The authors are the founding partners of CORE InSites® Inc., a management consulting firm based in Atlanta, Georgia.  Their clients include organizations such as Shaw Industries, Cingular Wireless, and Lotus Cars USA, etc.  They both serve as adjunct professors at Georgia State University.

This wonderful little book would be very valuable to those people at or near the top of their Organizations.  The material is applicable to profit making concerns as well as nonprofit organizations. 

There are two parts to the book.  The first part follows the allegory of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  This story is a suitable metaphor for understanding culture and the importance of creating a workplace where employees feel at home at work.

Part II begins with a brief description of the research the authors did on the critical steps in CORE Culture Management. 

The Five Ps:  These are a set of key parameters delineating critical elements of the readers’ organizations:  Purpose, Philosophy, Priorities, Practices and Projections.  They walk readers through developing their organizations’ CORE Cultural Map, which gives them a visual emblem of their firms’ identify and core principles.  Then, they brief readers on how to align their organizations to the CORE Culture.

The journey begins as Dot, CEO of Three Click Express (aka as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz) sets out to visit Mr. Insite who lives near Reflection City (aka as Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz).  Mr. Insite is practically a Wizard himself.  She hopes to learn from him how to stop the downward spiral that Three Click Express has been experiencing with declining sales, falling profits and numerous cuts everywhere.

On the journey, she encounters Mr. Mayor, her lifelong mentor, and several customers who help her with her quest for meaning and answers to save her dying company.

The Seven Insights:  Mr. Insite gave these to Dot:

Insight #1
The Purpose of an organization
Is the fundamental reason it exists.

Insight #2
The Philosophy of an organization
Is its distinctiveness.

Insight #3
The combination of
The Purpose and the Philosophy is
The identity of an organization.

Insight #4
The priorities of an organization
Are its key values.

Insight #5
The Purpose, the Philosophy
And the Priorities
Are the CORE Culture of an organization.

Insight #6
Everyone in an organization must
Know the CORE, connect to it,
And work to achieve it.

Insight #7
Understanding the CORE
Is fundamental to creating a workplace
That is the right place.

Work should be a place that feels like home.

Case Studies & Examples:  There are dozens of real live examples and case studies from well known organizations that help explain the concepts described in the book.

A CORE Culture Interview Guide:  To begin the process of determining an organization’s CORE Culture, the authors generously provide the questions that need to be addressed.  To create the CORE Culture Map that everyone shares, all members must participate through interviews, focus groups or surveys.  Once a Purpose statement, a Philosophy and a set of Priorities that all members can affirm have been developed, these may be recorded on the CORE Culture Map that is provided on the last page of the book. 

Overall, this is a very valuable little book that can be helpful to any organization.