Virtually every business school, consultant, or leadership author will tell you is this: What drives success – regardless of the organization's size, industry, or resources – is culture. To quote the late, great management thinker Peter Drucker, 'Culture eats strategy for breakfast.' We call it the secret sauce!
One of the most influential business concepts of the last few decades is the Service-Profit Chain. The chain shows that there are linked relationships between profit, customer loyalty, value, employee satisfaction, and leadership. Here Ford and Osterhaus describe these elements, and more, that make a truly compelling organizational climate, including interdependence, skill at navigating transitions, a healthy atmosphere, and corporate citizenship. They outline the characteristics of leaders who are competent and trusted, including strong communication skills, able to create a learning environment, show integrity, and dependability. The authors provide organizations with the skills to develop the concepts of core ideology, organizational code, infrastructure, and brand, speaking in terms of both diagnosis and implementation disrupting the status quo within their own organization.
