the influence of corporate culture of vietnamese companies a study of corporation fpt

i
THE INFLUENCE OF CORPORATE CULTURE OF VIETNAMESE
COMPANIES: A STUDY OF CORPORATION FPT









BY
NGUYEN KHANH LY LY









Graduation Project Submitted to the Department of Business Studies, HELP
University College, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor of Business (Accounting) Hons

APRIL 2011

ii

Declaration of Originality and Word Count
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the graduation project is based on my original work except for
quotations and citations which have been duly acknowledged. I also declare that it
has not been previously or concurrently submitted for any other course/degree at
HELP University College or other institutions. The word count is 16,195 words.










Nguyen Khanh Ly Ly






iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to convey my special thanks to Ms. Dao Thi
Thu Giang, my supervisor, for her guidance, suggestions and encouragement during
the writing of my thesis. Without her help, this thesis would not have been able to be

completed.
Secondly, I would like to express my gratitude to all lecturers at International
School Vietnam University for their teaching dedication and support. All knowledge
and skills that I gained during my study have laid the foundation for me to
accomplish my thesis as well as to pursuit further education in the future.
Thirdly, I would like to sincerely thank all the employees and leaders in FPT
corporation), especially the members of FPT Software, FPT University, for their
comments and data provision for their suggestion to complete this thesis.
Last but not least, my sincere thank goes to my parents and my friends for
their constant assistance and encouragement during my preparation for this thesis.


Hanoi, April, 2011

Nguyen Khanh Ly Ly




iv
ABSTRACT

THE INFLUENCE OF CORPORATE CULTURE OF VIETNAMESE
COMPANIES: A STUDY OF CORPORATION FPT
By
NGUYEN KHANH LY LY
April 2011
Supervisor: Dr. Dao Thi Thu Giang
Corporate culture has many definitions as it is heavily influenced by the
industry in which it operates, geographical location, history, employee personalities,

etc. Some formal definitions have arisen, but essentially a corporate culture has
several key elements: it offers a clear corporate vision; it is supported by corporate
values consistent with the aims of the company and aligned with the personal values
of organization members; a high value is placed on employees at all levels and there
is extensive employee interaction across many levels; and the culture is adaptable,
adjusting to external conditions, and consistent, treating all employees equally and
fairly. That is the motivation for the researcher to conduct the survey about the
influence of corporate culture of Vietnamese companies. The objective of this study
is to access the understanding of Vietnamese companies on the topics of corporate
culture, and FPT is typical example.
By conducting the research, the research is able to show that the
understanding of corporate culture concepts and its importance in companies. The
readers have little basic knowledge of corporate culture. Besides that, from
analyzing, evaluating and finding the author found out the strong as well as the week
points to draw lessons for Vietnam companies.

v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Declaration ii
Acknowledgements iii
Abstract iv
Table of contents v
List of figures and tables ix
List of abbreviations xv

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Study background 1
1.2 The objectives of the study 2
1.3 The research question 2

1.4 Design of the study 2

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 4
2.1 Definition of corporate culture and its elements 4
2.1.1 Definition of Culture 4
2.1.2 Definition of corporate culture 4
2.1.3 Elements affecting corporate culture 6
2.1.3.1 National culture 6
2.1.3.2 Role of leadership 6
2.1.3.3 Affections of business environment 7
2.2 The model of Edgar H. Schein 8
2.2.1 Artifact 10
2.2.1.1 Mission Statement 10
2.2.1.2 Architecture 11
2.2.1.3 Narrative 11
2.2.1.4 Language 12
2.2.1.5 Ceremonies 12
2.2.1.6 Norms of behavior 13
2.2.1.7 Symbol 13

vi
2.2.2 Espoused value 14
2.2.2.1 Vision 14
2.2.2.2 Mission 15
2.2.2.3 Core Value 16
2.2.3 Basic Underlying Assumptions 16
2.2.3.1 People’s relationship with natural environment 17
2.2.3.2 The temporal focus of human life 17
2.2.3.3 The innate character of human nature 18
2.2.3.4 The modality of human activity 18

2.2.3.5 The modality of a person’s relationships to others 19
2.3 The model of Geert Hofstede 19
2.3.1 Process – oriented versus Result oriented 19
2.3.2 Job – oriented versus Employee – oriented 20
2.3.3 Professional versus Parochial 21
2.3.4 Opened versus Closed 21
2.3.5 Tight versus Loose 22
2.3.6 Pragmatic versus Normative 23

