Culture is the collective mental programming of a group of people who share a set of environmental influences, be it the workplace or the nation they belong to.
Here’s a schematic for culture, based on the thinking of Gerhard Hofstede, widely recognised as the pioneer of the study of culture’s role in business. 
In this view, the deepest and slowest to change are the values. They underlie attitudes and rules in a society. Overlaid on top are successive layers of Rituals, Heroes and Symbols, each of which shifts and changes more easily than the last.
Why does culture matter in business?
An anthropologist named Clifford Geertz proposed that culture was one of the ways that societies regulate the behaviour of individuals. Crucially, culture forms the matrix through which individuals interpret events and decide actions.
Business decisions are heavily influenced by culture.
- If the culture of your business doesn’t fit with your strategy, the odds are your strategy will never be properly implemented.
- Equally, if your business strategy — however successful in one culture — doesn’t not adapt well to a new cultural environment, it will fail there.
In a world where even small businesses can trade across national borders, understanding and working with culture is an important way to drive success.