The sense of “common purpose” is that they’re already all agreed to work on the product or service you’re offering. There are two kinds of motivation — internal and external. If you are primarily relying on external motivators — like culture — to provide inspiration to your employees, you’re relying on the less reliable, shallower, and weaker of the two.

I think it’s fine to have a company culture. I just don’t think it should be the primary focus or selling point of any company to its employees.