The best companies I’ve seen have strong corporate cultures. I don’t know which comes first; whether it’s the great companies that breed strong cultures, or strong corporate culture that breeds great companies. I don’t think it matters; the important thing is to have a robust corporate culture that is understood and embraced by all employees.

When a corporate culture has been established, people tend to work together effectively, communicate efficiently and have an understanding of how things operate. This type of understanding is necessary for companies to grow successfully. There are fewer inefficiencies, less second-guessing, and employees who are culturally aligned understand each other and react more predictably. It is the corporate culture that helps coordinate organizational behavior.

No matter how “evil empire“ it’s made out to be, Goldman Sachs is one of the strongest financial firms in terms of corporate culture. It encourages a culture of debate and managers reach consensus before making decisions. Communication is actually forced and the firm has 360-degree reviews. Goldman rebounded the fastest after the global financial market crash and is the most profitable investment bank at this time. Goldman has the strongest corporate culture on Wall Street and it’s no coincidence that it is one of the most successful at this time either.

Meltwater’s corporate culture is entrepreneurial, fun and challenge-driven. It isn’t a culture of “we can’t do this.” Instead, there is a culture of “why can’t we do this?” while concurrently having a good time tackling tough challenges. This culture of empowering entrepreneurs has taught me a valuable lesson: sometimes you just have to get out of the way. When you’re working with an entrepreneur who doesn’t see a limitation to what they can do, occasionally that entrepreneur is able to achieve something that nobody really expected. The advantage of not knowing “what can’t be done” is that sometimes you achieve the impossible. One of my favorite sayings is: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars.”

In a recent post titled “Your Culture is Your Brand,” Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, writes: “At the end of the day, just remember that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff — including building a great brand — will fall into place on its own.” I couldn’t agree more.

Charles Wu leads Meltwater New Ventures, the corporate strategy, partnership and investment arm of Meltwater Group. An MIT and Stanford graduate, Charles teaches at the Haas Graduate School of Business and is an advisor to the President of Panasonic.

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