Define Your Culture
Every business has it’s own culture. Whether it’s one that is relaxed and liberating where it doesn’t feel constricting going into the office every day or maybe not having to go into the office at all. One way or another the culture of a business is the business.
Know What’s Ahead
According to the IBM 2010 Global CEO Study,
Eight in ten CEOs expect their environment to grow significantly more complex but only 49 percent believe their organizations are equipped to deal with it successfully – the largest leadership challenge identified in eight years of research.
While being one of the most difficult things to predict in today’s business world, the expectation of growth and the understand of the direction in which it’s heading matters just as much as understanding the culture of a business in itself. More importantly is embracing the changes that occur every day. Listening to employees, accepting feedback and changing the aspects of your culture will lead to better employees and better clients.
Understanding your employees is a factor that is as strong as the culture, and in fact is your culture. Every person inside your company is an integral part, know who you’re working with, hire people that might not necessarily be the top pick as far as their individual job, but help to define the future of your company and where you will go as part of that culture.
Value Time
Time whether in the long run or the short run should always be beneficial to you, your employees, or your employer. Knowing that everything has its commitments really focus on what needs to be done. As an employer though, much more productivity (and creativity) has been shown to occur when the people are given the opportunity to take matters into their own hands. Give employees the chance to do something they love, do something they want to do for themselves, and see where it takes the company.
Valuing time isn’t just a part of the company, but it’s a part of the lives of the people who work for that company. If things are going well, hell, give people some time to go home early to their kids and spouse. Time value shouldn’t just be taken for the money that could have been made, letting employees know that you care about them and their families. That’s Culture.
Defining your culture is a part of many, many aspects, it’s the way you treat people, the way you grow and the way you engage your customers.
What defines your culture?
Where Have The Honest Businesses Gone?
An honest business is almost like a rare gem. The rise of small-businesses where honesty and quality customer service is the top facet of the business becomes a driving force against the corporate scheme to nickle-and-dime every penny out of their most loyal customers.
A couple days ago I saw this on the Home Page of the Huffington Post. The article in summary explains the way that the credit card industry is, even with changes from the CARD act, are finding ways to apply new charges, cracked-out interest rates, and every little bit of money they can squeeze out of a suffering economy.
Be Better
Don’t get me wrong though, there are honest businesses; Those kinds of large corporations who make mistakes, accept their mistakes and live up to their reputation. A while back the news story of 6pm.com, who accidentally posted many prices as $49.95, hit the mainstream. This mistake lead to a net loss of $1.6 Million. 6pm.com is owned by Zappos (owned by Amazon). To rephrase, they honored the $49.95 price-tag even if the item costs $100 more.
Even though, they were obviously in the red, this didn’t stop the companies from being honest about their mistake and honoring their prices. It cost them in money, but did it help build their brand confidence and loyalty? You bet your ass it did.
Be Straightforward
If you’re honest from the beginning of a relationship, whether with a client or a partner, the expectations change. The expectation of a solid follow through, consistent honesty and transparency will always be an integral part of your business. The reason the credit card industry manages to screw you over, and over, and over again, is because even with the CARD Act’s new regulations, it still doesn’t stop them from finding new fees.
The policy of a no Bullshit company seems to be like a fading facet. Is your company like that?