I believe any cultural transformation should begin with two questions:

• Who are we today?

  What makes us distinctive, and which values and behaviours have contributed to our success?

• Who do we want to become?

  What will our future ambitions require from our people, our leaders and the way we work?

Answering these questions helps leaders identify what should be preserved and what needs to change. A brand can maintain its commitment to creativity, craftsmanship and excellence while introducing new capabilities, clearer responsibilities and greater operational discipline.

This distinction becomes especially important when a company is redefining its brand positioning. A new brand direction must be understood and delivered by the people behind it, from product development and marketing to sales and customer experience.

Protecting a company's heritage should give it the confidence to move forward, rather than become a reason to resist change.

Translate Values Into Everyday Behaviours

Most companies can articulate their values. The challenge is translating them into behaviours that support business objectives.

Research by Donald Sull and his colleagues at MIT Sloan found little correlation between the values companies publicly promote and how employees experience them in practice.

For values to influence performance, they must be reflected in how the organisation operates, from recruitment and performance management to incentives, promotions and leadership development. A company that promotes collaboration while rewarding only individual results, for example, risks encouraging competition between teams at the expense of shared business goals.

Leadership plays a decisive role. The behaviours executives demonstrate, reward and tolerate establish what is expected throughout the organisation. When values are consistently reinforced through leadership decisions and management practices, they provide employees with clear expectations, improve accountability and help teams make decisions that support the company's strategy.

The Business Case for Culture

A strong company culture supports business performance in four critical areas: attracting and developing talent, managing change, improving performance and executing strategy.

Attracting, developing and retaining talent. Research published by MIT Sloan Management Review found that toxic corporate culture was 10.4 times more powerful than compensation in predicting employee attrition. For luxury and beauty businesses, retaining experienced talent means preserving valuable product knowledge, customer relationships and brand expertise. A strong culture also helps attract people who share the company's ambitions and creates opportunities for existing employees to develop.

• Managing change. Growth and transformation require new capabilities, structures and ways of working. A clear culture helps employees understand the direction of the business, adapt to new expectations and remain engaged through periods of uncertainty.

• Improving performance. Culture influences motivation, accountability and the standards people bring to their work. Gallup's research suggests that managers account for approximately 70% of the variance in team-level employee engagement, while its 2024 meta-analysis found that highly engaged business units achieved a median 23% advantage in profitability compared with the least engaged. These findings highlight the relationship between effective leadership, employee engagement and business results.

• Executing strategy. A growth strategy can only succeed when teams across functions and markets understand their priorities and work towards common objectives. Shared values, clear expectations and consistent leadership behaviours improve collaboration, strengthen accountability and enable faster decision-making. As organisations scale, culture helps translate strategic ambition into coordinated action without requiring every decision to be made at the top.

Lead Transformation with Clarity and Alignment

Growth inevitably changes an organisation. New roles are created, responsibilities shift, reporting structures evolve and different capabilities become necessary.

For employees who have contributed to a company's success over many years, these changes can be unsettling. They may feel that the organisation they helped build is becoming something different.

Resistance to change can have several causes. Employees may not understand the reasons behind a new strategy, worry about their future role or feel unprepared for new expectations. Some may also identify genuine problems with the proposed changes.

Understanding these concerns helps leaders distinguish between people who need greater clarity or support and situations where more fundamental changes are required.

McKinsey's research on organisational transformation highlights the importance of senior leaders demonstrating the behaviours they expect from others and communicating a clear, consistent direction.

In practice, I believe three leadership priorities connect directly to successful transformation:

• Align leadership around a clear direction. Before asking employees to embrace change, the executive team must agree on the company's future ambitions, the values it wants to preserve and the behaviours required to achieve its objectives. Misalignment at the top inevitably creates confusion throughout the organisation.

• Build the organisation for the future. Growth requires an honest assessment of the skills, leadership capabilities and structures needed to execute the strategy. This means investing in existing talent, introducing new expertise where necessary and ensuring people have clear responsibilities and accountability.

• Bring people through change. Employees need to understand why the organisation is changing, what is expected of them and how they can contribute. Leaders must communicate openly, listen to concerns and demonstrate the behaviours they expect. Difficult decisions should be handled with fairness and respect.

A strong culture honours the past while giving people the clarity, confidence and capabilities to build the future.