Book excerpt: Coca-Cola, Disney, Nike and Hewlett Packard all have it: a positive corporate culture that powerfully affects their bottom line. Yet despite its ability to make or break a business, corporate culture remains the most underutilized resource in business today. Internationally renowned academics and consultants Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones draw on fifteen years of research with high-profile companies such as Unilever, Polygram, Heineken and Johnson & Johnson. They successfully define the notoriously amorphous concept of culture and distil it into a diagnostic test that managers can use to assess which of four basic cultural forms prevail within their department, team or organisation. The Character of a Corporation reveals: How the ways in which members of an organisation relate to one another affects the company's overall performance - as well as the individual's quality of life. Why most organisations are characterized by several cultures at once - and how to find the kind of culture that suits you best. What to do if you want of need to change your organisation from one culture to another. How to position your culture for greater competitive advantage. Offering substantive analysis, vivid examples and pragmatic solutions, The Character of a Corporation explores how a company's 'character' can make the difference between short-term burnout and sustainable long-term edge.