Speaking about a strategic goal 2020 «100 leaders of new generation trained for the strategy implementation», it is absolutely evident, that the process of leaders’ development in the Volga-Dnepr Group has to be put under control. First and foremost we should modify the existing corporate culture, identify its elements which encourage leaders’ development.

Each company has its own organizational culture, philosophy and business principles, ways of problem solving and methods of decision making, working atmosphere, “folklore” (stories that illustrate company’s values), the system of taboo and unacceptable decisions- in other words, its own system of values, behavior and standards, its own “face”. All mentioned above determines the corporate culture. The company’s culture is formed by various social factors of the internal environment.

The key culture components are often shaped by the company’s founder or by several strong leaders who formulate them as the philosophy, principles or the company’s policy. Being implemented from the top-down, they gradually “put down roots” and then become the style of the company. They are shared by the managers and the personnel and begin to influence the atmosphere of the company forming the behavior of the new employees.

But what do we really understand by the company’s corporate culture?

During the interviews with the managers and the personnel of VD Group and the work of the focus groups in ABC, VDM, VDTM and VDA different definitions of the company’s corporate culture were given. While integrating these definitions a great amount of key tags that can form the basis for the unified definition of the company’s corporate culture were elicited. The analysis of the results of the interviews and the focus groups made it possible to define its main elements, assess their impact on the company’s leaders’ development and determine the directions of the corporate culture development. According to the people who were involved in the discussion of this issue the key directions of the corporate culture development have to be:

• Creating the atmosphere of open communication at all levels of management, personnel awareness, friendliness in interpersonal relationships;

• Active involvement of the personnel in decision making;

• Obligatory feedback;

• Mentorship development;

• Demonstrating examples of successful leadership.

The results of the interviews and focus groups work will be used during the preparation for the strategic seminar with the participation of VD Group President, which is aimed at defining the notion and the structure of the corporate culture and designing an action plan for its changing.