We believe that corporate culture is a subsystem of social culture.

The products and services produced and operated by enterprises not only reflect the characteristics of production and operation, organization and management, but also reflect the strategic objectives, group consciousness, values and behavior norms of enterprises in production and operation activities. It is not only a window to understand the degree of social civilization, but also a growing point of social contemporary culture.

Therefore, based on the views of scholars at home and abroad, we can define corporate culture as follows:

Corporate culture refers to the sum of a series of ideas and behaviors that employees of enterprises generally agree with and consciously follow at this stage, which is usually manifested in the mission, vision, values, code of conduct, moral norms and traditions and habits followed by enterprises.

To understand corporate culture, we should pay attention to the following aspects: First, culture is always relative to a certain period of time.

The corporate culture we refer to is usually the current culture, not the past historical culture of the enterprise, nor the new culture that the enterprise may form in the future; Second, only the elements that achieve knowledge can be called culture.

If something newly put forward by enterprises does not reach the understanding of * * *, it can't be called culture at present, but it can only be said that it may become the cultural seed of culture in the future.

Corporate culture represents the value judgment and orientation of the enterprise, which is the understanding of most employees.

Of course, knowledge is usually relative.

In real life, it is usually difficult to imagine that all employees of an enterprise have only one thought and one judgment.

Because people's quality is uneven, people's pursuit is diversified, and people's thoughts are more complex and diverse, corporate culture can only be relative knowledge, that is, the knowledge of most people; Third, culture is always relative to a certain range.

The corporate culture we refer to is generally recognized by employees.

If it is only recognized by the enterprise leadership, it can only be called leadership culture; If only the employees of a certain department in the enterprise generally agree with it, it can only be called the culture of that department.

According to the different scope of identification, the culture in an enterprise can usually be divided into leadership culture, middle-level manager culture, grass-roots manager culture, or department culture, branch culture, subsidiary culture, corporate culture and so on. Fourth, culture must be internal.

Once the ideas and behaviors advocated by enterprises reach consensus and become corporate culture, they will be consciously followed by employees.

Second, from the formation process, we can see that corporate culture is heterogeneous and difficult to imitate.

Corporate culture is usually formed in a certain production and operation environment. In order to meet the needs of enterprise survival and development, it was first advocated and practiced by a few people, and gradually formed after a long period of communication and standardized management.

The process is shown in the figure below.

1, corporate culture is formed in a certain environment to meet the needs of enterprise survival and development.

With a sense of decision-making, the core values of enterprises are gradually formed in the environment of enterprise survival and development.

For example, the spirit of sharing worries, hard work and self-reliance for the country was formed in the 1950s and 1960s when China faced foreign blockade, domestic economic difficulties and scattered and dangerous oil production.

As a social organism, enterprises should survive and develop, but there are some constraints and difficulties in objective conditions. In order to adapt to and change the objective environment, corresponding values and behavior patterns will inevitably arise.

At the same time, only the culture that reflects the needs of enterprise survival and development can be accepted by most employees and has strong vitality.

2. Corporate culture originated from the advocacy and demonstration of a few people.

FromCMMO culture is a dynamic product of people's consciousness, not a negative reflection of the objective environment.

Objectively speaking, the need for a certain culture is often intertwined with various contradictory interests, fetters and deep-rooted traditional customs. Therefore, at the beginning, only a few people always realize it first. They put forward cultural ideas that reflect objective needs, advocated changing old ideas and behaviors, and became pioneers of corporate culture.

It is precisely because of the demonstration of a few leaders and advanced elements that others in the enterprise are encouraged and driven, forming a new cultural model of the enterprise.

3. Corporate culture is the result of persistent propaganda, continuous practice and standardized management.

Corporate culture is essentially a process of overcoming old ideas and behaviors with new ideas and behaviors. Therefore, new ideas and concepts must be widely publicized and instilled before they can be gradually accepted by employees.

