“When culture embraces strategy, execution is scalable, repeatable and sustainable. Organisational landscape is a critical necessity for the balancing act between culture and strategy to nurture each other,” these are the words of Prof. Tshedi Naong, Business Administration Professor in the Department of Business Management, during his Professorial Inaugural Lecture held on 10 February 2022, titled “Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner-people centered approach a panacea for leadership conundrum”.

The Central University of Technology celebrated the milestone and conferment of full Professorship title to Prof. Tshedi Naong, Lecturer and Business Administration Professor in the Department of Business Management, for his outstanding research work.

In his congratulatory message, Prof. Alfred Ngowi, acting Vice-Chancellor and Principal, said that a Professorial Inaugural Lecture is a full academic function in a university calendar and is hosted to acknowledge and recognise academics as researchers of note in their respective fields. “This is an occasion of significance in any academic staff member’s career at any university. This lecture is an important intellectual discourse for our academics to analyse the past and the present, so that the university community and partners can debate the future of the higher education sector in this digital technology age occupying our centre stage in transforming teaching and learning, as well as our research innovation and engagement.”

When deliberating on his content, Prof. Naong highlighted on the role of organisational culture to organisations, the relationship between culture and strategy, organisational culture and competitive advantage, managing and creating distinct cultures, founders influence on culture and empirical results.

When sharing his analogy of strategy and culture, he said that strategy is not an event, but a long-term process and journey that takes time to be realised.  “This is really a mammoth task; it is not an easy job to do.  If we agree that a strategy is something that takes a long time, we can then say it is quite a huge exercise,” he said.

He mentioned that culture plays a pivotal role in the development of strategy, but more importantly in strategic implementation. He further explained that culture is one of the key drivers of strategy and that it trumps strategy every time. “A strategy that is at odds with a company’s culture is doomed. Culture trumps strategy every time and eats strategy for breakfast. When we say culture eats strategy, we are talking about your very excellent policies, strategies that happen not to see the light of day. Entitlement underlies most of the difficulties of the execution of excellent strategies.”

Prof. Naong also mentioned that a strategy serves as a guiding path and provides a clear direction on the organisation’s goals including operational. “What organisations are supposed to strive for is to ensure that values, behaviours, and practices are not only in black and white but are understood, lived and experienced.  If these two notions speak to one another, you are guaranteed of the results, profit, and productivity. So, we say culture is a driving path! I truly believe that culture brings uniformity and if you have people that speak from the same voice; same understanding; and practices; you are guaranteed to achieve the desired goals you have set for yourself.”

In conclusion, he said that effective alignment of culture and strategy provide a means of getting people to work together to reach a common strategic goal and achieve an organisations vision. “Culture is a glue that combines and influences managerial views which in turn, affects recruitment, resources allocation, management, and organisational design.”

Caption

Prof. Samson Mashele, acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Innovation Engagement and Research (right) congratulates Prof. Tshedi Naong on this achievement of reaching full professorship status.