It’s been widely said (and attributed to Peter Drucker), that culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Whilst Mark Fields made that particular phrase popular, Drucker definitely made it clear that culture will block attempts to implement a strategy that is incompatible with it.

So what does that mean for IP Strategists?

If you try and implement a strategy that is counter cultural for your organization – you will fail.

For example, try getting that team of hip, open source guru, software engineers you hired to build and protect patentable software infrastructure.  To them, patents are evil.  You need to hire a different group of people.  (Sure, you can try modifying their subculture, let me know how you go with that.)

Or try and get the team at that fast-paced marketing focused, brand factory company to pause and check for trade marks before launching their latest brand (or ideally before going too far down the brand development path).  Think instead about how you can build that safety check into their current way of doing things.

Everything you do (that’s everything) has to be done with culture in mind.

But that’s only if you want to be effective.