Can Connecting Organizational Culture to Business Strategy Help Unlock Better Financial Performance? New CEO Study from Heidrick & Struggles Says Yes

-- 82% of CEOs globally focused on culture over the past three years, yet only 31% of them did so to improve financial performance

-- 74% of CEOs did not choose culture as a top driver of financial results, highlighting the lack of understanding around the critical role culture can play in supporting business performance

-- As organizations focus on returning to the office, hybrid work environments and a tightening labor market, CEOs recognize the need to align culture with strategy and operating models, but most don't know where to start

CHICAGO, July 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Building and maintaining a strong corporate culture during the pandemic proved a priority for the vast majority of CEOs at large companies globally, but most leaders are not effectively aligning culture with financial performance, according to a new report from Heidrick & Struggles (Nasdaq: HSII), the premier provider of global leadership advisory and on-demand talent solutions, serving the senior-level talent and consulting needs of the world's top organizations.

The global CEO survey found that 82% said they made culture a key priority during the last three years, often to bolster financial performance – but nearly three in four picked strategy, leadership or policies and processes, rather than corporate culture, as most important to driving financial performance. The study also identified a group of CEOs, or "culture accelerators," who focused on culture shaping, listed culture as a top-three driver of their organizations' financial performance and thought it was important to link culture to strategy. These culture leaders outperformed their peers in the study by generating more than double the three-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue, 9.1 percent compared with 4.4 percent.

"The pandemic was a true test of company cultures globally," said Rose Gailey, a partner and global lead for organization acceleration and culture shaping for Heidrick Consulting at Heidrick & Struggles. "It's become clear that thriving cultures will be the linchpin of success for companies going forward – but what we found most surprising in our results is how few of the CEOs we surveyed recognized the critical role culture can play in supporting business performance, particularly if they create the right metrics to assess their progress on an ongoing basis."