Is it a Culture Thing?

David Savage speaks with Michal Sztanga about culture and the important role it plays in their decisions to work with partners. Michal explains how they apply soft skills to find likeness with their clients, leveraging their similarities to foster productive relationships between stakeholders.

The importance of culture in relationships 00:01:13

There are a lot of hard things that are impacting the collaboration, like processes, skills, tools – we find sometimes that it’s the soft stuff that’s missing, the cultural match. We believe that business is done by people and it’s people that have to work together, whether they sit together or across boundaries. It’s about making sure that the connection between people who have to deliver results is good, for the free flow of ideas and the communication is open regarding issues and challenges – so that they can solve them together.

Vendor – Client cultural balance 00:02:28

That’s very to the point. There’s a level of professionalism that every company should have. To be a truly valuable partner, you need to know who you are internally, what your values are, what your objectives are? Try to find on the partner, client side. When this match is possible, when we have the same goals and value, the collaboration will be better in the long-run. We’ve made a decision that we are people very specific, we know our strengths and weaknesses and we promote our way of working. To many clients this appealing and valuable, while we work with people who prefer a different way of working and then we don’t force each other to marry if it’s not positive from the beginning.

Finding the perfect fit 00:03:52

It’s something we need to experience. There’s a mechanism inside that tells us if it’s a match or not. Early on, it’s a matter of feelings, soft side. What are the similarities, can we understand each other quickly? Do we come to similar conclusions? Evidence provides tangible, it’s measurable and we can build a foundation for long-term relations.