Why corporate culture is key for SMEs

IN today's ever-changing business environment, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often neglect the importance of developing a strong corporate culture amid other business goals, such as lowering total cost of ownership and expanding sales. However, many of them do not realise that to successfully compete in the global landscape, they must first instil a strong organisational culture.

This should be an essential consideration, so that employees can see themselves as part of a team and gain a sense of achievement through their contributions. A sound organisational culture will attract and retain talent, raise productivity, engage people, create energy and generate synergy.

Deloitte's 2015 Global Human Capital Trends report said organisations are recognising the need to focus on culture and to significantly improve employee engagement; interestingly, it pointed out that this year, culture and engagement was rated the most important issue, underscoring the need for businesses to define their organisation's culture.