Culture:
What Gives Your Company
the best chance of Success?
by Peter Radizeski
Projects I am Currently Working on:
Branding.
Culture.
Leadership.
Morale.
Cloud Transformation.
Hiring.
How many of you
have ever said:
“It’s Our People”?
As JetBlue CEO Dave Berger has
explained, a company’s culture
might be the only “trade secret”
that can’t be copied or
commoditized.
What is CULTURE?
What is Culture?
The set of shared attitudes, values,
goals, and practices that characterizes
an organization or group.
In simple terms, it is all about 'how we
do things around here‘ - the DNA
 Vision
 Mission
Vision/Mission
To help guide us in this mission we have our core values that act
as our compass, driving the way we do business and engage with
our guests, our employees and our partners.
• Passion - We are truly passionate about great food, great drink
and great company.
• Creativity - It is this passion that drives our creativity and
innovation
• Quality - When it comes to quality assurance, we set the
standard.
• Value - It's more than just the total price of the meal. It's the
whole experience.
It is easy to write platitudes in your
Vision statement.
Hard to write a manifesto of culture, like
Acumen or Hubspot or Netflix or Zappos
(hey, even the TSA has one)
“Starts, demands, thrives and requires.
Four words that are not in the vocabulary
of most organizations.”
 http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/04/your-manifesto-your-culture.html
If you're going to permit loopholes,
wiggle room and deniability, don't
even bother.
Culture Matters
Why Bother?
“A positive and impactful work culture can raise
productivity, employee morale, and retention
rates. I’m not talking about fuzzy, feel-good stuff
here — hiring for fit has a real, quantifiable ROI.”
Why Bother?
“According to a 2010 Hewitt Associates study of
more than 900 organizations globally, companies
with high levels of engagement among their
employees outperformed the total stock market
index, posting shareholder returns 19% higher
than the average in 2009 (by contrast, companies
with low employee engagement reported a
shareholder return 44 per cent lower than the
average).”
"Ideas are worth little to
nothing without: People to
execute; Culture to select the
right people; and Vision to
attract the best stakeholders."
Hugh MacLeod
 I’ve been telling my clients for years now,
if you’re going to have a following, a community, a “tribe”, it can’t just be about
you and your lovely product. It’s got to
be about something higher than,
and beyond… yourself.
Why Worry About it?
Bad Culture Inhibits Innovation
Happy Employees Deliver Great
Customer Care
Environment of Ideas
You don’t have to worry about it.
That’s Great…
But How?
CEO sets the rhythm
BHAG
BHAG
Where we heading?
Why are we doing this?
Purpose.
4 Buckets of Passion
Capabilities: What We Do
Why We Do it: Noble Purpose
How We Deliver It
Who We Do it for
People
Product
Process
People
Product
Process
People
Product
Process
“A” PLAYERS
 “A” Players want to work at A+
companies
 Best Places to Work winners
 Want the best chance for
Success
 Want to work for more than the
business.
 “Something bigger”
On-Boarding
Are Your Employees
Productive (non-dependent)
Engaged/Happy
Count on Teammates
Opp for Growth
4 Factors of Taking Job
Salary
Culture
Benefits
Commute
Compensation
Idea of office is changing
 both when and where
Are You Paying for Time or Value?
ACA effects on Healthcare
So benefits won’t be sticky
 Motivate & Inspire employees
 Employee engagement
 Encourage a learning environment
 Community & Industry Involvement
 Encourage a personal growth
environment
Employee Dinners (bonding)
Certs, Awards
Recognition, Achievement
Internal Communications
Tell Stories about WINS
 Charity activities
 Customer Stories
 Praise
 Recognition
 If you embrace stories, SM for the win
Communications





Transparency
Authenticity
Alignment
Build Relationships
Story Telling
Feedback Loop
 Surveymonkey
 Mass blast vmail
 Email
 Video Conference
 Vimeo
 Skype video
 Web conference
Growth = Complexity
Processes
Help to handle growth
Add order to chaos
Processes can stifle creativity (netflix)
Processes = systems for repeatability
Manage by Walking Around
Attention to Team Members
You can be somewhat a Jerk
But you better be an awesome
worker!
Don’t spend all your attention on the
knuckleheads!
HINT:
Salespeople should not be
outside because you don’t
know how to manage them.
(KPI’s cuz activity = outcome)
 The presentation deck started out as an internal
document years ago (it doubles as the company
handbook). As a company who values transparency
(and inbound marketing), they decided to share it with
the community as a manifesto.
 http://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/the-hubspotculture-code-creating-a-company-we-love
Resources I used:
 http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-2009
 http://www.slideshare.net/twilio/scaling-companyvalues-twilio-techweek-2012
 http://www.slideshare.net/Thor/zappos-lessonsbuilding-a-customerfocused-culture
 http://www.slideshare.net/whatidiscover/crispin-porterbogusky-employee-handbook
Peter Radizeski is a
consultant specializing in
sales training and strategy
for telecom companies.
His books are available on
Lulu.com and Amazon.
813-963-5884
peter@rad-info.net
http://rad-info.net
Twitter @radinfo