Company Culture Supports Business Success

Executives Affirm Strong Company Culture Supports Business Success

(Atlanta – April 2, 2012) – 1000 business leaders including John Mackey, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Tom Folliard came together for the annual Great Place to Work® Conference held in Atlanta last week to share their experience in developing a company culture of inclusion and participation and why companies need to invest in employees to maintain a competitive advantage. 

Dreamworks’ CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg closed his keynote speech by saying, “If your people feel passionate, dedicated and loyal about their work, it will pay off in great business results.”

Similarly, Dr. John Noseworthy, CEO of Mayo Clinic, shared how the philosophy of “the power of one” resulted in a company culture aligned with hospital’s primary business goal of patient satisfaction.

Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan agrees. While not attending the conference, he told shareholders last week in his annual letter: “…by being the best place to work for our employees, they can better service our customers and clients, which, in turn, will result in good returns for our shareholders.”

The conference, which sold out more than a month ago was host to over 20 speakers including Whole Foods Market’s John Mackey, Dr. John Noseworthy of Mayo Clinic, Clarence Otis of Darden Restaurants, Tom Folliard of CarMax and DreamWork’s Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Addressing conference delegates, Great Place to Work® Co-founder Robert Levering predicted that by 2032, great workplaces will be the norm. “Most workplaces will be great in the next 20 years.  Themillennials are changing the face of the workplace,” said Levering. “Not only do they realize they don’t have to put up with lousy workplaces, they have new means of communicating – they openly express their dissatisfaction with lousy places and tout the good places. They’re interested in finding companies that express and live by core values; that have a sense of social responsibility.”

Levering predicts that with this generation, organizations that are not committed to creating a great company culture will find it increasingly difficult to attract and retain the best talent. Even Wall Street will begin to weigh in on value of workplace culture as it becomes commonplace that companies with great workplace cultures see returns 3 times better than the S&P 500.

Also at this year’s conference, attendees voted for the winner of Great Place to Work’s We LOVE Our Workplace Video Contest, a nationwide competition that called for companies to submit videos demonstrating why theirs is a great workplace. Appletree Answers’ submission was this year’s winner with their silent yet powerful video depicting their company culture and values.

In its ninth year, this annual conference is the only event of its kind that provides a platform for business leaders to share experiences and learn how building great workplace cultures increases employee engagement, trust in leadership and yields great business results.