Does Culture Really Eat Strategy For Breakfast?
How a self-professed Dumb-Ass with a can of lubricant changed my view on culture forever
Garry Ridge has a small doll sitting prominently on his shelf. When I initially met Gary in preparation for my first interview with him, he was keen to introduce me to the doll. "Meet Alec," Gary said with a grin, "the soul-sucking CEO of Fear Incorporated."
Gary describes the type really well - "the CEO who puts ego before empathy". And he's seen the effects of this leadership approach on organizations. They are not good.
Today, Gary is a consultant, but his perspective is different for one simple reason. He's not just observed bad cultures and complained about them. As the former CEO and now Chairman Emeritus of WD-40, he has built an award-winning culture at a major organization that has sustained itself over decades and was indisputably the differentiator for his organization.
So he's worth listening to.
The Math That Changes Everything
Garry often talks in terms of formulas - like this one:
"Outcome equals the will of the people times strategy."
To make it real in our conversation, he shared: "Let's say we write a great strategic plan together that some smart professor would award 70 out of 100. Pretty good, right? But if only 30% of people are executing that strategy passionately, you aren't getting much of an outcome. Now, if 80% are executing passionately, you are getting a much bigger outcome.
The 30% he used in this example is no accident. For years, employee engagement has been stuck in most companies at around 30%, as measured by Gallup. At WD-40 during Garry's tenure, that number was 93%…
The multiplicative effect Garry describes reveals a fundamental truth: companies will only reach their full potential with both great strategy and a great culture. The culture component can be harder to build, of course, but it can be far more sustainable and can even withstand some strategic missteps. A perfect strategy, on the other hand, is almost impossible because the future is so uncertain in a BANI world. Did your company strategy take into account a major pandemic or the rapid adoption of Generative AI? Be honest.
The Memories Business
During Gary's 25-year tenure as CEO, the company expanded from a primarily US-based operation to a truly global enterprise. When I asked Gary about their secret, his answer wasn't about radical product innovation, or revolutionary business models. Rather it was about knowing the type of organization they were and acting accordingly.
"We are in the memories business," he explained. "We create positive lasting memories by solving problems in factories, homes, and workshops around the world."
That might sound like marketing speak, but it turns out it's way more than that. In fact, it has become the lens through which every strategic decision is made, and has directly led to product improvements. When WD-40 developed the Easy Reach Delivery System (a flexible hose attachment for their cans), it wasn't because strategic analysis identified a market gap. It was because they asked their customers: "How could we create better memories for you?"
The Slow Growth of Culture
Gary learned from a friend who owned a furniture store that "culture is not a microwaveable event - it takes a crockpot approach." You can't sprinkle fairy dust on an organization with one training program and a ping pong table. To put it in the form of another equation - Culture equals values plus behavior times consistency.
Gary compared it to tending a Petri dish: "You have to watch it every day. You have to feed the good ingredients, and you need to be brave enough to attack the toxins."
Here are five aspects of culture that benefit from close attention:
Belonging: At WD-40, they didn't have employees - they had "tribe members" united by a "just cause" of protecting and feeding each other. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this tribal mentality guided every decision regarding layoffs (none were made) and support systems.
Meaning: Strategy becomes personal when people connect their daily work to meaningful outcomes. This is where the idea of making memories becomes truly valuable at a company like WD-40. What's more exciting - making an industrial lubricant or helping a grandfather teach his grandson to fix a tractor?
Learning: WD-40's "Maniac Pledge" required every person to take responsibility for getting information they needed rather than waiting to be told. This eliminated the blame culture that kills strategic execution.
Values-Based Decision Making: When your values are clear and consistently applied, you don't need perfect strategy documents. You need people who can make good decisions in the moment, guided by shared principles.
Coaching Leadership: Gary believes that the responsibility of a tribal leader is to be a learner and a teacher. When leaders focus on developing capability rather than controlling activity, strategic execution improves exponentially.
Dumbassery as a Superpower
The title of his book, "Any Dumbass Can Do It," isn't just an attention getter. It's fundamental to Garry's view of the world. As CEO, Garry would introduce himself as "the consciously incompetent, probably wrong and roughly right, chairman and CEO of WD-40 company, and I need all the help I can get."
The point here is that being too smart can get in the way of thinking you might be wrong, and will very likely prevent other people from sharing their thoughts with you. The best thing you can possibly be is dumb enough to not know everything, and smart enough to admit it.
Gary shared a perfect example: sitting in a meeting where consultants were using buzzwords and confusing terminology. Instead of pretending to understand, he put up his hand and said, "Sorry, not long in this country, but I have no clue what you're talking about." Everyone in the room relaxed and admitted they didn't know either.
When leaders embrace this vulnerability, people feel safe enough to contribute their knowledge. They feel like they matter. And when people feel like they matter, they give you more than best effort.
Culture, Strategy and Breakfast
I didn't ask Garry if he believes in the phrase (wrongly attributed to Peter Drucker), that "Culture eats strategy for breakfast". But I would suspect he does not.
The problem with this phrase, and indeed this view of the world, is that it portrays culture as an immovable force that strategy encounters. This is a handy dynamic for strategy consultants to parrot. The problem wasn't their strategy; it was a factor they could not control - the culture.
But Garry's equation firmly connects strategy and culture (defined by the will of the people) together, and to me implies that culture must be an integral part of any strategy. In other words, culture and strategy are interconnected.
For example, consider a situation you may be familiar with. The great theoretical approach that meets the brick wall of "that would never work here". In the "culture as immovable force" world, the only solution is to devise another strategy that would work here. Probably a watered-down strategy that will not create the outcome you want.
But in a world where strategy and culture are interconnected, you might think of this differently. Why would it never work here? What about the culture could be adjusted to allow it to work here, and what other benefits could the organization get if the culture were adjusted? Can you find a way to make the initiative work while also positively adjusting your culture?
Culture and Strategy working together to create outcomes…
Final Observations
As I left my most recent discussion with Garry I came away with an inescapable thought. For someone who is supposedly a dumbass, he has an amazing knack for teaching me things.
But, when it comes down to it, that is the point.
So embrace your inner dumbass, and whatever happens, DON'T be like Alec.