Culture: The strategic imperative for 2030 and beyond
Published by Colt Technology Services on July 31, 2025
By Maher El Fekih, Country Manager France of Colt Technology Services
Culture is not merely a peripheral element of organisational life. It is a strategic pillar that significantly impacts every dimension of an enterprise, its operations, its people, its partners, and its customers. As we look towards 2030, shaping and maintaining a purposeful organisational culture is poised to become the number one value-adding activity across the corporate landscape. In a world increasingly defined by rapid digital transformation, geopolitical uncertainty, and generational shifts in the workforce, culture emerges not as a luxury but a necessity. It is a compass guiding decision-making, behaviour, and brand identity.
For organisations and businesses, culture influences performance, innovation, and resilience. For employees, it defines psychological safety, engagement, and retention. For candidates, it is a decisive factor in employer attractiveness, with a recent LinkedIn survey revealing that 71% of professionals would not join a company with a misaligned culture, regardless of a higher salary offer. For customers, culture informs brand experience and loyalty, as 86% of consumers report favouring brands whose values reflect their own.
A Glassdoor study found that 77% of adults consider a company’s culture before applying for a job, and 56% rank it higher than compensation. Similarly, customers are more inclined to engage with brands that demonstrate cultural coherence and integrity. Brands like Colt are celebrated not just for their products but for the authenticity and consistency of their internal and external values.
However, despite its impact, culture is often misunderstood or approached as a campaign rather than a continuous strategy. There are no shortcuts or one-size-fits-all solutions to shaping a desired culture. Authentic culture change begins with a deliberate and honest assessment of the current cultural state, grounded in data, dialogue, and deep reflection. It requires diagnosing where the culture currently stands and not where we wish it were, followed by an exploration of the fundamental “why” behind the need for change, which could stem from market dynamics, strategic shifts, talent attrition, or reputational risk. Tools such as culture audits, pulse surveys, and behavioural analytics can help uncover both overt and latent cultural patterns, while engaging leadership and frontline employees alike ensures that change is inclusive, relevant, and lived.
Forward-looking organisations embed culture in everything from onboarding to leadership development to performance reviews, recognising it as a dynamic asset that needs stewardship. Research by Deloitte suggests that companies with strong, adaptive cultures are 2.5 times more likely to have superior financial performance and 3.7 times more likely to retain top talent.
Culture must be actively curated, consistently reinforced, and courageously evolved. It is not the HR department’s mandate alone, but a boardroom agenda, a leadership priority, and an everyday discipline. For those willing to invest in understanding their cultural DNA and aligning it with purpose, values, and strategy, the returns are not only financial. They are existential. In this era of transparency and choice, where trust and authenticity define competitive advantage, culture is not just the way things are done around here. It is why people choose to stay, buy, and believe. Culture will not just support strategy, it will be the strategy.
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