Here’s something that doesn’t take a lot of intuition to figure out: Organizational culture is the DNA of a business. In the most successful companies it is not only tangible and specific, but it also defines the essence of the organization and provides the glue that holds the workforce together.

I was thinking about this today while reading about Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus as they reflected, in a story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, on the 30-year anniversary of the founding of their masterpiece, Home Depot.

The success of Home Depot was based not only on having a large and competitively priced store where you could find just about anything needed to renovate, fix or remodel a home, but also in the army of orange-aproned experts that were always available to help with any problem or situation you might have.

It was this personal, customer-first service that was, at least in my mind, the key to Home Depot’s remarkable business success. And, it was one of things that former CEO Bob Nardelli seemed to have little use or respect for.

“I would say for a period of about four to five years, we lost our way through the last CEO,” Marcus told the Journal-Constitution. “[Marcus] was referring,” the newspaper pointed out, “to the December 2000-January 2007 reign of Bob Nardelli as chief executive. Recruited from General Electric, he was the first CEO brought in from outside.”

It’s not atypical for any new manager to want to make their mark, and this is especially true for a new chief executive brought in from the outside. But all too often, making their mark means a wholesale dismantling of the company culture long before they really understand or appreciate it. This “marking your turf” style of management is similar to what a dog does as they wander through a new neighborhood—and just about as useful.

“Nardelli, hired to give Home Depot discipline and structure, was criticized for changing a culture that had been working,” the newspaper story noted, and Bernie Marcus reiterated this, saying, “I think Nardelli came in because Arthur and I felt we had grown the business and the systems were very antiquated. We were very entrepreneurial and we needed some discipline. Nardelli provided that. But unfortunately, he had his own culture he tried to infuse into Home Depot, and that culture didn’t work.”

I don’t want to keep beating on Nardelli, but he’s a great case study in how a talented executive can do all the right things financially yet completely foul up an organization by failing to understand or respect the underlying culture that drives it.

And to be fair, Nardelli is just one of many talented and highly paid executives who parachute into a business to save it but fail to understand that you need the support of those on the ground to really drive meaningful, positive change. I can point to any number of other executives—and names like Tribune’s Sam Zell and former Circuit City CEO Philip Schoonover leap to mind—who are guilty of the same shortsighted judgment.

The culture of an organization is highly critical no matter what the business or endeavor. Smart executives get this, but being highly paid doesn’t mean you are smart or sensible. It just means that you managed to find some shallow-minded board of directors somewhere to throw you a lot of money before they really have a good handle on what you can actually do.

Current Home Depot CEO Frank Blake seems to get the value of business culture, and his actions from the start have been to build Home Depot back up by rebuilding so much of what Bob Nardelli destroyed.

“Frank is not wedded to everything in the past,” said Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blake, “but he understands the value of culture and those fundamentals.”

Amen to that, I say. And maybe, just maybe, it gives Home Depot—and its remarkable culture—a fighting chance of survival.

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