William Ingham
Chief People Officer
Visa Europe, Poshmark, Ouro
Episode 125
Culture's DNA: The Untapped Strategic Asset Driving Growth & Profit.
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJune 30, 2025 · 9:29
Thesis
“Culture, when accurately measured through behavioral science and tied to specific organizational DNA, is an untapped strategic asset that drives company growth, profitability, and mitigates risk more effectively than traditional engagement surveys.”
Show notes
"Engagement surveys are a complete waste of time." Will Ingham doesn't hedge that statement — and he has the data to back it up. With senior people roles at Visa Europe, Poshmark, and Ouro, Will has spent decades watching organizations confuse measuring sentiment with measuring behavior. The two are not the same, and the gap between them is where culture actually lives.
Will's argument is precise: culture is behavior, and behavior must be measured against each company's specific organizational DNA — not against generic satisfaction scores. He's seen this distinction matter at the highest financial stakes imaginable. Working with a multinational bank, his team used behavioral culture assessments to identify internal fraud risk across seven global jurisdictions. The result: hundreds of millions of dollars in regulatory fines avoided, and a compliance story that reframed how the executive team thought about "people work." Culture, in other words, isn't a soft concept. It's a risk management function.
He also explores what he calls the "Ouroboros" philosophy — a concept of continuous self-reinvention — and argues that the future of leadership will rely on multisensory intuition validated by behavioral data. It's a provocative frame for what's next in how organizations understand and shape their own culture.
- Why engagement surveys fail — and what behavioral culture measurement actually looks like
- Culture as risk management — the case study where culture assessment saved hundreds of millions in regulatory fines
- Defining company DNA — why culture must be specific to your organization, not industry-generic
- The Ouroboros philosophy — how continuous self-reinvention drives employee connection to higher purpose
- The future of leadership — why multisensory intuition, validated by data, will define the next era of people strategy
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What you'll take away
- 1Traditional engagement surveys are ineffective; culture is defined by behavior and should be measured against specific organizational DNA and desired actions.
- 2Precise culture measurement, like the iPsychTech method, can proactively identify high-risk areas such as internal fraud, potentially saving hundreds of millions in fines and improving profitability.
- 3Fostering a culture where employees connect to the company's higher purpose and embrace continuous self-reinvention (the 'Ouroboros' philosophy) leads to significantly higher engagement.
- 4Future leadership will increasingly rely on 'multisensory dimensions' and intuition, validated by robust data, particularly in understanding and shaping organizational culture.
- 5Regulatory bodies in regions like the UK and Canada are starting to hold boards accountable for organizational culture, making advanced culture measurement a critical compliance and governance issue.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Engagement surveys are a complete waste of time; they produce action plans that sit on a shelf and yield no real change.
- •Culture should be discussed with the same rigor and weighting as financial results like revenue and EBITDA, a shift that is inevitable.
In William's words
“Culture survey or excuse me, engagement surveys are a complete waste of time.”
This quote directly challenges a widely adopted HR practice, highlighting its ineffectiveness.
“Culture is behavior. And so each culture, each company culture should have a very specific DNA.”
This statement defines his core philosophy on culture, emphasizing its behavioral and unique aspects.
“They were able to identify that in 7 jurisdictions around the world and get regulatory bodies off their backs, which avoided hundreds of millions of dollars of fines for this financial institution.”
This illustrates the significant financial impact and risk mitigation possible through effective culture measurement.
“I believe that culture culture should be talked about with equal weighting to financial results. And I think that time is coming when we're gonna be doing that pretty regularly.”
This emphasizes the strategic and growing importance of culture as a metric on par with financial performance.
“People that had a mindset of, how do I reinvent myself, not just on a weekly basis, but on a daily basis, or even in a moment, like, how do I constantly reinvent myself? Those people really fit in well with the culture and were really, really helped to contribute to the culture of the company.”
This provides a concrete example of a behavioral trait that fosters deep cultural fit and engagement.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Multinational organizations face significant risks from internal fraud and compliance failures, leading to massive regulatory fines.
- •Traditional annual engagement surveys are often perceived as a waste of time by employees and leaders, failing to produce actionable insights or drive meaningful change.
- •Many leaders struggle to understand how to effectively leverage and maximize culture to drive tangible company growth and profitability.
- •Companies find it difficult to genuinely connect employees to the higher purpose of the organization, leading to lower engagement and motivation.
- •Boards of directors are increasingly being held accountable by regulatory bodies for how they drive and monitor culture, creating a need for robust, reportable culture metrics.
In this episode
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Will, in your upcoming book, you mentioned that culture is an untapped frontier
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What parting advice would you like to share with our community? Wow. Thanks, Dave
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Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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