Culture for breakfast, lunch and dinner
‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’ – that’s how legendary management consultant and writer Peter Drucker saw the importance of company culture. Not that he was suggesting strategy is unimportant – rather that a powerful and empowering culture was a surer route to organisational success.
We tend to agree and that’s why we recently took time out from the office to review our own company culture following the recent upheavals of the global pandemic and the arrival of many new colleagues to team Morrows over the last year or two.
We headed to the home of Ulster Rugby and spent the afternoon overlooking the hallowed Ravenhill turf and discussing our company culture and values. The main purpose of the day was to gather feedback to develop a new ‘Morrows’ Manifesto’ – a set of values and guiding principles that all of those who work for the company are committed to following.
We were privileged to hear from the Chief Executive of Ulster Rugby, Jonny Petrie who shared some inspiring insights on the culture of success they are clearly fostering at Ulster Rugby. The ‘fight for every inch’ mentality has clearly helped the team in recent months both on and off the field and the professionalism and togetherness is pervasive throughout Kingspan Stadium.
As well as working on our company manifesto, we took the opportunity to reveal the new brand for our updated employee experience programme – Belong. This is a new way of packaging up what we represent and our commitment as an employer. It’s our way of protecting and promoting a welcoming, supportive culture – helping our team members be the best they can be throughout their journey with us.
As well as the more serious aspects of the afternoon we of course didn’t forget to have a little fun along the way. The ‘Morrows Manifesting Greatness’ Awards returned after a short hiatus to recognise the individuals who put the company values into action. Delivered with the usual tongue in cheek irreverence by our awards’ host Claire Bonner and with matching (in)appropriate gifts, they truly captured what is best about Morrows. We also made sure that we all got to know each other a little better with many rather intriguing ‘show and tell’ moments revealing hidden depths and talents across the whole team.
Throughout the day we were also treated to wonderful hospitality from Ulster Rugby and the team at Yellow Door. As a people business, our culture is everything to us and while we mightn’t always get it right, we want to continue to prioritise it, build upon it and protect it.
