JMMB Seminar Encourages SMEs to Build & Maintain a Winning Culture to Drive Growth & Solid Results 

Diana Burgess, president of MuchMore Development Limited, is urging small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and other entrepreneurs, to build and maintain a winning company culture, as this is key to driving their business’ results. 

In defining the concept of a winning company culture, Burgess noted that the company’s vision and mission need to be connected with its strategy, in order to produce solid results. She further outlined that building and sustaining a winning company culture was synonymous with driving tangible and intangible results, and that there was no need to choose between one or the other, in order to be successful/ profitable. “High-performing companies think about culture differently. They know that winning cultures (are not) just about affiliation; they are also unashamedly about results.” 

During a recent seminar hosted by the JMMB SME Resource Centre, the culture guru shared insight into the process of building a solid company culture, drawing on her years of experience in the field and her role assisting to build and maintain the unique culture at JMMB, as an early team member. Outlining, “Winning cultures comprise of two interrelated forces and reinforcing elements – a unique identity and performance attributes. “The company’s unique identity sets it apart from other organizations and gives its team a sense of meaning and creates a passion for what it does.” This identity shapes the company’s performance attributes, i.e. the measures of success of the company. As such, the company’s strategy should be aligned with its identity and should reinforce the core values, principles and behaviours of the company. 

Reinforcement of these core values and principles; leadership modelling; and consistency in the practice of the right behaviours, were some practical pointers shared by Burgess, for building and embedding a ‘rock solid culture’.

In further explaining these underpinnings, she noted that it was critical to incorporate the company’s core values and principles, when creating processes and policies, as a way of reinforcing these.  This will ensure that a solid foundation is built, where team members experience the desired culture, which can then be translated to clients and other external stakeholders. The culture consultant warned that any disconnect between the desired culture and the lived experience would compromise the values and principles, and ultimately weaken the vision and mission that the company sought to build. 

She urged entrepreneurs that, as part of leadership modelling, a zero-tolerance approach should be taken to individuals, even those with strong technical competencies, if their core values and behaviour did not align with the company’s core values and mission; noting that mistakes will be made in the hiring process but, as leaders, swift corrective action needs to be taken. She shared that JMMB Group, in seeking to build and maintain its core principles and vision of love, all employees, as part of the onboarding process, attend an orientation programme. This is designed to further immerse team members in the company’s culture and allows them to take ownership of the culture and, thereby, become ambassadors or ‘culture aids’ of the organization. “It is important that the people around you are so inspired and empowered to own that dream…so that they can see themselves in that dream. It is impossible to create something for external, unless the same thing is being experienced internally,” said Burgess, as she underscored the need for consistency in building the company culture.

Resetting Your Company Culture in a Changing Work Environment
With the changing working environment characterised by remote working and digitization, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; Diana outlined that SMEs may need to reset their company culture to ensure they survive and thrive. Offering implementation techniques from her HR toolkit to SMEs, Diana shared the following guidelines to help SMEs reset their company culture: 
•    ensure that your mission and vision are clear and ready for the “new normal”;
•    adjust the company’s values and behaviours, in the context of the new business environment, while ensuring that these are clearly defined and adequately measured;
•    adequately change operations and processes to better meet employees’ current needs;
•    help build trust and encourage collaboration and build a community among team members, as part of your culture. In addition,  re/structure rewards and recognition to reinforce desired behaviors and new ways of working;
•    Implement thoughtful approaches to help employees feel heard and supported, as their needs and situations change;
•    provide the necessary support, so that managers and leaders are clear on the roles they play, in order to be successful in the culture shift, which includes modeling new behaviours, communicating expectations and guiding employees to a new way of working; and
•    build cultural resiliency, so that your team can readily adapt to the changing environment, by keeping them focused on the ‘bigger picture’ – the company’s mission and vision. 

The culture consultant highlighted that building and sustaining a winning company culture, at this time, is key to helping SMEs to survive and thrive in the ‘new normal,’ where remote working makes it more difficult to keep employees engaged and can’t reinforce some tangible aspects of the culture; noting that this ‘new normal’ is likely to change the future of work. 

This online seminar series seeks to engage SMEs, while sharing expertise and information about financial solutions. It is also designed to encourage SMEs to be more intentional about their business success; take actionable steps; identify best practices and resources; and create and/or revise plans, so that they can put the necessary infrastructure, policies, systems and expertise in place, for their sustainability and growth. The topical seminars also underscore JMMB’s commitment to nurture, grow and scale SMEs, by providing holistic financial solutions, expertise and advisory services.

For details on, and to register for JMMB’s upcoming SME webinars please follow JMMB Group Jamaica’s social media pages.