Partnership-based corporate culture

Business leaders at the start of the 21st century face major challenges on all sides. The markets for jobs, products, and capital are increasingly international, even global. New technologies call for new business practices. Demographic change is having major repercussions, both for organizations and individuals. In a setting that is constantly changing and therefore potentially unsettling, it is all too easy to lose sight of crucial values. Therefore, we must intensify the search for promising people-oriented approaches to leadership and corporate culture.

Taking up this challenge, the Bertelsmann Stiftung has set out to provide practical solutions to promote competence, motivation, commitment and creativity in business and the public sector. Ultimately, a company's long-term success is dependent on its having a corporate culture based on partnership and a management culture that focuses on people.

In awarding the 2003 Carl Bertelsmann Prize, the Bertelsmann Stiftung studied companies all across Europe that have proven successful by promoting an organizational and leadership culture that focuses on people, dialogue and consensus. Key factors of their corporate success included adherence to the company's mission statement, a balance among stakeholder interests, decentralized organization, delegation of responsibility, rigorous professional development and a focus on continuity of leadership. The research confirmed that corporate culture and leadership necessarily go hand in hand with a keen awareness of social responsibility.