Particularly in a “flat world” companies that are culturally nimble will be able to seize opportunities prior to their competitors (Thomas Friedman).  The Balanced Scorecard system is a means of identifying cultural capabilities that can factor into the competitive advantage of an organization.  A key is to align culture capabilities with the strategy of an organization.  The inability to recognize and identify these principles and this process can be very costly in terms of reputation, credibility and expense.

A number of years ago I was appointed as the General Manager of a newly-established joint venture between a City of London-based merchant bank with a Hong Kong office and a the  commercial real estate division of one of the largest real estate agencies in Canada.  While the business case for the joint venture was sensible, the corporate cultures were very different, and there was no prior consideration of this matter nor strategy to ease integration.  Despite considerable promise, the joint venture was terminated within 12 months at considerable cost.

As with any strategic process, formulation is followed by implementation and then there is a period of evaluation.  As the process is evaluated there will be a process of recalibration so that the process is continually refined and improved and there is ongoing enhancement of a firm’s competitive advantage.

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The contents of this series are adapted from Dr. Rick Goossen’s paper on “Strengthening Competitive Advantage through Enhanced Cultural Engagement Capabilities”. For more information or for a complimentary copy of this paper, please contact Rick.Goossen@Avantage.com.

The "Strengthening Competitive Advantage through Enhanced Cultural Engagement Capabilities" by Dr. Rick Goossen series:

1. Cultural Capabilities
2. Building Cultural Engagement Capabilities - An Internal Assessment
3. Building Cultural Engagement Capabilities - An External Assessment
4. Building Cultural Engagement Capabilities - Balanced Scorecard
5. Strengthening Competitive Advantage through Enhanced Cultural Engagement Capabilities