Globally, a lot has gone wrong in business and politics recently and now a lot of responsible parties have been contemplating the reasons and have been looking for solutions. Because, and everybody agrees on this, it can’t go on like this. This ruthless profit maximization, corruption, mobbing, avariciousness, exploitation, escalation of violence, inconsiderateness toward those who are weaker and many more of the same society, country or single business to withstand. What can we do?

Economic systems are trying to control these problems. A few personalities have begun to stick up for change. Associations and organizations use appeals, committees, voluntary control modules and the publication of a code of behavior to do its best in order to get this escalation under control. However, the success has not been very visible yet and thus the call for a new economic and business culture has become louder and louder. The problem: Culture cannot be prescribed and it cannot be introduced into society through new rules of behavior overnight. Culture also cannot be bought.

It is absolutely correct that only a strong economic and business culture is in the position to solve the prevalent problems. And it is also true that we can no longer watch while integrity and ethics, important basics of all our actions, are lost forever. However, since it is not possible to purchase culture like a telephone system or an IT-concept, we first have to deal with the term culture and the values that are tied to this culture. This sounds so matter of course, however, it is not. The term culture is tied to such things as basic principles, ideals, value measures and moral concepts. It is imperative to recognize these values, to rediscover them and to uncover them and to become aware of it.

Culture requires an ongoing learning process. And everybody within a company needs to be part of this learning process. Culture requires time to develop, lots of time. Culture requires a commitment to the immaterial values of a business. Culture reclaims the acceptance of truthfulness and integrity, fairness and a commitment to public spirit.

Culture is neither noisy nor presumptuous. Culture does not want to be talked about continuously. One can feel true culture, it fills the room where a business lives, inside and out, always and at all times.

Corporate culture makes you feel free and confident and thus superior and long-lasting. There is nothing that impresses more than a cultivated and lived corporate culture. It survives and outlives time, even those tough times that we are going through at the moment. Last, but not least, because it immunizes.