In contrast to strong cultures and opportunistic cultures, strong, adaptive cultures remain customer-focused and learn from customer relationships. They use this knowledge and insight to make changes in their products, services and marketing strategies. A good example of this type of culture is 3M. This company is constantly renewing itself by developing new products and effectively marketing them to both old and new customers. They have sold Post-it® notes to their Scotch Tape® customers and audio- and videotape to people who bought projection equipment. Organizations with a strong sense of adaptability not only demonstrate consistently outstanding performance, they also exhibit the ability to react to turmoil, adjust and speedily take advantage of opportunities their competitors miss.

General Electric is an example of such a culture. This 122-year-old company grew from making light bulbs to become a worldwide conglomerate that makes space-travel components, medical diagnostic equipment, lasers and self-cleaning ovens. It operates a huge loan company, a reinsurance firm and a television network. It has filed nearly 68,000 patents and was the first corporation, outside computer companies, to invest in the Internet revolution, which it remains committed to. Under its former chairman and CEO, John F. Welch, Jr., GE initiated a work-out process in 1988 to improve productivity, increase efficiency and reduce layers of bureaucracy that inhibited its ability to act swiftly.

Specifically, it shed any operating process that didn’t make sense and sought out new business opportunities in untamed global markets. GE made “change” one of the bulwarks of its strategy for global expansion as it sought, in the words of Welch, to see the world “the way it is, not the way you wish it to be.’’5 Along the way, GE was named Fortune magazine’s most admired company. Welch discussed his philosophy of change in a speech to his shareholders in 2000. He described GE as an organization “endlessly searching for new ideas,’’ that was “not only comfortable with change but relished it.’’ He said an organization today that saw change as an opportunity rather than a threat