Course

Axialent: Five Archetypes of Organizational Culture

Stanford University
Course Lectures
  • Andy Friere, Co-founder and CEO of Axialent, argues that what leaders do-not what they say-defines the organization's culture. Friere suggests that most leaders are not actually aware of how what they do is perceived and shapes culture. However, shaping a strong culture is one of the most important activities for any entrepreneur because it determines, in part, whether the company goes on to success after the founder leaves or whether it fails.

  • Andy Friere, Co-founder and CEO of Axialent, discusses the three things that he believes build culture: 1) Behavior, 2) Symbols and 3) Processes. To elaborate, Friere suggests that behavior-what firms actually do despite what they say they do-defines what individuals in the organization come to believe. Furthermore, the symbols in an organization, primarily how time and money is spent to reward people, also shapes culture. Finally, the processes an organization has for measuring and compensating performance influences culture.

  • Andy Friere, Co-founder and CEO of Axialent, provides five basic cultural archetypes into which organizations fall: 1) Achievement, 2) Innovation, 3) One-team, 4) People-first or 5) Customer-focused. Friere argues that ultimately organizations need to develop strength in all five archetypes. However, Friere emphasizes that organizations cannot develop all five at once. Instead, organizations can only successfully develop one archetype at a time, a process that requires a few years of focus on each individual archetype sequentially.

  • Andy Friere, Co-founder and CEO of Axialent, describes the customer-focused culture archetype, one of the five basic cultural archetypes into which organizations fall: 1) Achievement, 2) Innovation, 3) One-team, 4) People-first or 5) Customer-focused. Specifically, Friere suggests that customer-focused cultures value flexibility to service customer needs above other potential activities. Friere describes the behaviors, symbols and processes that build this type of culture as well as the actions that destroy it.

  • Andy Friere, Co-founder and CEO of Axialent, describes the one-team culture archetype, one of the five basic cultural archetypes into which organizations fall: 1) Achievement, 2) Innovation, 3) One-team, 4) People-first or 5) Customer-focused. Specifically, Friere suggests that one-team cultures trade off the optimization of individual systems or people for the benefit of the entire organization. Friere describes the behaviors, symbols and processes that build this type of culture as well as the actions that destroy it.

  • Andy Friere, Co-founder and CEO of Axialent, describes the innovation culture archetype, one of the five basic cultural archetypes into which organizations fall: 1) Achievement, 2) Innovation, 3) One-team, 4) People-first or 5) Customer-focused. Specifically, Friere suggests that innovation cultures focus on experimenting and learning from mistakes to create new products and businesses. Friere describes the behaviors, symbols and processes that build this type of culture as well as the actions that destroy it.

  • Andy Friere, Co-founder and CEO of Axialent, describes the achievement culture archetype, one of the five basic cultural archetypes into which organizations fall: 1) Achievement, 2) Innovation, 3) One-team, 4) People-first or 5) Customer-focused. Specifically, Friere suggests that achievement cultures focus on measuring and awarding performance outcomes. Friere describes the behaviors, symbols and processes that build this type of culture as well as the actions that destroy it.

  • Andy Friere, Co-founder and CEO of Axialent, describes the people-first culture archetype, one of the five basic cultural archetypes into which organizations fall: 1) Achievement, 2) Innovation, 3) One team, 4) People-first or 5) Customer-focused. Specifically, Friere suggests that people-first cultures are focused on building and developing organizational members above other potential activities. Friere describes the behaviors, symbols and processes that build this type of culture as well as the actions that destroy it.

  • After discussing his five archetypal organizational cultures, Andy Friere, Co-founder and CEO of Axialent, clarifies that while ultimately an organization wants to have each of the five cultural archetypes, the way to achieve this balance is to develop one archetype at a time over a period of years. The five cultural archetypes that Friere describes include: 1) Achievement, 2) Innovation, 3) One team, 4) People-first or 5) Customer-focused.