Businesses with strong alignment between culture and strategy perform four times better than those without, according to human resources consultant Aon Hewitt.

Culture was a key theme at Aon’s 13th annual Advanced Risk Conference in Melbourne, with research showing brand and reputational risk is the leading concern in the insurance industry and the Asia-Pacific region.

But Aon Hewitt Principal Actuary Ashley Palmer told insuranceNEWS.com.au culture affects more than just reputation.

“The actual business performance of those firms with a high cultural alignment to business strategies is four times higher, in both revenue and earnings,” he said. “Ultimately, the reason for [developing a strong culture] is your business will perform better if you do.

“There is also good statistical correlation that share price volatility is significantly lower for organisations with a strong culture.”

Mr Palmer says the insurance and financial services sector is no better or worse than any other, but there is much work to be done.

“People are value-generators, but they can also be destructive if the culture is not right,” he said. “There is a false narrative that culture can’t be measured. It can.

“There is no one-size-fits-all culture, but there is an optimum culture for each business.

“It needs to aligned to the primary business strategy. Businesses have to go off and set up their own culture club, and get everyone on the same page.”