The pandemic has provided real evidence of the role culture-making and culture-building now holds in organizations. As the world has rewired its norms, one thing that has stayed constant is the need for employees to belong to a purposeful culture. Culture is mindset and behavioural change at large scale. A culture in which all layers of leadership are aligned, invested, and actively breathe meaning to the organization’s values and goals will ultimately advance organizational health, performance and sustainability.
Since 2007, CorporateDNA has driven culture transformation across 36 countries through reorganizations, restructures and mergers. We intentionally shape environments that drive and engage teams, making them bigger than the sum of their parts through collaboration and a win-and-grow mindset, to thrive in change and complexity.
CorporateDNA has been trusted to deliver multiple culture transformations as an essential lever; at the intersection of strategy, performance and organizational health. We have enabled culture transformations at various levels
Our Culture Transformation methodology, DNA’s Culture Ecosystem is inspired by a Solar System model of 10 distinct culture planets working collaboratively, to fuel the company’s purpose at its core (the organization’s Sun) with purpose at the centre of the organizational universe.
This model enables leaders to think of these ten “Culture markers” as interdependent and essential elements that make up a larger, visible macro-culture.
Vodafone New York appointed CorporateDNA to deliver an in-country leadership transformation to work through a crucial point in the region’s purpose – to boost brand visibility and performance success. In the Americas region, which consists of the United States, Canada, and Latin America, Vodafone works with hundreds of customers across retail, finance, logistics, telematics, the public sector, and manufacturing, and is focused on delivering fixed, mobile and IoT solutions to multinational customers.
We undertook an 18-month journey starting with the LT (Leadership Team) to unpack the lived realities and perspectives of each specific member, followed by mindsets and behaviours that will help the team stay relevant and become future fit. Through that process, we also dispelled myths and assumptions that were dragging the region down and which no longer served the current purpose. Along with team and individual coaching, we created a new “smell of the place” with energy, conviction and personal skin in the game. By keeping relevance, understanding, confidence-building, and authenticity in the forefront of our practice, CorporateDNA’s culture transformations had profound impact, especially on the country level.
Levi Strauss & Co. appointed CorporateDNA to deliver an intense and intimately engaged culture transformation for 36 members of their Greater China Leadership Team from 2018 to 2020. The pinnacle of this journey was in successfully launching their first Asian flagship “beacon” store in Wuhan set up to deliver a 10X strategy in China. There was an unprecedented series of changes from 3 preceding Managing Directors in 2 years to finally settling the organization under the leadership of its first Asian CEO, along with major restructures and corporate remodels.
CorporateDNA ran a series of workshops, training, and engagement exercises to shift the GCLT (Greater China Leadership Team) from a pressure-based and siloed working culture to a deeply connected winning leadership team with new mindsets and ways of working. We partnered very closely with The US HQ of Levi’s and its Global CEO, Chip Bergh to help Levi’s China become an intimate and important part of the Levi’s family and to activate inclusive, collaborative, and people-centric behaviours, so that they could breathe motivation, trust, and collaboration into their strategy and execution.
CorporateDNA coached the CEO and the LT through this personal and professional transformation journey, where the GCLT was finally seen as a winning culture and a true ‘dream team.’
CorporateDNA delivered a culture transformation journey over 18 months for 25 Leadership Team members in Coca-Cola Japan, during a challenging and intensive growth period for the OpCo in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics 2020. CorporateDNA partnered closely with Coca-Cola to build an environment of psychological safety and emotional assurance, inspiring the LT to innovate and create a speak-up culture, invigorating courage, and executing acceleration plans to deliver breakthrough performance, in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics.
Working closely with the President, our work involved both collective and individual LT sessions to ensure the team “elevated” its game in Japan to the next level as an important member of the Coca-Cola Family.
We were invited to lead HEINEKEN Vietnam’s culture transformation during the pandemic as Vietnam went from being one of the top 3 performers in the HEINEKEN family to a stage of uncertainty and a sense of “plateau”. Starting with the Management Team led by a very promising GM, we enabled 70 “change champions” in HEINEKEN Vietnam to transform their OpCo, by coming together to become purpose-driven and authentic, uncaged Leaders.
CorporateDNA enabled HEINEKEN Vietnam to make essential shifts toward confidence, determination, and motivation. The OpCo leadership shed dependencies such as a culture of silence, parent-child dynamics, and following rather than leading, while unleashing their leadership potential through creativity, courageous conversations, and an empowered speak-up culture.
We are leading similar 6-9 month transformations for HEINEKEN Korea, HEINEKEN Malaysia, HEINEKEN Taiwan, HEINEKEN Sri Lanka and HEINEKEN Myanmar.
Over a 3-month coaching journey, CorporateDNA created a strategic partnership with the Unilever Philippines Board that was built on trust and challenge, enabling them to identify their personal and organizational goals with increased productivity and brand visibility.
CorporateDNA helped take the Board to the next level of leadership, working closely with the Chairman to explore how he wants to lead the team and how the team wants to be led by him. We focused on strong sports psychology to focus on areas of development and excellence in their inner game and outer game. We developed the team’s future focus and breakthrough habits for a dramatic impact on leadership effectiveness, market performance, and marking a culture change that has started to cascade throughout the organization.
CorporateDNA helped deliver a culture transformation in GSK Mexico – which is the most profitable market within the Emerging Markets portfolio, yet one of the
GSK Mexico was determined to overcome a highly competitive and fragmented organizational culture that operated on fear-based and siloed ways of working. CorporateDNA helped the LT make essential shifts from fear and defensiveness to courage and authenticity, parent-child relationships to accountability and self-initiation, and obstacle-oriented thinking to solution-oriented thinking and agile decision-making.