I’m going to go out on a limb here and stay that the happiness of your employees, the satisfaction of your customers and ultimately the success of your company rests on the buy in. Sure you have to have a product or service worth selling, and you need to have your typical business ducks in a row, but if your company lacks culture and if your customers and employees are not aware of the company’s culture and vision, you will fail.

There are many companies out there limping along that never had a vision strong enough and a culture established enough to gain buy in. One thing I learned from working at Wal-Mart’s headquarters is the strength of getting your employees on board with the vision of the company. Call it drinking the water or whatever metaphor you want, but when people get on board with you, you will succeed. If your company doesn’t have a culture, hang your hat early and start a company you actually have a vision for and the ability to articulate that vision. Then you’ll get buy in. And with buy in, you will succeed.