It’s time to walk through the fire

There’s a quote from Charles Bukowski framed on my office wall:
“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.”

We’re in that fire right now. For 25 years, our company has moved people to show up for entertainment. Then the world changed. Entertainment changed. Technology changed. Almost overnight, we had to throw the old playbook out the window.

So, we paused. We looked inward and asked the hard question: Do we rebuild what we had or transform into what we need to be for the future?

Companies need to choose the second. For us that meant becoming culture-led, not as a slogan or a rebrand, but as the infrastructure for how we operate. Becoming culture-led doesn’t just guide values; it can become an operational advantage.

FROM SILOS TO CONNECTION

We stopped organizing ourselves around deliverables and started paying closer attention to what moves people. What makes them care, pause, laugh, click, and share.

Inside entertainment, we’d spent decades learning how to meet people in emotional moments. We began applying that same emotional fluency to everything we do: from car launches to hospitality marketing, and CPG storytelling. Not by forcing those categories to feel like entertainment, but by applying what we’d learned about timing, tone, and human connection in places where meaning matters more than ever.

A clear example was our work launching God of War Ragnarök for PlayStation. Instead of defaulting to an action-forward montage, we leaned into the child–parent relationship at the heart of the game. That emotional center drove record results. We didn’t get there by chasing categories. We got there by rethinking how we listen, interpret culture, and act on insight.

A CHANGE IN HOW THE WORK MOVES

Empowering culture-led work to emerge from an organization requires operational change.

We’re restructuring our strategy, creative, editorial, and social teams to be leaner and faster. We’re bringing them into the same room at the start of every project. It’s not perfect yet, but the work is already moving differently.

We introduced informal culture briefs to stay close to what’s resonating with people right now. Not what’s trending, but what feels real and honest. That proximity keeps us grounded in how people live, not just how marketers talk.

The result has been work guided by less formula and more heart, stronger briefs that adhere closer to consumers’ realities, and faster movement of ideas to production.

LEARN TO SAY NO (WITHOUT FEELING SICK)

We also had to get serious about what we’re willing to walk away from.

In entertainment, the rule has always been simple: don’t turn down work. You never know when the next thing is coming. That mindset builds hustle and burnout.

A few months ago, for the first time, we turned down entertainment work that would have been a no-brainer any other year. But it didn’t align with who we are becoming, and that was reason enough to walk away from the opportunity.

Culture isn’t just what you invite in. It’s what you’re willing to say no to.

Every time we’ve made that choice, we’ve seen sharper focus, more ownership, and greater momentum. The team feels lighter, clearer, and more confident in where we’re steering the ship.

THE REAL ADVANTAGE WAS NEVER THE CATEGORY

The same instinct that led us to center the human relationship in God of War Ragnarök is the one that revealed what we’d been building all along in entertainment—a space that trains you to make people feel something fast. You have seconds to earn attention, emotion, and trust.

Over time, we realized that skill, emotional fluency, cultural timing, and instinctive connection were the real advantages. Not the form. Not the category.

In hindsight, it’s what strategist Rita McGrath would call a transient advantage. A capability, not a credential. Something portable. Something that evolves as culture shifts.

Once we recognized that, the question became how to operationalize it.

HIRE TO PUT CULTURAL FLUENCY INTO PRACTICE

Becoming culture-led takes more than intention. It takes structure.

We’re building that now through cultural roundups, shared language, and clearer boundaries. Not buzzwords. Practical ways to stay connected to how people think and feel.

We’re also changing how we hire. Experience still matters, but curiosity, self-awareness, and genuine growth mindset matter more. Alignment is becoming just as important as what client someone may bring in the door.

We’re learning to protect the culture we’re building by setting boundaries, by saying no, and by choosing clarity over comfort. Every time we do, we move forward.

We’re not done. And we probably never should be.

That Bukowski quote doesn’t say what matters is whether you make it through the fire. It says how you walk through it is what matters.

That’s the challenge for leadership right now. Not avoiding change. Just walking through it honestly and with intention.

Companies that treat culture as a core capability, not a campaign or a slogan, are the ones ready for whatever comes next.

Michael McIntyre is the CEO of MOCEAN

View the full article