Culture, the underappreciated business asset

You can read this article in French by clicking here.

In the current climate where cultural sponsorship is suffering due to lack of funds among businesses which were once keen to support the arts, I found an article recently published in French economics paper Les Echos really pertinent. The article, entitled “Cultured Employees, Blooming Business”, is about the important link between culture and business and definitely supports the argument for investing in the arts today.

Sometimes, we tend to forget that the growth of a business is deeply rooted in a history, a corporate philosophy and sense of continuity. One further element is the notion of culture, which is key to the way businesses function and not, as a cynical view would have us believe, just a pleasant element of social life.

The article’s author believes that curiosity, open-mindedness, general knowledge are all essential qualities for employees who can look outside the box and find original strategies. Basically, culture represents that extra little bit of soul (“supplément d’âme”) which helps professionals both internally and externally.

What is currently emerging in studies is that general “culturedness” and, as a result, open-mindedness, are starting to disappear among professionals, especially young ones. One study carried out by Institute Entreprises/Les Echos found that considerable gaps in knowledge as far as religion, politics and art are concerned cannot be compensated for by high technical skills. What’s more, the study shows that lack of general knowledge can lead to a lesser understanding of other cultures which becomes a problem for managers in this globalised society.

The survey also found that lack of general knowledge tends to become a serious handicap later in professional life. For those aged 30-35 years, “those who can prove that they are able to think out of the box are more valued (…) culture gives people this ability to ‘dissent’. A cultured collaborator will have a sharper understanding of complex phenomena than others.”

On a subject which is more particularly dear to this blog, general knowledge and culture are a way of sharing life experiences within a business structure. As far as sponsorship goes, this idea of cultivating an appreciation for culture in the work place can certainly be achieved through sponsorship projects, where a business supports a cultural institution and in return gets to use this partnership internally for cohesion purposes. One more bonus point for cultural sponsorship!!

Picture: Vicki's Pics (some rights reserved)

Picture: Vicki's Pics (some rights reserved)

Comments

[Jeff Doyle]

For those of you who are wondering about the expression "supplément d’âme", it is from Bergson's "Les Deux Sources de la morale et de la religion".

Bergson's thesis was that mankind, enlarged in its scope of action by technology, needs to achieve a corresponding spiritual growth:

"In this body, disproportionately enlarged, the soul remains as it was, too small to fill it, too weak to direct it. Hence the gap between them. Hence the daunting social, political, and international problems... Let us add that the swollen body needs a supplement of soul, and the mechanical demands a mystique."

Henri Bergson, Les Deux Sources de la morale et de la religion, 1932 (my translation)

The expression is fairly well known in French intellectual discourse - the theme having been taken up by Derrida (who appropriated the notion of 'supplement') and by Bourdieu (who disparaged the concept as 'bourgeois'. )