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 24
3.1 Research methodology 24
3.2 Research tools: Primary data: 25
3.2.1 Observation. 25
3.2.2 Interview 25
3.2.3 Sampling 26
3.3 Limitations of thesis 27

CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS 28
4.1 The history of forming corporate culture in FPT 28
4.1.1 The process of building corporate culture in FPT 29
4.1.2 Key Ideology 29
4.1.3 STCo culture 30

vii
4.1.4 Gen FPT 31
4.1.5 FPT Spirit 32
4.2 Analyzing FPT corporate culture 32
4.2.1 Performance of FPT corporate culture according to the model of Edgar H.
Schein 32
4.2.1.1 Artifact 32

a. Mission Statement 32
b. Architecture 33
c. Narrative 35
d. Language 36
e. Ceremonies 37
f. Norms of behavior 39
g. Symbol 39
4.2.1.2 Espoused value 42
a. Vision 42
b. Mission 43
c. Core Value 44
4.2.1.3 Basic Underlying Assumptions 45
a. People’s relationship with natural environment 45
b. The temporal focus of human life 46
c. The innate character of human nature 46
e. The modality of a person’s relationships to others 47
4.2.2 Performance of FPT Corporation culture according to the model of Geert
Hofsteed 47
4.2.2.1 Process – oriented versus Result oriented 47
4.2.2.2 Job – oriented versus Employee – oriented 48
4.2.2.3 Professional versus Parochial 49
4.2.2.4 Opened versus Closed 49
4.2.2.5 Tight versus Loose 50
4.2.2.6 Pragmatic versus Normative 50
4.3 The valuation of FPT corporate culture and the experienced lessons from
building FPT corporate culture for Vietnam enterprises 51
4.3.1 Evaluating FPT corporate culture 51
4.3.1.1 Risks coming from inside 51

viii

4.3.1.2 Risks coming from outside 52
4.3.1.3 Achievements 53
4.3.2 Awareness of corporate culture in Vietnam enterprises (Actual situations
of corporate culture in Vietnam) 53
4.3.3 The necessary of building corporate culture in Vietnam and the roles of
CC in business 57
4.3.3.1 The necessary of building corporate culture in Vietnam 57
4.3.3.2 The roles of corporate culture in business 58
4.3.4 The useful lessons for leaders in Vietnam enterprises 59
4.3.4.1 Improvement on awareness of corporate culture 59
4.3.4.2 Building corporate culture for long term target 59
4.3.4.3 Preserving and promoting corporate culture 60

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 62
5.1 Conclusion 62
5.2 Recommendation 63

REFERENCES 64
APPENDIX 66
APPENDIX 1 OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS OF INTERVIEW 66
APPENDIX 2 OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS OF INTERVIEW 67






ix
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Firgure 2.1 Elements of corporate culture 9
Figure 4.1 Mission statement of FPT 33
Figure 4.2 FPT Pham Hung building 34
Figure 4.3 – 4.4. Settings in one FPT working room 35
Firgure 4.5- 4.6. Ceremonies in FPT 38
Firgure 4.7 Men are given flowers in FPT 38
Firgure 4.8 – 4.9 Colors of FPT from outside to inside 41
Figure 4.10 – 4.11. Dressing code in FPT 41


Table 1: Evaluation scale of fpt corporation culture by hofstede model 51
Table 2: Awareness of the concept of enterprise culture 54
Table 3: Perceptions of the role of business culture 55









x
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CC
Corporate Culture
CMMI
Capability Maturity Model Integration
Dr

Doctor
FPT
Food Processing Technology
ISO
International Organization for Standardization
PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
VCCI
Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry
WTO
World Trade Organization








1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Study background
Corporate culture has plays important role in the business world in the last
three decades since it plays an important part in managing a corporate and driving it
to success. CC exists in every corporation and creates huge influences on the
corporation’s activities and manners of employees.
CC is one the main issues that Vietnam should care about these particular
areas. According to the director of the Institute of Labor Science and Social Affairs,
Nguyen Huu Dung, “Vietnam needs to work out a clear roadmap for the CC for local

businesses in line with its economic development and international integration” CC
is one of the focus areas that are not always fully understood and are not optimally
utilized either in an organization.
However, it seems that few people have a thorough understanding of what CC
is and what corporate culture covers; people, therefore, have not found the effective
way to manage a company and comprehend the exact way in which a company
operates. In Vietnam, after “Doi moi”, a few businesses have built themselves a
strong culture.
The aim of this study is to assess the influence of CC in Vietnamese
companies. And with the purpose of study is to help companies to build their own
separate culture, contributing to improve the image of Vietnam enterprises in the
eyes of international friends, the author would like to analyze the model of CC of
FPT Company in Vietnam as an example for other companies to follow.



