Culture as a Competitive Advantage

As AI, technology, markets, regulations, and hybrid work continue to transform how organizations function, understanding the role that culture plays in driving performance has become more important than ever. As a senior leader, you may recognize that culture can be a key accelerator or hindrance to growth and success, but it is often less clear how to best manage culture to align it with your strategy to achieve your goals. With more than 60 years of combined experience in the study of organizational culture, faculty co-directors Charles O’Reilly and Glenn Carroll have designed Culture as a Competitive Advantage to empower you with the insights, skills, and frameworks needed to transform your organizational culture. In this program, you will diagnose your current culture, uncover key problems and challenges, and then build and manage a culture that is not only resilient, but provides an undeniable competitive edge for your organization.

Culture as a Competitive Advantage provides a roadmap to demystify culture and build a resilient, adaptable, high-performing organization. Take a deep dive into organizational culture and gain cutting-edge insights on trending challenges like hybrid work and AI from experts.

Key Themes

Through live sessions, cutting-edge research, case studies, group-based projects, and discussions, Stanford GSB faculty lead you through three key themes of the program:

Culture as a Competitive Advantage Learn how culture affects performance, its implications, and how it can be a competitive advantage or disadvantage.

Diagnosing and Aligning Culture Learn practical methods for assessing your organization’s current culture and identify how you can better align it with your organization’s strategic objectives. Develop a deeper understanding of how to motivate and empower your employees to more effectively align culture with strategy.

Leading Cultural Change Explore strategies for shaping your culture through proven managerial levers. Learn and discuss how these levers can be used to foster cultural shifts within diverse organizational contexts.