The management consultant Peter Drucker famously said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It is a great line and I love it, but I disagree with it. I love it, because it is marvelously anti-elitist: Screw what the executive suite says, what matters is what the people are doing. That’s totally correct. I also love that Drucker’s observation elevates culture to a high-order consideration. But the truth is that culture and strategy do not compete. Neither eats the other. Indeed, for either to be effective, they must cohere.