2
1.2 The objectives of the study
- The main objectives of this study is to have a throughout understanding of
corporate culture. The first aim of this project is to provide a theoretical framework
for understanding the completed concept of corporate culture and other relevant
components under this area.
- The second objective of this project is to evaluate the influence of CC in Vietnam.
From analyzing, evaluating and finding the author hope to find out the strong as well
as the week points to draw lessons for Vietnam companies when they begin to build
and develop their own culture.
1.3 The research question
The study aims at addressing five following specific questions:
What is the corporate culture and what are the models to approach it?
- What is the real corporate culture in Vietnam?

- How does corporate culture affect inside or outside of companies in Vietnam on
doing the corporate culture?
- How is corporate culture in working environment and what are the strengths and
weaknesses?
- What lessons can be drawn for Vietnamese enterprises to build up corporate
culture?
1.4 Design of the study
With the aim to identify the CC of FPT, the author uses the method of cross-
sectional study design which is used to decide what we would like to study, to
identify the study population (mentioned below), and to select a sample (mentioned
below), and contact the respondents at one time. The purpose of this method is to
catch the detail figure of corporate culture at FPT at the present time of the study and

3
then to draw lessons for Vietnam enterprise in building and developing their own
corporate culture.
1.5 Structure of the thesis
Beside the introduction and conclusion parts, the preferable structure of the
thesis is split into five chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction (provides an introduction outlines to follow in the
thesis).
Chapter 2: Literature review (provides an introduction into corporate culture,
its elements and models approach corporate culture).
Chapter 3: Methodology (provides methodology of corporate culture).
Chapter 4: Analysis (discusses the corporate culture in FPT and lists the
experienced lessons from building FPT corporate culture for Vietnam enterprises).
Chapter 5: Conclusion.

4
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Definition of corporate culture and its elements
2.1.1 Definition of Culture
For a long time, culture has played an important role in life of human beings.
Nowadays in particular, in the age of modern civilization when the human factor has
been considered as the engine as well as the objective of all social reforms, culture
has become an inevitable part and been regarded as the measure to assess every
activity and a thorough understanding of culture, together with its role in social life,
therefore, it is being paid much attention to.
Culture is a difficult concept to define. The author should review some
definitions which are commonly accepted in the world to understand the definite on
of culture and its features.
The first widely accepted definition of culture is one made by the American
anthropologist Edward.B.Taylor, in which culture is “that complex whole which
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as a member of society.” In the philosophy of Marxism-
Leninism, culture is defined as “the collection of physical and mental values created
by human and means and methods that human use to transform the nature, society
and educate people”.
2.1.2 Definition of corporate culture
Due to the development of society and the increasing integration between
nations, the issue of culture has gradually won the interest of public. After a series of

processes in which anthologists conducted more research and implement deeper

5
studies on culture, they have classified culture into many smaller categories such as:
national culture, business culture, organizational culture, corporate culture and et
cetera. Since 1980s, studying about corporate culture has been carried out from
America and been built and developed strongly by Japanese. This trend emerged as
the owners of corporations realized that they needed to change the approach to their
corporations.
Before that, the only way they could do to run their business was to rely on
complex structures and dogmatic mechanisms, causing them many challenges in
managing business, particularly in the depression. Since they realized the new
approach from the view of corporate culture, however, they find out many other
methods to acknowledge how a corporation activates and changes to be adaptive to
the new environment to survive and develop.
Corporate culture is generally understood as “the system of shared beliefs,
values and standards of solving problems, which is created in the forming and
developing process of a corporation and demonstrated through physical and
nonphysical forms and behaviors of its members.” (Schein H.Edgar 1992, page 32)
A different definition which follows the metaphor of Dr. Phan Quoc Viet -
President and CEO of Tam Viet Group: “If enterprise is a computer, corporate
culture is the operating system" (Phan Quoc Viet, 2008)
There are many ways of approaching corporate culture, among which the
model of Edgar Schein – an America professor published in the book Organizational
Culture and Leadership in 1992 has been used widely. Or the model of Geert
Hofstede expressed in the book Culture and Organization in 1991. In this thesis,
these models are used to analyze elements of CC.


