Thank You For Disrupting

CHAPTER 12THE DISRUPTION COMPANY

ON CORPORATE CULTURE COMPONENTS AND DISRUPTION

I would like to conclude Part III with a corporate culture I know well, that of my own organization, TBWA. This might appear somewhat presumptuous. Whatever its impact and its weight in the business world, my company is more modest than many others that are covered in this book. In a chapter dedicated to corporate culture, how can I not describe the one I know best, the one I live daily?

The Harvard Business Review identified what it has called “the six components of corporate culture,”¹ vision, values, practices, people, narrative, and place. I will attempt to describe TBWA’s culture in line with these six themes.

Vision, Values, Practices

The first element is vision. At TBWA, we define ourselves as The Disruption® Company. Those not familiar with TBWA’s history and with its role in shaping the word disruption might be a bit surprised. They should know, however, that using the word disruption in a business context originated with our agency. We were also the first to give the term a positive connotation.

Many might consider disruption to have become an overused, even somewhat generic concept. But as I stated previously, what makes a vision great is not so much its originality as its authenticity. TBWA has been cultivating this vision for almost 30 years. Every day we must try to live up to the high expectations we have set with regard to our company’s positioning. To do so, we must think disruptively, ...