I’ve always held the belief that we should focus on people first.  Whether in our professional or personal life, most everything we do involves people – our actions, emotions, etc. are tied to people.  Related to these beliefs, a  quote from Dick Clark (no, not the Band Stand one, the Merck CEO) resonated with me today as I was reading his comments on Merck’s recent acquisition of Schering-Plough (from the recent JP Morgan Healthcare Conference):

And certainly I use a statement, perhaps too much, that culture eats strategy for lunch, and so if you don’t get the culture right, it really doesn’t matter what the strategy is.

I couldn’t agree more.