The article analyzes the business culture of a company, its functions and role in the process of managing the internal environment of a firm, as well as the opportunities that it provides to the heads of organizations during periods of external instability and economic crises. The authors have identified differences in the principles of forming the company's policy in relation to the external and internal environment. The article examines the process of transformation of the business culture and other elements of the internal environment of a firm during its life cycle, justifies its universal nature and independence from external economic conditions. The authors demonstrate the mechanism of anti-crisis management available to "mature" companies with a developed business culture of the adhocratic type, using the example of overcoming the consequences of the 2020 economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.