How would you describe Your Company's Culture?

If you could create a new culture from scratch, what sort of culture would you create for your company?

Every culture is unique, and when we work with clients we look at many different aspects of culture. 

However, cultures tend to fall into one of four different categories.  We call these archetypes, and they are a very useful starting point when beginning to diagnose and describe your company’s culture.  To see a description of each archetype, click on the relevant box below.

Although this approach looks a little crude and simplistic, you may be surprised by what happens once you start thinking about which archetype your company fits – and which archetype would be ideal for your company.  Far from being a simple five minute exercise, once you get into it you can find yourself delving deep into the fundamentals of your business, of what you are trying to achieve, and how you are going about that.  This can yield some surprising insights – about the hidden assumptions that you make about your business and the “right” way to do things, about alternative approaches that you may never have thought about, and about your priorities.

If you would like some help in deciding what sort of culture your organisation has (or should have), we have prepared a short quiz that you can access here.

Our view at Aletheian is that the best culture for your organisation is the one that works best to deliver your corporate aims and strategy.  That is the culture that gets people to prioritise the things that you need them to prioritise and to put your strategy into action, your way. 

To read more about the different types of corporate culture, get our free guide to culture here.

Aletheian - Culture by Design, not by Accident

© Aletheian Advisors Ltd, 2025

Merchant

A Merchant company is not intrinsically wedded to a particular product or customer base, but it is always looking for a way to deliver its value proposition and to make a profit.   

We think that Ikea is a good example of a Merchant company.  You may not think of them that way as they are quite focused on customers, but making a consistent profit is central to everything they do.  Think of what it is like to walk into an Ikea store.  Central to the experience is the way that they provide you with as many opportunities as they can to buy things – things that you never knew you needed.  They will sell you anything they can make a profit out of, from furniture to plants to tools to electricals to food.   It’s hard to walk out of an Ikea store without buying something.  

You might think that a Merchant company would be quite cold and calculating to deal with, but Ikea shows that this is not necessarily the case.  Making a profit does not mean ripping people off or not caring about customers.  Ikea offer value for money – that is central to their value proposition.   Because they have a sense of fun and are very straightforward about what they offer (and what they don’t) they come across as warm and honest.   That is the power of being authentic with customers – a hallmark of the Aletheian approach.

Ikea has some core staples but it also regularly changes its offering.  This illustrates the flexibility of a Merchant company – they are always on the lookout for new opportunities to deliver on their value proposition and to make a profit. 

Merchant companies aren’t just confined to retail stores.   Over the years Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has tried to sell you anything from records to airline travel to cola.  There is a similar story with the Easy Group of companies.  

Servant

The raison d’être of a servant-oriented organisation is to provide service and value for customers (and people who aren’t yet customers).   The organisation believes that if you provide value and service then you will automatically thrive and make profits.

Many companies seek to provide good customer service, but you know that you are dealing with a true Servant company when they provide service to an exacting standard, not to a particular budget.  If it is a luxury brand you feel pampered by their attention.  Even if yours is a low value transaction you still feel that you get the same attention as someone making a far larger purchase.  It feels as if the company sincerely values your relationship for its own sake and not just for the value of the purchase you are making.

Although some will disagree, a service-oriented airline such as Emirates is a good example of a Servant company.  It defines itself by the quality of the service it provides to all passengers.  They invest heavily in staff training and the customer experience without looking for an immediate return.  They are confident that superior service will pay off in the long run, through customer loyalty.  This is reflected in its consistent receipt of industry service awards.

Craftsman

A company that takes the approach of a Craftsmen is dedicated to providing a superb product – whether that is a physical product, an app or a service.  The organisation believes that if you build and sell a high quality product – the best that you can possibly produce – then your company will naturally thrive and make profits.

When you deal with a Craftsman company you will encounter people who are passionate about their service or product and who want you to get the most out of every feature.  They will want their product to be useful and enjoyable to use.  Their passion for their product is almost palpable. 

Apple in the early days under Steve Jobs was an example of a Craftsman company.  Jobs empowered his engineers and developers and shared their passion to ensure that every little detail was perfect, so that his products worked well and were a pleasure to use.  He obsessed over the feel of the keyboard as much as over making the software intuitive.  His team’s pride in their products was symbolised by the fact that the signature of every engineer who had worked on a particular model was engraved inside the machine. 

Dyson (at least in its early days) is another example of a Craftsman company.  After he found that the suction from his vacuum cleaner was disappointing, engineer James Dyson immediately made a prototype of a new type of vacuum using cardboard and tape.  He drew inspiration from the sawdust extraction fan he had seen at a local sawmill.   He spent the next 10 years obsessively trying to get the product right, making over 5,000 prototypes before he felt that his cyclotronic vacuum cleaner was ready to be put in the hands of consumers.  Despite the cost, he was not going to sell a product until he was satisfied that it was good enough.  That is the Craftsman spirit.

Warrior

A company with a Warrior spirit is entirely mission focused.   That mission might be to beat the competition and become number one in its sector, or the pursuit of excellence for its own sake, or it might be to achieve some other commercial or social goal such as saving the rainforests.  The organisation believes that success is defined in terms of that goal and that other measures (such as profitability) are secondary.

Intel is a good example of a Warrior company.   It is entirely focused on its mission to create the very best processors, and to retain its market position by beating the competition through every new generation of computers.  Their mission is never complete, because there is always the next generation of processors to develop.

It can be quite thrilling to deal with a Warrior company.  People don’t deal with top law firms or investment banks such as Goldman Sachs because it gives them a warm feeling.   They do so because of their relentless professionalism, their dedication to excellence and their strong desire to win.  It makes you feel like your company deserves the best.  It can be exciting to be around such a full on, high calibre organisation. 

A word of caution.  Many companies have missions of one sort or another, but that does not make them all Warrior companies.  For the true Warrior company the mission is all consuming – it is not simply a way to achieve some further objective, such as a way to make higher profits, but an end in itself.  If you’re not obsessed and completely driven, you’re not a warrior organisation.  But you should probably be glad about that, because it’s tough and uncompromising working in a Warrior organisation.

Take Our Quiz to See what sort of Culture Your company Has

This short quiz is a bit of fun with a serious purpose.  It's not 100% accurate, of course, but it should give you some insights into what sort of organisation your company is - or what sort of organisation you want it to be.   Answer a few simple questions about how your organisation operates (or how you would like it to operate) and we will tell you which archetype it best fits.  Enjoy the quiz.

1 / 10

What is most likely to get praise, a promotion or a bonus in your company?

2 / 10

What key metric is the most important for your Management Team – the thing they are obsessed with?

3 / 10

Who, out of the following, is the most powerful/influential figure in your company [If the CEO plays several of these roles, choose the one that is most important to the CEO]?

4 / 10

If a new customer makes a difficult request, what is your reaction?

5 / 10

If an employee breaks the rules, what excuse is most likely to get them forgiven?

6 / 10

What information does your management team always ask for before making an important decision?

7 / 10

Who are your most valuable employees?

8 / 10

Who is the ideal person to lead your business?

9 / 10

If you are hiring a new junior employee who you hope will learn the business and will go on to make a big contribution to the company in the future, which candidate would you be most impressed by?

10 / 10

What is the key investment needed to grow your company to the next level?

Download Our Guide to Managing Culture

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