22ND JANUARY 2026


THE BUSINESS GUIDE AN ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE DISTRIBUTED WITH


What it really takes to build a high- performance culture


Most organisations today are placing a greater emphasis on performance, and little wonder


Against a global backdrop of increased economic competition, higher running costs and less predictable demand, not to mention an accelerating technology landscape, businesses are being disrupted like never before. Navigating this volatile backdrop


is no mean feat, but there are organisations that continue to thrive, and they have one thing in common: they’re putting culture at the heart of their performance. Here are a few of the steps they’re taking.


1. Put culture at the heart of strategy First up, a mindset shift: recognising culture as a strategic enabler. Not a novelty or an initiative for when you have the cash or inclination, but the central means by which you execute your strategy (or fail to). Any journey towards high performance must start with putting culture at the heart of your strategic narrative.


2. Define your desired culture at the level of behaviours Be clear about where you’re trying to get to. We’re not talking about abstract terms or value statements such as ‘innovative’ or ‘agile’, but an articulation of the behaviours you need to see. How do you want people to interact? Decisions to be made? Communication to happen? Be specific.


3. Lead the change from the top In the same way leaders are responsible for authoring strategy, so must they define the culture and play the central role in its activation.


Be clear about where you’re trying to get to — how do you want people to interact? Decisions to be made? Communication to happen? Be specific


While HR and people managers play their part, the change doesn’t start here. Real change


requires


conscious leadership modelling and commitment from the very top.


4. Measure your progress What gets measured, gets done — and it’s no different with culture change. You need to measure and track the change — at the level of behaviours — to understand your progress, as you would any other business transformation.


5. Ask for help Lasting change requires honest challenge, and often external support able to hold up the mirror. Find out more at coode.com


Coode is one of the UK’s leading strategic cultural change consultancies helping businesses accelerate their performance through the power of culture. coode.com


HR & Recruitment 13


Pension funds — can you afford to lose a few basis points?


For pension funds already facing severe funding shortfalls, the answer is clearly no. Yet this is exactly what happens every day


Pension systems across the world are materially underfunded — some by as much as 60% — placing the retirement security of millions at risk. Te problem isn’t always a lack of capital but a failure to consistently capture value that already exists. Consider a real estate fund that


owns rental properties but fails to collect the rent. No investor would accept


that as a ‘passive’ strategy.


And yet, in capital markets, this is precisely what happens with corporate actions. If you invest in an asset, you inherit the responsibility to manage the economic decisions associated with it. Ignoring them isn’t passive — it’s negligent. Research in the US and Europe


underscores how critical small improvements can be. Studies show that the difference between pension funds becoming insolvent within 10 to 20 years and reaching full funding can be as little as 100 basis points (bps) of additional annual return. Tis isn’t about looking for $100 billion today, it’s about looking to systematically capture an extra 100 bps through better execution and governance.


One of the most overlooked sources


of leakage lies in corporate actions. In the US alone, approximately $58 billion is spent each year processing corporate actions, with even higher figures in Europe. Yet tens of billions more are missed because voluntary corporate actions are often ignored. Asset managers routinely default to the standard option, which is frequently the lowest-value outcome, simply because the decision-making process is complex, manual or poorly supported by technology. Tese losses are structural, not


market-driven. Asset managers, custodians and central securities depositories modern


(CSDs) must technology solutions


enable on


their platforms to prevent these basis points from being lost. Euroclear is leading the way with its Cash+ service. If the industry is serious about closing pension funding gaps, every penny must count.


For more information, email info@scorpeo.com or visit linkedin.com/company/scorpeo


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