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Recent failures such as the subprime mortgage crisis or the BP oil rig disaster are the result of failed corporate cultures, yet “corporate culture” is one of the most misunderstood terms in the business lexicon. After outlining common misconceptions about corporate culture, this article defines it as the collective belief systems that employees in an organization have about their ability to compete in the marketplace ethically, and how they act on those beliefs to bring value-added products and services to the customer in return for financial and business success. Far from being unimportant as it is often treated in the business world, corporate culture has a direct link to a company’s bottom line. Underperforming corporate cultures are categorized in the article as predatory, frozen, chaotic, political, or bureaucratic, while high-performing corporate cultures are categorized as service or new era. <br><br>A blueprint for building a strong corporate culture is proposed, which includes setting goals, prioritizing ethical conduct, creating a change-ready culture, incorporating flexibility, encouraging appropriate risk taking and innovation, identifying alternative critical success factors for managers, retaining innovative people and their ideas, identifying new qualities to be embedded in the culture, creating a democratic environment, and keeping the ultimate focus on the customer. Unfortunately, the change process is often blocked by bankruptcy, the exclusion of people from the change process, incremental responses to change, and poor attitudes. In the age of radical change, firms must develop a systematic change plan, identify change leaders, build a broad consensus for change, eliminate bias from the process, individualize change strategies, and go beyond the fads and “magic bullets.”