The first virtual event of the Communicating Across Cultures series featured a discussion about workplace culture and communication led by James O’Rourke, a professor in the Mendoza College of Business, with guest speaker Denise Karkos ‘93, the Chief Marketing Officer of SiriusXM, and moderated by Amanda McKendree, professor in the Mendoza College of Business. This event aimed to address what it means to live and work in an increasingly diverse and multicultural world as well as how workplace culture shapes businesses, employees, and leadership. Karkos offered insights from her work in marketing at SiriusXM.
O’Rourke kicked off the event by discussing how both culture and communication are as old as humanity itself, making them worthy of our time and understanding. He defined culture broadly as “everything people think and do as members of a society.” This can be broken down more specifically to material objects, ideas, values, attitudes, perspectives, and behaviors. O’Rourke adds that culture is learned by example and is constantly undergoing change. Just as countries have cultural identities, so do businesses. The way businesses successfully manage organizational culture is through communication. The more successful a business is about communicating its culture, the more cohesive and connected a business will operate.
Denise Karkos, CMO of SiriusXM, provided insight into how organizational culture and communication go hand in hand. Denise left her position at TD Ameritrade and joined SiriusXM shortly after it acquired Pandora. This acquisition joined two companies with different organizational cultures and a task for Karkos to figure out if it’s possible to join these two cultures and if so, how.
O’Rourke asked Karkos to explain how she might make a decision of whether or not the two cultures should join or remain separate, as business literature suggests the principal reason for merger and acquisitions failure are post-merger integration. Karkos provided some reflection as to how she handled the integration, noting the complexities and nuances within the respective cultures. Karkos made the decision to keep these cultures separate for the time being because of how different Pandora and SiriusXM’s target markets are. Her first priority was to take the time to learn and get to know the culture of her SiriusXM team and her Pandora team. Her second priority was to make sure that SiriusXM’s marketing was not fractured or misaligned, meaning the consumer was the same as what was being reflected internally within the culture. To achieve this, SiriusXM and Pandora needed a clear idea of the company’s values and vision. Luckily for her, she found a lot of commonality between the two. However, SiriusXM and Pandora serve different age demographics, which was why she decided to keep the two enterprises separate for the time being. Karkos has also been sensitive to the many complexities within organizational culture. Both Pandora and SiriusXM employees have a sense of pride for the brands they’ve worked hard to create. Therefore, it would be difficult to suddenly disregard one or the other.
The final key idea made in this discussion was the importance of the leadership team in creating organizational culture. As CMO, Karkos realizes that the employees are looking up to her and her fellow executives. She believes if the executive team was not diverse or living the organization’s values in action, then it has no meaning. She’s found success in her leadership style by working hard to create strong relationships and trust between her and her marketing team.
O’Rourke ended the discussion by sharing something that he shares with his students who are looking for jobs. He tells his students to find a company that fits their values rather than changing your personal values to fit the company. Karkos agreed that making a strong and memorable first impression to prospective employees is key to achieving goals and creating a successful working environment, as well as making sure a new hire is not just a cultural fit, but a cultural add to the company.
Visit the event page for more.
