1.
Culture Matters: The Essential
Elements of a Winning Organization
# F U T U R EM
Kory Kolligian
@Altitude_Inc
COO
Altitude
Ralph Folz
@ralphfolz
CEO
WordStream

2.
Culture Matters: The Essential Elements
of a Winning Organization
# F U T U R EM
Kory Kolligian, Altitude

3.
#FUTUREM
Kory’s video.

4.
A brief insight into the design and innovation
consulting industry.
#FUTUREM

5.
Culture makes a big
difference in attracting and
retaining great people.
#FUTUREM

6.
Powerful tools to minimize blind spots.
Observe what is going on around you:
What’s causing people to leave, or
compelling them to stay?
Listen to people who care about others:
If you don’t know what you stand for,
it’s difficult to create true connections.
#FUTUREM

7.
Purpose and Values
#FUTUREM
Make them meaningful
and understandable. Use
them to guide how you work,
communicate and evaluate
success.

8.
Nurture your sphere of influence:
Your interactions with people will
inform their interactions with others,
and others . . . .
#FUTUREM

9.
#FUTUREM
Transparency and forthright
communication engender trust
and commitment.
There is no substitute.

10.
#FUTUREM
Democracy in the workplace
promotes empowerment and
freedom, and minimizes fear
and control.

11.
A learning culture fuels growth
and stimulates development.
#FUTUREM

12.
How does your business succeed?
Teach people your business model
and how the company makes money. It will
enable them to better understand the value
of their contributions.
#FUTUREM

13.
Thank you.
#FUTUREM

14.
Culture Matters: The Essential Elements
of a Winning Organization
# F U T U R EM
RALPH FOLZ, WORDSTREAM
@ralphfolz

15.
Just walk into a company where culture and
values are held to a high standard and
employee engagement oozes from every
corner. Last year revenues increased by an
average of 22.2% for the 2014 Fortune 100
Best Companies to Work For.
• What does it mean to have core values?
• Where do they come from?
• How do we go about setting them up?
Living them?
#FUTUREM

16.
My Core Values Journey
#FUTUREM
Founder
Multiple Iterations of
Core Values
(lots of lessons learned)
Non-Founder
Joined Mid-Stream
Mold / Build a Culture
& Values
Acquired In
Mega Sized Company
Many Brands and
Identities

17.
• Customer Acquisition for Small & Medium Businesses
in 20 Minutes per Week
• One of Boston’s fastest growing companies: 110
Employees today
• $25M raised to date
#FUTUREM

18.
Form a
committee
(good cross-section)
#FUTUREM
Homework,
Readings,
Moderated
Session
Define our
Core Purpose
Story Telling
Draft of
Values,
Feedback,
Repeat
Making Them
Real
Core Values: An Approach

19.
Victor got approval for our Google+ vanity name (now
+wordstream instead of a list of 60 characters). Larry
asked him “Can you do a blog post on it?” It wasn’t in
Victors objectives, and he has a ton to do, but he says “of
course, I’ll take care of it”
#FUTUREM
Customer calls in, they
only speak Spanish. Nefer
speaks Spanish, but he is
on another call. Erin does
her best (she lived in
Miami) and has a
conversation with the
customer and helps them
out.

20.
CORE PURPOSE: To bring the power of search
marketing, to businesses of all sizes
#FUTUREM

21.
Roll-Out
• We incorporate our values into
everything we do.
• Employee recognition system, reviews,
interviewing, etc.
• We have created great collateral and
reminders to drive home the values
#FUTUREM

22.
More Examples
#FUTUREM

23.
Core Values
• One of the most important things. Period.
• They can’t be fake. You are your core
values, your core values are you.
• They must be enforced!
• Engage your staff – at all levels
• Make them real – Live the core values.
#FUTUREM