*This article is a restructured version of Hydraft®’s consulting assets.
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast"
This statement was made by Peter Drucker to emphasize the importance of organizational culture. Its implication is that no matter how “world-class” a strategy may be, it is meaningless unless the organizational culture is prepared to receive and execute it. The key point here is that the “excellence of a strategy” and the “success of execution” are distinct realms. A brilliant strategy may exist merely as a document or a presentation, but execution always occurs through people within the ecosystem of organizational culture.
In other words, culture and people are far more important than strategy. This does not diminish the importance of strategy itself—corporate and team strategies significantly shape the formation and maintenance of organizational culture. However, strategy can only be executed through culture and people. Therefore, when understanding an organization, we should first ask, “What is our organizational culture?” and “Is our culture being effectively maintained?” rather than focusing solely on the sophistication of the strategy. If the culture is dysfunctional, the organization and its members will treat the strategy as if it never existed, consuming it for breakfast.
Former Ford CEO Mark Fields also highlighted this point, drawing attention to the problem of “frozen” middle managers and senior staff. At the time, many at Ford sought to minimize their own work and maintain the status quo, often deliberately resisting or neglecting the company’s business strategies and agendas. This is a prime example of how organizational culture can neutralize strategy. Yet, this should not be taken merely as a critique; paradoxically, it underscores how critical middle managers and senior staff are in shaping organizational culture. Their influence is central to both the formation and dissemination of culture.
No matter how refined a strategy is, if middle managers and senior staff—who hold significant operational authority—do not intentionally embed the organization’s goals into daily workflows, the culture cannot be sustained or propagated. In other words, organizational culture is most effectively concretized and spread when strategies are executed at the operational and customer-facing level through the actions and mindsets of these managers and seniors. This requires a deep understanding of the business environment.
Ultimately, organizational culture is not defined by written documents or slogans but by the attitudes and ways of working that flow between people. The nuances of experience demonstrated by middle managers and senior staff define that culture. Modern business environments are too complex to be managed through simple procedural execution alone. In today’s organizations—where emphasis has shifted from tenure to capability and hierarchies have flattened—the “experience” that junior employees or new hires seek from middle managers and seniors is not merely a matter of years served.
Rather, it is the guidance and insights offered with maturity and humility by those who have faced the many variables and challenges of the business environment firsthand.
© 2025 Hydraft®
All rights to this content are reserved by Hydraft® and are protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and redistribution are strictly prohibited.
