In the latest CultureSandPodcast episode “A case for intentional culture management”, we had the great pleasure of speaking with Helen Rosethorn, a recognised thought leader in organisational culture and employer branding.

Helen Rosethorn is a recognised thought leader in organisational culture and employer branding. With over two decades of experience, she has helped global organisations align culture with business strategy to drive meaningful change.

She’s the author of The Employer Brand: Keeping Faith with the Deal, a seminal book in the field. Helen is known for bringing sharp insight and practical frameworks to complex culture challenges, and regularly contributes to the wider conversation through publications and speaking engagements.

In this podcast, we dive into how cultural thinking in business has evolved — and how to truly harness the power of people. We explore the critical alignment between strategy and culture, the role of leadership, and why culture must be part of the work system and everyday decisions. We also unpack the post-Covid reality, the growing distrust in leaders, and the rising expectations from Gen Z.

00:00 Helen’s springboard into culture

02:56 How cultural thinking in business has evolved

03:26 Tapping into the power of people at work

05:04 Shifting to an adult-to-adult work environment

07:03 Employee engagement and the idea of discretionary effort

09:01 New business models and the entrepreneurial employee

13:00 Culture is a work system — and shows up in every KPI

16:01 Behaviours as visible outcomes

16:37 Beliefs and systems as the forces surrounding behaviour

19:14 Culture, explained through a high-performance car metaphor

20:44 Is culture right, wrong or fit?

21:17 Align strategic and cultural intent

22:07 Case: Amazon and its cult(ure)

23:21 The value exchange between people and business

26:48 Culture fit, personality fit, and leadership fit

27:59 Aligned leadership sets the tone

31:19 The middle management brings it to life

33:07 Hybrid strategies need hybrid leadership

35:37 Building a transformative counterculture

36:04 Beware of unintended consequences

36:41 Case: When compliance grew bigger than the customer

39:10 Culture’s chicken-or-egg dilemma: people or systems first?

40:21 How to intentionally shift your work system

40:43 The CEO’s role: understanding what drives behaviour

42:40 The delicate balance between business and employee interests

44:22 Trust, change and generational tensions

44:22 The worrying decline of trust in leaders

46:40 A harsh truth: business leaders are seen as liars

48:10 Post-Covid reality and Gen Z pressures

49:42 Double trouble: both the business model and the work system are broken

51:41 Trust: the foundation of work and life

54:55 How “forced” trust and autonomy during Covid changed the game

57:17 Like a clock, your work system must move forward — not back

1:00:00 Performance in the era of invisible workforce

1:03:25 The relevant question trust in the value exchange

1:06:19 The need for future-looking narrative

1:09:15 Culture is work — not a separate thing

1:09:54 Dynamic culture supports dynamic strategy

1:11:45 Leadership alignment and shared ambition is everything

1:12:50 Nothing changes unless leaders model it, the middle supports it, and the system enables it

1:14:17 A case for intentional culture management

Tintti Sarola is a strategist, transformation lead, and culture expert who believes the journey defines the outcome. With a background as a national team-level dressage rider and a track record of podium finishes up to the European Championship level, she brings the same intensity, focus, and commitment to business as she once brought to elite sport.

Her career spans law, tech, strategy, and transformation – from her early days in contract law and IPR to leading digital transformation, business development, and culture-powered change initiatives. Tintti has helped build successful start-ups, scale family-run businesses, and reshape how established organisations think, behave, and operate.

She specialises in helping leadership teams rewire how they work – aligning strategy with behaviour, shifting entrenched patterns, and building the human systems that make change stick. Sharp on strategy and fluent in human dynamics, Tintti is known for cutting through noise, connecting the dots, and helping companies move – fast and together.

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