JIMS, Rohini Sector 5, organised an engaging guest session on Organisational Culture for its PGDM First Year students, as part of the Organisational Behaviour course. The session was delivered by Mr. Alok Nigam - Senior Partner at HumanArk, Co-founder of EvueMe, and a leader with 30+ years of HR and business experience across Bharti Airtel, Bhartiya Group, GSK, and Intex Technologies. His blend of academic rigour and boardroom experience made the discussion both practical and thought-provoking.
Mr. Nigam opened the session with a simple but powerful reminder: strategy tells an organisation where to go, but culture determines whether it ever gets there. He walked students through how leading companies translate values into everyday behaviour, and why culture - not strategy documents - is what employees actually experience at work.
Key takeaways from the session:
- Strategy vs. Culture - Even the best strategy fails without a culture that supports it. Culture is how people actually get the work done.
- The Competing Values Framework - A lens to understand organisational cultures through collaboration, innovation, competition, and control.
- Belongingness + Performance - The best cultures make employees feel valued while still pushing them toward high standards.
- Institutionalising Culture - Values only matter when they show up in leadership behaviour, policies, systems, and everyday decisions - not just on posters. The McKinsey 4Q Framework tied this back to leadership effectiveness and organisational alignment.
- Culture in action - real-world case studies brought the concepts to life:
- Microsoft → continuous learning & growth mindset
- Amazon → customer obsession & operational excellence
- Tata Group → trust and ethics driving sustainable growth
- Netflix → freedom with responsibility & talent density
The session closed with a candid discussion on practical interventions - steps organisations like BSNL could take to sharpen customer orientation, strengthen accountability, and build a culture of continuous learning. Students were encouraged to connect these frameworks to their own summer internship experiences, making the learning immediately relevant.
Sessions like this bridge the gap between classroom theory and boardroom reality, giving students a first-hand perspective on how culture shapes leadership, decision-making, and long-term business success.
A big thank you and gratitude to Mr. Alok Nigam for pushing the students to think beyond textbooks and see how culture and strategy work hand in hand in the real world.