6

2.1.3 Elements affecting corporate culture
2.1.3.1 National culture
The definition of National culture covers almost all other culture definitions.
Normally, when referring to the definition of culture in every country, it is implied
that it is national culture (such as Vietnam culture, Japanese culture, Chinese culture)
Like all things that are born under a certain environment, countries belong to
the world, organizations belong to society, family members belonging to their ethnic,
culture and business of each is also part of national culture. In the growing process of
corporate, national culture always has impacted (direct or indirect) on many different
aspects of the culture of the corporate. That explains why there is a difference
between West and East corporate cultures, the corporate culture of Islam nations and
corporate culture of those countries by Christians or Buddhists, and so on.
National corporation affects the formation and development by creating
characteristics expressing the features such as leadership style, the degree of power
decentralization in the enterprise, equality
2.1.3.2 Role of leadership
"The leaders of an organization are the people who are responsible for
formulating and implementing the strategy – they are the ones deciding what they are
going to do and then actually figuring out how they are going to do it", says Mr Keim
(1961). "Culture is all about the values an organization subscribes to, which then
creates norms throughout the organization. And you cannot get (strategy) done
without changing culture, so leaders need to understand culture. They need to know
how to assess it and how to influence it”, says Mr Kinicki (1978).
That kind of reputation - and that kind of culture - cannot be built overnight. But
Southwest has shown that it can be built. All it takes, say Keim and Kinicki (1961),

7
is brilliant leadership.
The main founders or leaders succeed and their advisors help create its own
unique culture for the business. One researcher had to say that "If the leader is a great

person, his ideas can be absorbed in the entire culture of the business. But if
leadership is a stupid man, all direct trust can not exist. CC thrives on the basis of
faith”
Also on that point, researchers have confirmed that: "Corporate culture affected
by many factors which specific individuals are the founders." The characters or the
key founders with visionary capabilities and their aspirations have identified a vision
and mission for the business.
2.1.3.3 Affections of business environment.
The business environment of corporation is all factors affecting to a company’s
activities. There are two sorts of environment: Internal environment and external
environment. The internal one includes human resources, finance, engineering;
technology of the firms. CC is in that list, also. The other includes two sorts: macro
environment and micro environment. The first one is built by natural infrastructure,
economy, technology, culture- society, politics law, union, the political forces, social
and international environment. The others include supplier, customer, competitors,
potential opponent, replacement product, labor market.
The influence of the environment to corporate culture inside, especially industry
factors is significant. This will be visible when using the model of Hofstede mentioned
above is used. Businesses apply any pair dimensions will depend on their work.
For the external environment: in the various environmental laws, CC is also
different. As in Vietnam, a prominent character in the long-term business is very
good at their law. This is because of some gaps and ambiguity in our business law.

8
Also, in different economic fields, businesses should focus on a certain number of
activities. In the technology area that is research and development, and in
commercial areas such as art sales, production is continuous improvement and cost
reduction. Thus, business fields decide which business activities must be
implemented to achieve success.
2.2 The model of Edgar H. Schein

There are many aspects or components of corporate culture identified by
researchers such as tangible entities; language in the form of funny stories, metaphor,
stories, anecdotes, myths, behavior patterns in as rituals, ceremonies, anniversaries,
standard behavior, the hero, icon and actions symbolic, beliefs, values and attitudes,
ethics rules, artifacts, history. Despite the list above are divided into groups, but there
are overlaps.
In 2004, Edgar H. Schein PhD. gave out the way of division CC into different
classes arranged in order of complexity and depth to feel the cultural value of the
business. We can say that this is the nice approach going from phenomena to the nature
of culture through its constituent parts:













9
Firgure 2.1 Elements of corporate culture

(Source: about the dynamic of HR,

As can be seen from figure 2.1 (figure 2.1 in Chapter 2), there are three levels
of corporate culture.

