IT Email Infrastructure Blog: New Technology & Trends

Often when I visit a company's headquarters I like to examine the culture of the business and compare it to their success.  Recently, I had the pleasure of being invited back to Rackspace to take part in its first ever Partner Ambassador Leadership Counsel, which was a big honor. I love visiting places like Rackspace and Zappos, because the cultures these two companies have created and worked to perfect are the best in their respective industries.

More often than not, it seems that a company's core values fail to go farther than a few words printed on a coffee mug, and the company culture suffers as a result. Positive cultures thrive when every person believes in and commits to living and breathing the company's core values, constantly reflecting on them for everything they do both at work and in life.

Core values should be more than just words; they should reflect a mindset of every individual that is either currently within the organization or in anyone that you hire. No matter how talented the person or how much they might help your company on paper, do not compromise here.  If a potential hire does not possess these traits at their core, move on and wish them well.

Companies like Rackspace and Zappos focus on this as the number one goal of the business and even hire teams to focus on building core strengths of each individual to allow them to grow. The hiring process is designed to see if each person hired has these inner strengths, rather than merely focusing on the actual technical aspects of the job.

Whether its Rackspace and "fanatical support" or Zappos being "powered by customer service," I can assure you that this is the key reason both companies have experienced tremendous growth and accomplished a great deal.  Have a mission, goal and set of beliefs, and stick to them.  Make them the core focus of your business and sing them from the mountaintop.