This document discusses how culture can act as a barrier to innovation and economic performance. It argues that innovation requires continuous improvement and the implementation of new ideas, regardless of whether they threaten the status quo. The effectiveness of an organization depends on both its creativity and its ability to implement ideas. It also notes that poor customer service can negatively impact economic performance and provides some examples of companies that faced backlash due to disrespecting customers or making cultural missteps on social media.

1. +
Culture as a barrier to
innovation and economic
performance
Notes to Cultural faux pas is social marketing
April 2012

2. +
Adding Value is always difficult.
Innovation and leveraging all skills in organization is a strategy, not an
accident;
Requires Continuous Improvement;
Success = Implementation of successful ideas, no matter how
threatening to the status quo;
Effectiveness Equation:
Innovation = f [Creativity; Implementation]
“Today more than ever adding value involves leveraging organization, as
most competitive strategies “Porter” and essentially identical”.
Hence the mantra of CEO’s, “execution, execution, execution”.

3. Fundamental Organizational Norms:
+
Each is an aggregation of multiple related items
Customer Results People Detail
Innovative Collaborative Transparent Integrity
Oriented Oriented Oriented Oriented
Working in
Risk taking Collaboration with Being results
others oriented
Being people Paying attention
Putting org’s oriented to detail
Being Careful (-) Being customer
goals above unit’s
Being team oriented Have integrity
goals
oriented
Having higher
Predictable/Reliabl expectations for
e (-) performance
Being aggressive
(-)
Being willing to
experiment Respect for
Being precise
individuals
Being easy going
High Levels of (-)
Being innovative conflict (-)
Transparent Listening to
individual goals customers
High Ethics
Fast moving
Cooperative Achievement-
oriented
Being quick to Emphasis on
Being fair
take advantage of quality
opportunities Learning from
mistakes (-)
Taking initiative Being calm (-)
Being supportive
Making your Sharing Being market
numbers (-) Information freely driven Emphasis on Being Honest
professional Being analytical
growth
Being competitive Action oriented
Avoiding conflict (-
) (-)
Note: Negative signs (-) indicate the item is negatively correlated with culture.

4. +
CUSTOMER SERVICE
 DISASTERS
SPRINT: TELEPHONE SERVICE:
 I have been with Sprint since the day their digital cellular service opened doors. I have 5 lines. I have stuck with
it, notoriously hideous customer service notwithstanding. And now this. Let me also add that I am a busy physician and very
tech savvy.
 I purchased the Sprint Connect with much anticipation and excitement online. After I received it and started using it, from
Day 1 I had problems with static, sounding like in a tunnel both ways, voicemail glitches, the lights on the device barely
being bright enough to notice and on and on. I tried every troubleshooting trick online and finally took the device to the store.
They said they don't deal with this AT ALL and told me to call Sprint. So I did, when I got around to it in a couple of weeks....
and after the usual multiple routing through various departments and clueless reps, ended up with Tech Support who I
played phone tag with for a couple of weeks, and finally they said they want to record some of my calls to send to their
engineers to analyze the data. All this took a lot longer than it sounds. Finally they said it is not a network issue and must be
the device, which is what I had been saying all along to these rocket scientists.
 So now what, I say? Michele from Tech Support was so courteous to say that it is not their problem and I have to deal with it
on my own with the manufacturer of the device. That didn't make any sense to me. I said that I got the device from Sprint
and so I am going to hold Sprint accountable for getting a faulty device from the get-go. BTW, all during this time I had
stopped using the device altogether and was still being charged monthly fees. Michele went on to say that this is a correct
policy and gave some silly analogies about buying stuff at Wal-mart or something...huh? I argued with some 'supervisor' for
another 20 minutes on this. He checked my phone records to see if I really had not used the device. Umm...since I know you
can do that, why would I lie to you, O rocket scientist? He said I would get some credit, gave me the phone number for the
device manufacturer, and that's all they can do.
 Experienced Sprint customers will know that of course the credit didn't show on my account and now I have to make
ANOTHER call to find out what happened. And as far as calling the device manufacturer? Yep, you guessed it, The Great
Runaround. Before I let my sheer anger, disgust at the humiliating service I have received after all these years get the
better of my choice of words, I will just stop now and check out the offers on the Verizon website...

5. +
Better Customer Service Better
Economic Performance:
UNITED BREAKS GUITARS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
03/03/2012 Merger of United with Continental, leads to
reservation and baggage fiasco.

6. + And the OSCAR for the run-around
goes to…………………

7. + Social Networks Punishment of
Corporate Arrogance
BP
Dell
Quiznos
Subs

8. +
How not to… win friends and
influence people.
 BP spills millions of gallons of crude from the Macondo well in
the Gulf, has its “Facebook” page clogged with
environmentalists protests, and their logo is “twittered” around
the world, a gross oil whale;
 Dell awoke with a start when it had Gizmondo post a U Tube
video of one of its computer bursting into flames, causing 4
million laptop batteries to be recalled;
 Quiznos’ porn spoof of two “girls and a cup”, eating a subway
sandwich backfired

9. +
Concluding
 Careful analysis of “culture” operate in the chosen market, is
critical to avoid cultural “catastrophes” in social marketing.
Thank you for your attention:
Philip Corsano
Gnostam LLC
5731 Kirkwood Place N
Seattle, WA 98103
Tel: 206 384 0069