For example, after decades of propaganda and indoctrination, Japan finally formed the crisis consciousness of enterprise employees and even the whole nation and the spirit of desperate competition.

Corporate culture will generally go through a process of gradual improvement, finalization and deepening.

A new idea needs constant practice. In the long-term practice, by absorbing collective wisdom and constantly supplementing and correcting it, it will gradually become clear and perfect.

The natural evolution of culture is quite slow, so corporate culture is generally the result of standardized management.

Once the enterprise leaders confirm the rationality and necessity of the new culture, they should formulate corresponding behavior norms and management systems while publicizing and educating, and constantly strengthen them in practice, and strive to change employees' ideological concepts and behavior patterns and establish a new enterprise culture.

The formation process of corporate culture shows that corporate culture is heterogeneous, and the corporate culture of different enterprises is bound to be different due to the differences in business environment, industry and development history.

Benagli believes that culture is the most effective and solid barrier against imitation.

He pointed out two reasons: first, culture is conducive to the differences between enterprises.

Secondly, the ambiguous factors contained in culture are difficult to understand, let alone copy.

It is difficult for other organizations to understand and copy their own culture, which may be the best protection for the strategic advantages of enterprises, far better than any guarantee system or legal means.

At the same time, the formation process of corporate culture determines that corporate culture is difficult to imitate, so a corporate culture can never be applied to all enterprises.

Enterprise culture is different from the hardware of enterprise resources, it is the software part of the enterprise. The outside world can only see the appearance of the enterprise, but can't understand the true connotation of the enterprise culture, let alone imitate it.

Third, innovative corporate culture promotes the sustainable development of enterprises.

Innovative corporate culture means that innovation has become the core value of enterprises, and the concept of innovation has been widely recognized by employees. People firmly believe that only by innovation can enterprises survive and develop.

Enterprise managers attach great importance to innovation and constantly advocate innovation. Enterprise managers and employees are innovative, enterprising and adventurous. Innovative ideas have penetrated into the consciousness of all employees in enterprises and become their behavior habits.

The core competitiveness of an organization is often reflected in the cultivation of innovative culture.

In the interaction with customers, on the one hand, it exports the organization's practice of innovation, on the other hand, it absorbs the other party's demand for innovation.

It is in this positive feedback of innovation that the organization continues to grow and develop.

Organizational learning and innovation are important contents advocated by this culture, and organizations encourage continuous innovation and express these ideas.

Managers deeply realize that only continuous innovation can make the core competitiveness full of vitality, and at the same time make it difficult for competitors to follow and imitate, thus creating a sustainable competitive advantage.

In the process of growth and development, Haier attaches great importance to adopting the cultural strategy of "corporate culture first".

When a company merges a business, it first sends leaders to the new business, and stimulates the vitality of the merged business by injecting Haier's cultural concept and OEC management model.

Zhang Ruimin, CEO of Haier, believes that it is through people that tangible assets can be revitalized with intangible assets. Only by activating people can assets be revitalized, and the key to revitalizing people is that culture comes first, cultural power comes first, and tangible assets are revitalized with cultural power, which is the most fundamental cultural strategy for Haier's growth.

Haier has formulated a big system of cultural strategy and three subsystems to implement this big system: enterprise internal system (for micro-enterprise employees), enterprise external system (for medium-sized industry market) and enterprise rapid response system (for macro-policy response).

Haier culture is Haier's intangible assets, including corporate philosophy and specific behavior. It is carried out harmoniously in the management of all branches and departments of Haier Group and runs through all links of the value chain.

Haier's spirit is "dedication to the country, the pursuit of Excellence." Haier people believe that the core idea of pursuing Excellence is innovation.

The pursuit of Excellence shows the endless spiritual realm of Haier people who are never complacent, always enterprising and always innovative.

Many enterprises are learning Haier's culture, but they have never been successful as a whole.

Haier's technology and brand are easy to imitate, but learning Haier's corporate culture, such as innovation culture, is not a day's work.

It is this that will push Haier to gradually form a sustainable competitive advantage.