Many companies love to talk about culture. They prepare presentations, define values, design internal campaigns.
But at TOTEM, we know that culture isn’t designed with aesthetics.
It’s forged with decisions.
Culture is the silent conversation between what an organization says it values and what it truly prioritizes when there’s no focus, no cameras, no urgency.
It’s what happens in the hallways, on Slack, in meetings that don’t make it to the agenda.
It’s what remains steadfast when urgency demands otherwise.
Because a living culture isn’t activated just by onboarding or a launch.
It’s revealed in everyday life:
— In how feedback is given.
— In how conflict is responded to.
— In who has a voice and who waits for permission.
— In whether the team breathes or survives.
And that has everything to do with branding.
A strong brand isn’t built from rhetoric.
It’s built on coherence.
An organization that doesn’t intentionally design its culture lets chaos, haste, or the algorithm design it.
And then wonders why the storytelling doesn’t connect.
Your culture is your operating system. Your brand, its interface.
The question isn’t whether your culture sounds good.
It’s whether your culture supports what your brand promises.
That can’t be fixed with a campaign.
It’s built from within. Every day.
That’s why, at TOTEM, we don’t work on branding without looking at culture.
Because a living culture doesn’t need to be trendy.
It needs to be consistent.
Even when no one is looking.
Today, with a newly elected Pope, the world is once again talking about leadership.
But what will truly define him as a new leader—like any brand—isn’t his public discourse. It’s the consistency of what he maintains when there’s no audience.
The future doesn’t belong to the most visible brands.
It belongs to the most credible.
