Nurture your nature: BUILDING HIGH PERFORMANCE CULTURE - SUSTAINING COMPETITIVE EDGE

Richard Barrett, once wrote "Cultural capital is the new frontier of competitive advantage". While I couldn't disagree with what the gentleman stated, it may be important to realize that a culture not only reflects the values and beliefs of the leaders on one hand but, on the other hand, it also represents the behaviors, attitudes and mind set of the key stakeholders engaged therewith.
A glance at the competitive business environment around shows that today's business environment and factors affecting it are very different and more complex than what was in the past. Advancement of IT, technology, financial / non-financial reporting, operating models, and above all customer expectations are among characteristics of today's business environment, all of which are associated with the dynamics and complexities of the world we are living in. Now the question is that what is the secret to survival, success, and the sustainability in today's hypercompetitive markets?
A straight forward answer could be that in today's circumstances one must find a way for not only survival and compatibility with the forces at work but also to gain a leading position in the competitive environment. However, this apparently straight forward answer is not that straight as it sounds.
Surviving or rather solidifying your current position in a competitive market demands a great deal of change within yourself. We may be asked to question our own mental model, no matter how important that might be in achieving our past glories. In doing so you may have to take MRI of your "Nature" and initiate a soul surgical process to nurture it in order to get it acquainting with the upcoming challenges.
Once this is done (even to an extent), you will be able to start building a high- performance culture within your organization which leads to attain sustainable competitive advantage.
Traditionally, organizations were assessed based on financial measures but with increasing competition in the market, in addition to financial measures, other aspects of performance were also taken into account. The measurement of organizational success and implementation of effective strategies for future success cause endless challenges for managers and strategist. While the financial measures are clearly important, new frameworks have emerged in recent years that have taken into account more and broader criteria.
Organizations with a high performance culture focus on the customers being the most important asset and endeavors for a continuous improvement in the light of customer-centric principle, hoping to gain a sustainable competitive advantage.
It is indeed a courageous effort on the part of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan, to pick this important yet ignorant topic in a wonderful flag ship event of CFO Conference 2018. We expect that the participants of this conference can learn new models (and even unlearn some of the redundant ones) which will facilitate them to "Reflect" upon their current challenges, guide them to "Transform" accordingly and inspire to "Lead" in this dynamic and competitive world.