Culture:  The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.  –Wikipedia

A workplace culture can be a magical thing.  Consider Google, with its “20%” rule (called Innovation Time Off) which fosters personal growth, innovation, and new product development.  Zappos is another well-referenced example of a strong organizational fabric woven from pairing the right person to the right job, and allowing employees the freedom to be human with customers.

Culture and Reputation are Tied
Google and Zappos are but two examples of companies daring to do business differently than our fathers did. That’s to say, while there’s an underlying framework of personnel expectations, accountability, and minimum requirements (they’re for-profit businesses, after all), the top-down view of these areas is more broad. It’s not all skirts-must-hit-the-knee  or  more-than-four-hours-of-PTO-used-counts-as-one-day.  These companies recognize that their people are their greatest asset, their most effective and far-reaching advertising network, and that they represent the front lines of customer interaction.  Employees embody the brand consumers and partners come to know.  Is your staff putting their best foot forward every day? If not, it could be because they lack good examples.  That’s right – you may be failing a little bit every day.

Following these company’s examples, it’s easy to understand how establishing and cultivating a strong culture (along with other key ingredients) can drive a company’s reputation online and off. A culture that’s an ingrained part of a brand personality – complete with attributes and complexities and processes – can influence outside perceptions, talent recruitment, competitive positioning, and sales.  How you treat your employees (and how they see you conduct business and make decisions) will in fact determine your reputation.  How can I suggest that? Because I believe the success of a product (with all of its inherent qualities – quality, pricing, relevance, promotion, positioning) is really a long-tail outcome of culture.

Practice Now, Lay Claim Later
A strong culture doesn’t build itself; “just add water” hasn’t worked since Sea Monkeys.  Leave the grand statements and gestures for later (you know, those sweeping statements printed on parchment placed in heavy frames hung under artistic lighting), after you’ve walked the walk awhile.  Don’t bother with the PR consultant; a righteous company (like yours) will get noticed just by delivering as promised. Besides, you’re not in it for the glory. Just the self-satisfaction of a job done right.

Ways To Build A Culture and Lead An Industry

1. Make a few hard/fast rules your mother would be proud of.  Never deviate, even for a minute.
2. Keep commitments.  If you have an employee review scheduled but something unexpected comes up, park it. You can bet someone’s anxious about that review, and a delay could send the wrong message.
3. Set an example. Arrive prepared and on time for meetings. Disallow complainers and passive-aggressive types any air time.
4. Try on employees shoes for awhile. It demonstrates approachability and an appreciation for the contributions of everyone. Plus, there’s valuable hands-on insight to be drawn from the experience.
5. Accept responsibility when you miss the mark. Saying you’re sorry opens up lines of communication and demonstrates vulnerability that will allow others to take calculated risks.
6. Transparency deters gossip, evens playing fields, and allows others partial ownership of solutions. Just be careful that sharing and involving doesn’t cross the line. When given information “above their level,” some folks become uncomfortable with knowledge they aren’t in a position to process or act upon.
7. Remember your vendors are part of your customer base, too. Sure, they perform a service (or deliver a good), but in turn you remit an agreed-upon sum. Delaying payment (for any reason, despite length of relationship) is a cardinal sin that must be avoided. Can’t afford it? Don’t buy it. Or be forthright and work out alternate terms in advance.  Sure, there’s a leak risk. But news about being lean is far less damning than news of untrustworthiness.
8. Listen closely. I once worked for an agency where the CEO said there were no “CLQ’s” (career limiting questions).  It may not be prudent to act on every suggestion you’ll ever be given, but you’ll engender loyalty and build job satisfaction if you give everyone a chance to be heard. Let voices be heard through in-person discussion, email, and blind submission box.
9. Treat employees like people, not like indentured servants. Make supplies accessible (down with heavily scrutinized request forms, I really do need my Sharpies), ensure my desk and chair height are comfortable, make water freely available, and don’t expect me to wind up my laptop power cord at the end of each day – give me an extra one for home use.

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About The BtoBblogger: Heather Rast is an integrated marketer, driver of insights, and passionate business change agent. She looks for the intersection of relevance, differentiation, and needs fulfillment to help craft holistic strategies that deliver organizational value and nurture consumer affinity. Follow her on Twitter or read her blog at www.insightsandingenuity.com.

This post is inspired by two posts that I read this week written by two of my favorite bloggers – Jason Falls of social media explorer and Mark W. Schaefer of {grow}. Their posts reminded me of one of my favorite Peter Drucker quotes,

“The purpose of a business is to create and keep customers.”

It started on Monday when Jason Falls wrote “Why Social Media Purists Won’t Last. In the post he made this statement,

“Each time I discuss the business goals or reasons why a client wants to use social media, the answers come down to one thing: selling more stuff. It’s a harsh business reality.If you don’t make money, the business goes under. If you don’t make more money, people lose their jobs.”

My first thought was, what’s *harsh* about that? It’s just fundamental, right? Good ole capitalism in its purest form. Now yes, of course, I agree people losing their jobs is harsh. However let’s not be mistaken, selling to create and keep customers is not harsh by any stretch, I think I’d actually call it, exhilarating. It’s probably what’s at the core of every entrepreneur. Without that drive and desire, I’m not sure this country would ever see its way out of the worst recession we’ve seen in over 75 years.

So upon finishing the post, my parting thought was, why was Jason even compelled to write the post in the first place? He is one of the most well respected, articulate, intelligent bloggers I follow. Surely he knows the purpose of a business and that is must be profitable. His reader’s must know that too, right?

Then yesterday Mark W. Schaefer wrote, “Is this the end of the social media purists?” a response to Jason’s post. He wrote that he was,

“just so happy, so enthralled, so downright giddy that I could kiss my keyboard.”

Why was Mark so happy? Well, Mark was applauding Jason for informing the “social media purists” that, “the answers come down to one thing: selling more stuff.”

Maybe it has to do with the fact that I don’t know if I could actually name one “social media purist” so I can’t relate to their ideals. I’m not sure. It just struck me as odd that these two (now three posts) even have to be written.

All along, I have been working with the fundamental understanding that if it’s not helping create and keep customers, then why do it? As a B2B marketer, haven’t you been doing the same thing? I just never assumed that selling and creating and keeping customers wasn’t the purpose of social media or any marketing activity for that matter. Did you? Employing tactics like “participate in the conversation,” “engage your customers,” and “talk with us not to us.” was being done for one reason – to fulfill Drucker’s purpose.

If not for that reason, in the words of former Philadelphia eagles running back, Ricky Watters, “For who? For what?”

Time’s yours.