability for results, claim,” The results you currently get as an organization are produced by your current culture.”
Unfortunately, many of today’s managers find culture an intimidating challenge – because it is difficult to track and quantify. They lack awareness of their organisation’s culture, with diverse employees (especially those at the top and bottom levels), within the same company, having different perspectives about the company’s culture.
Bill Marriott Jr. practiced a famously hands-on style that he called "management by walking around." Shortly after his 80th birthday in March 2012, he gave up the CEO position, but remained an active chairman, visiting upward of 200 hotels a year.
A story that made the rounds was that he would remove his shoes, and walk the carpeted floor in his socks. No, he didn’t have a fetish for doing that. It was his simple way of discovering whether the carpets had been cleaned, because if his socks got wet, it meant the staff had been warned that he was coming.
In my decades of working in the hotel industry, I’ve seen this happen often - especially in international hotel brands. Some top executive from the corporate head / regional office is due to visit the property and staff are told to quickly “clean up or get pulled up”.
One might ask “What’s the message here?” Whilst the hotel company pays the salaries, it’s the visiting guests who pay the company to do that. Cleaning should be done for them, not just for the Chairmen, CEO’s and the like. A workplace culture that places owners and bosses above everyone else because of their connection or seniority has no place in hospitality.
Bottom line: At the end of the day, its culture that delivers your strategy to your guests.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Customer Service Trainer and Ex-Hotelier
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