
Leading CEO’s have acknowledged the importance of organizational culture for years. The current environment has simply underscored its importance.
Here are a few perspectives on culture from leading CEOs:
- “If you are lucky enough to be someone’s employer, then you have a moral obligation to make sure people do look forward to coming to work in the morning.” – John Mackey, CEO, Whole Foods Market
- Our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff, like great customer service or building a great long-term brand, or empowering passionate employees and customers will happen on its own.” – Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos
- “In our early years, we didn’t talk about culture much. We hadn’t documented it all. We just built a business that we wanted to work in. And, that was great. But the real return on culture happened when we started getting more deliberate about it. By writing it down. By debating it. By taking it apart, polishing the pieces and putting it back together. Iterating. Again. And again.” – Dharmesh Shah, Co-founder, Hubspot
- “Why is culture so important to a business? Here is a simple way to frame it. The stronger the culture, the less corporate process a company needs. When the culture is strong, you can trust everyone to do the right thing.” – Brian Chesky, Co-founder and CEO, Airbnb
- “Culture is like the wind. It is invisible; yet its effect can be seen and felt.” – Bryan Walker, Partner and Managing Director, Ideo
- “Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person — not just an employee — are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.” – Anne M. Mulcahy, CEO, Xerox
- “The only thing we have is one another. The only competitive advantage we have is the culture and values of the company. Anyone can open up a coffee store. We have no technology, we have no patent. All we have is the relationship around the values of the company and what we bring to the customer every day. And we all have to own it.” – Howard Schultz, CEO, Starbucks
- “‘Restore connection’ is not just for devices, it is for people too. If we cannot disconnect, we cannot lead. Creating the culture of burnout is opposite to creating a culture of sustainable creativity. This is something that needs to be taught in business schools. This mentality needs to be introduced as a leadership and performance-enhancing tool.” – Arianna Huffington, Founder of The Huffington Post, Founder & CEO of Thrive Global
Contact us to help build a healthy culture that enables your employees and your business to grow.