In this blog, we unpack 5 hard truths of corporate culture change with Dan Strode, former Global Culture lead at Santander Group, with direct quotes from his appearance on The Culture de-cooded podcast. Dan led a global cultural transformation across 230,000 employees in over 30 countries and is now sharing his experiences of corporate culture change with the world. Read on to discover what Santander’s global transformation teaches us about building culture that actually sticks.
If you're leading change in your own organisation, these are the realities you can't ignore.
1. Strategy Without Culture Will Fail in Practice
“It became quite apparent to me that actually the strategy was just half the problem or half of the challenge.”
A strategic plan might look great on paper, but culture is what determines if people actually show up, buy in, and behave in ways that support it. In Santander’s M&A activity, Dan saw first-hand how financial models fell apart when leaders and customers walked out, because the human dimension was ignored. Culture is the infrastructure that makes strategy executable. Without it, you’re running on paper promises.
2. Values Must Be Lived, Not Just Written
“We are all living the values, simple, personal, and fair. And we are all living the purpose of the bank: to help people and businesses prosper.”
Dan makes it clear, values weren’t a wall poster exercise.
They were embedded across decisions, communications, incentives, and leadership behaviour. This consistency gave employees a compass to navigate uncertainty during massive change. When values are internalised at every level, they become a force multiplier for performance and trust.
3. A Global Culture Needs Local Interpretation
“Neither do the behaviours [change], but the interpretation may.”
Trying to enforce a single way of working across 30+ countries would’ve been a disaster. Instead, Dan and his team struck a powerful balance: shared values, local voice. “Speak up,” for example, meant very different things in the UK, Spain, and Brazil, and needed culturally aware leadership to land effectively. Universal culture doesn’t mean uniform culture, flexibility at the edges builds strength at the core.
4. Culture Change Demands Emotional Intelligence
“How to respectfully ask questions to learn more instead of passing judgments.”
Dan points out that empathy, not just efficiency, was critical to transformation. Emotional and cultural intelligence weren’t just soft skills, they were strategic necessities for collaboration across borders, functions, and generations. High-performing cultures aren't just driven, they're emotionally literate. Empathy scales alignment.
5. Cultural Fit Isn’t About Forcing It, It’s About Clarity
“People self-select in a culture as well... when it didn’t fit them, they would leave…And that was okay.”
Dan’s perspective is refreshingly honest. The right culture repels as well as attracts, and that’s a strength. By being explicit about behaviours and expectations, Santander made space for alignment, not compliance. The goal isn’t universal approval, it’s authentic alignment. Clarity accelerates cultural fit.
In conclusion
Dan’s insights reveal that culture change is both people-first and system-driven. It’s not a communications campaign or a one-time rollout. It’s a shift in how decisions are made, how people behave, and how strategy comes to life daily.
Successful corporate culture transformation requires:
Most importantly, culture change takes time, leadership, and belief. At Santander, the results of this long-term effort were clear.
As Dan shared, the transformation helped the bank evolve from
“a male-dominated financial services industry, very Spanish at its core, into something much more diverse, innovative, and digital.”
The values of being “simple, personal and fair” weren’t just marketing, they became a unifying force across 230,000 people in 30+ countries.
“We are all living the purpose of the bank, to help people and businesses prosper. That doesn’t change wherever you are.”
With that clarity, Santander moved from fragmented, country-led structures to a global model:
“There’s going to be power from the group, not the countries… one Santander.”
And perhaps most telling of all:
“By year three, four, and five onwards, people were really living the behaviours because it was the right thing to do.”
Santander didn’t just shift its culture, it harnessed culture as an engine for global reinvention.
Culture15 is your complete toolkit for tracking culture change. CEOs and Exec Teams at world-leading organisations use Culture15 analytics to ensure success by aligning their culture with their strategy.
If you’d like to learn how to define the culture you need, diagnose the culture you have and close the gap, talk to our team.