The highest one and also the visible part of the iceberg is artifact. At the
surface, they are visible artifacts and observable behaviors – mission statement,
architecture, narratives, language, ceremonies, and norms of behavior and symbols
that are shared. All of them are tangible and audible results of activity that are
grounded in values and assumptions.
The second level which the author can hardly observe is espoused values.
Espoused values are the rules, the values announced in public and the staff must to
try their best to carry out. These are values that leaders of a corporation set up and
hope their employees will obey but need time to prove it is right or wrong. They
include vision, mission, and core value which play a key role to create CC
The third level and also the most difficult to recognize is the underlying
assumptions. This is what all the members in the corporation think are right to do and


ESPOUSED VALUES
Vision
Mission
Core values


ASSUMPTIONS
Human and Environment
Focus of human life
Perspective of human innate
Motivation of human activity
Relations among people
ARTIFACTS
Mission statement
Architecture
Symbol

Language
Narrative
Ceremonies
Behaviors

10
take it for granted. Basic underlying assumptions are cognitive maps such as the way
things are done in a corporation and are taken for granted. If someone violates a
basic underlying assumption by using a different process to achieve an outcome,
coworkers may respond with surprise, even shock and say things like “But we are
always done it this way.”
2.2.1 Artifact
2.2.1.1 Mission Statement
According to Daft (2009, page 26) “a mission statement communicates to
current and prospective employees, customers, investors, suppliers, and competitors
what the organization stands for and what it is trying to achieve” It is a way to
measure the organization’s productivity and success, and an organization’s mission
statement shows authority to internal and external stakeholders.
Actually, many companies also use them to encourage their employees to
follow the leader's visions. As such, the mission statement can often give the author
insight to the CC. It may be quite difficult to keep in mind all activities or products
of one corporate, on the contrary, it is possibly easy to remember its mission
statement. For instance, the following are some examples of mission statements from
real enterprises: 3M "To solve unsolved problems innovatively", Merck "To preserve
and improve human life.” Wal-Mart "To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the
same thing as rich people.” Walt Disney "To make people happy." These are the
“one-liners”, but each is supported by a set of values that set the performance
standards and direct the implementation of the mission. Hence, it is true that mission
statements are considered as one of the unique signs of corporate. The clear
statement of the organizational mission builds the CC among employees and between

it and clients.

11
2.2.1.2 Architecture
A basic proposition of corporate architecture is the architectural design of
corporate building and setting has a profound impact on human behavior in general
(in terms of interaction, communication styles, and so on) and on human
performance in particular (productivity, efficiency, creativity, and so on). Several
American companies invest much in corporate architecture because they believe that
“good working environment implies creative stimulation”. In the same way that
civilizations, societies can characterized their building, corporations – which can be
seen as a micro society – they tend to choose the buildings’ structures that conform
to their identity. Corporate buildings are evidently becoming an important part of the
corporate profile and strategy. Once architectural style can reflect the purpose of the
business and encourage important work relationships, they can become significant
element of corporate strategy. The way corporate buildings are designed can give
partly a view of its culture.
2.2.1.3 Narrative
Narratives are based on true events that are shared among organizational
employees and told to new employees to inform them about a corporate or an
organization. Passing the long term of time, stories still keep alive the primary values
of the corporate. Storytelling is a powerful tool in organizational learning as well in
that they communicate implicitly organizational values. It also plays an important
role in changes and is the basis to the process of “organizational socialization”.
Moreover, it is not wrong to say that stories are combination between the past
moment and the present moment. They help new employees to not only have a
general theme about corporate but also build their own knowledge and experience.
The CC is stronger and more easily characterized when the narrative is particularly
popular in organizational memory.

12
2.2.1.4 Language
CC is first created through the use of language in the creation of a shared vision
which is articulated in a firm mission statement. The used vocabulary steers the
organization toward what will become its shared culture. This culture is then
reinforced through all manners of language, evidenced in corporate communications
such as organizational policy, the semantics of job titles and descriptions, and in
everyday idiom that is used around (in the meetings, and in every employee office,
desk, and cubicle throughout the organization). The way employees communicate with
one another, the way managers use to lead, motivate, persuade, and inform employees
and the public as well as reflect the characteristic of corporate communication.
2.2.1.5 Ceremonies
The activity models make one feature of corporate life. According to Daft
(2009, page 28) “the ceremony is a dynamic and easy-to-understand one to the
members of the company”. There are three main types of ceremonies.
Reinforcing ceremonies represent an important category. For example, the
public award enforces the status of the person in the organization, and, at the same
time, the values for which the reward is given: companies which just have enough
salaries for only the seniority or the production volume are promoting a totally
different set of values than the ones affording bonuses using originality, creativity
and human relationship quality.
Integration ceremonies have the purpose to increase cohesion among members
inside the organization. Take parties and collective dinners, on different occasions as
examples (company day, name day, Christmas, Easter), picnics or Christmas Eve
celebration in the company. Through these activities, they have chances to
understand more clearly their colleague’s characteristic.

