A majority of individuals readily agree that the culture of any organization is fundamental to all its actions. Ideally, it should be that ingredient, in the recipe of success that we know the most about. But, most organizations cannot even describe their prevailing culture; understanding how it affects their success in their core businesses is the next step. In the area of strategic management we try to weld and assimilate what we know about our current environment and projected future and

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... cted future and arrive at our estimate of the trajectory in which we want to travel in order to achieve our notion of success. It seems to be a rational process with everything clearly laid out and dealt with on a conscious level. So, how culture fits into the strategic management equation remains to be seen. It is well understood that leadership is a process of influencing and shaping the potential behavior of people in the work system. Leadership plays a crucial role in influencing the work behavior of employees. The demand for leaders may change from era to era and from culture to culture, but certain fundamental qualities of great leaders are-optimism, hard work, a nose for talent, persuasiveness, the ability to listen, and the strength of character, high standard of conduct and sensitivity towards organizational culture. Leadership should be well attuned with the organizational culture. This paper is an attempt to describe the contribution of organizational culture and leadership in effective strategic management of an organization. Key issues which have been discussed in the paper are: assessing culture, the role of culture in organizations, key to strategic management and responsive leadership. Against this backdrop the paper highlights that organizational culture and leadership are essential facets of effective strategic management in every organization.