The Business Initiation | A Brief Insight into Corporate Culture

Who was the one who initiated you into the world of business? An initiation always begins with a ceremony. It’s the same when we start a business. There is an opening ceremony we hold at the beginning. There are also ceremonies we hold at the end of the business year and so on.

It can be a serious affair or a celebratory one. Usually, it is a bit of both. There’s the serious part; and then the fun part. They’re both equally important. It is what allows for the team to bond with one another.

Have you thought about the ceremonies–the rites of passage–that you’d like to institute into your business culture?

Think about some of the business cultures that you have been a part of. How did they initiate you into the business? How did you feel when you went through the initiation process? Were you happy that you were joining this wonderful organisation; or did you feel something else?

Lack of fit should have ideally been identified at the interview stage. But sometimes, hiring managers mess up; or they think that the initiation journey will ‘fix’ that problem. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t.

In either case, an initiation is a ceremony that lets you know, “Hey, you’re one of us now!” A successful initiation ceremony also makes clear that, “We are one.” We will all now have to work as one team. There are no solo acts in the world of business.

In other words, we now have to share the same values, the same ideals and the same goals. It doesn’t mean that we have to do that 24/7; only that we need to do that every time we are at work.

Company culture is often cited as one of the reasons why a business succeeds. Like anything else, a company culture also changes. In theory, the values of the organisation shouldn’t change. They can be tweaked or modified to suit the times. In the event that a business is relocated, it would also have to take the local culture into consideration to avoid stepping on sensitivities.

All in all, there’s a reason why corporate culture is always always cited as one of the reasons why a business succeeds.