13
Ceremonies of renewal, such as the participation in common of different
training events or activities, are occasions, in which people should pay a huge

attention to cultural components, because it characterizes successful organizations
and are important in order to build the identity of an institution.
2.2.1.6 Norms of behavior
According to Daft (2009, page 40), “norms of behavior are accepted as methods
of interacting with others”. These are rules of acts that say clearly whether acts by
the staff are appropriate or not in specific situations. These norms are built over time
through negotiations among individuals, which comes up to common agreements on
solutions to specific corporate issues.
The behavior of people at work reflects fundamental attitudes toward
acceptable performance standards (tasks, productivity, quality) and quality of work
life (relationships, group functioning, job satisfaction, motivation). In today’s tight
labor market and competitive business environment, neglecting these intangible
things would lead to unresolved conflicts on the software development team,
inadequate communication on the part of management, lack of respect for the
administrative support staff and etc.
2.2.1.7 Symbol
A very silent element in building CC is the symbol or symbols that are
identified with the organization. These symbols may be logos, particular slogans,
colors and designs. These symbols may be suitable with the brand of that
organization. On the other hand, there are also symbols of power in the organization
which employees have to accept and respect.
Among symbols, a logo is an important asset of firms, because firms spend
enormous amounts of time and money promoting them to achieve the company’s

14
corporate image goals and attract consumers (Henderson and Cote, 1998). A
corporate logo can serve as a competitive advantage to a firm’s reputation. Corporate
logo describes the identity of a firm because it symbolizes their purpose. Therefore, a
corporate logo should be chosen carefully and must ensure to communicate to the
market by selection from a pool of designs by the marketing manager, a committee,

or the chief executive officer.
2.2.2 Espoused value
2.2.2.1 Vision
Vision of the company is the response to the question of what do we want our
organization to be? It defines and describes the future situation that a company
wishes to have. The purpose of a good vision is to guide, to control and to encourage
the organization as a whole to reach the desirable state of the organization.
Vision is always close to the leaders’ roles. The question is that whether the
leader creates vision or the vision creates leader? According to John C. Maxwell
(2004), the vision itself creates the leaders, he said that many managers lost the
leading ability because they lost the analyze ability and predict ability at the future
for company. Hence, the leader setting up vision is one who knows more clearly and
has a further look than everybody and has ability to predict the future when others
cannot.
However, it is not enough if only the leaders are ones who have vision. He
needs to point it out for all the staff in the company so that they can understand and
work with the same vision. This means that the vision of one company must be
understood, shared, and strived by all members.

15
2.2.2.2 Mission
While vision gives out the direction of a company’s activities, mission sets role
to work and responsibility to complete. It is the answer to the question why does the
organization exist? Mission defines the business, the needs of covering their
products and services, the market in which it is developed and the public image of
the company.
In the book with the title “The Strategy Map” of two famous authors Robert S.
Kaplan and David P. Norton issued in 2004 by Harvard University, the authors
mentioned that one of the important factors in building corporate culture
environment is mission because it makes the whole engine work. It requires all

individuals at the different levels and positions to abide and orient the power from
different resources.
One of the specific stories of applying CC basing on mission is Colleen Barrett
(2003), the present president and also the development director of Southwest
Airlines, one of the top fifty power women in the world voted by Fortune magazine.
All their competitors want to remove the company’s existence. However, the more
they try to make it; the more they make its members increase solidarity. The
management team including Collen determined how to work together and have the
best efficiency and concentrated to do the right things for themselves, for the whole
business and for their customers because their mission is to provide the best services,
giving enthusiasm and friendliness, recording individual comments and the whole
company’s spirit. After that, Colleen realized CC does not appear naturally, but it
needs time, efforts, plans and even the relationship developing strategy in an
organization to grow.