Embracing Excellence

About the Author

Franklin C. Ashby, Ph.D. and Arthur R. Pell, Ph.D. are esteemed experts in leadership and corporate culture. Ashby is the chairman, and Pell is the senior vice president of The Leadership Capital Group, LLC. They have extensive experience in helping organizations enhance their leadership capabilities and create environments that attract and retain top talent. Their book, Embracing Excellence, delves into the strategies needed to become an employer of choice and retain the best employees.

Main Idea

Embracing Excellence focuses on creating a corporate culture that attracts and retains top talent, known as "A" players. The book outlines the importance of a positive corporate culture, fair compensation, effective recruitment, and comprehensive onboarding processes. It emphasizes that while financial rewards are important, the overall work environment and intangible benefits play a crucial role in employee satisfaction and retention.

Table of Contents

1. Qualities and Characteristics of a Great Corporate Culture
2. Diagnosing Your Corporate Culture
3. How to Find Great People
4. Balance Compensation and Intangible Benefits
5. The Best Candidates May Be Found Inside Your Company
6. Getting New Employees Off on the Right Foot
7. Why Good People Leave

Qualities and Characteristics of a Great Corporate Culture

A great corporate culture is essential for retaining top talent. It encompasses participation, cooperation, and communication. Organizations that focus on these elements have lower turnover rates and higher employee satisfaction. Ashby and Pell highlight ten features of a great company culture:

• Missionary Zeal: Enthusiasm and excitement that permeate the culture, as seen in companies like Microsoft and Wal-Mart.
• Sense of Pride and Cooperation: Companies like Nordstrom and Home Depot are known for their customer satisfaction driven by employee pride and cooperation.
• Constructive Discontent: Always seeking improvement and never being entirely satisfied.
• Value-Based Management: Companies like Merck, which give away valuable drugs to poor countries, uphold their core values.
• Emphasis on Creativity and Innovation: Budgeting for and encouraging innovation.
• Building Role Models: Creating leaders who are role models, like Aaron Feuerstein of Malden Mills.
• High Expectations and Professional Standards: Cultures like Hewlett-Packard that demand excellence.
• Fair Compensation and Incentives: Companies that let workers share in profits, such as Wal-Mart and Microsoft.
• Celebrating Successes: Appreciating and recognizing achievements to inspire more.
• Golden Rule: Treating others as you want to be treated, fostering respect and loyalty.

Creating such a culture requires more than just top management's commitment; it involves stimulating people to challenge current practices and develop new ideas.

"Success requires more than the full commitment of top management. You must create a climate that stimulates people to challenge current practices and to develop and implement new ideas." - Franklin C. Ashby and Arthur R. Pell

Diagnosing Your Corporate Culture

Before changing the corporate culture, it must be assessed accurately. Managers often deceive themselves about their organization's culture, focusing on tangible statistics while ignoring employee attitudes and morale. The Organizational MRI (O-MRI) is a diagnostic tool designed to uncover culture-related problems and challenges. It involves in-depth employee surveys, focus groups, and multi-level retreats to gather and analyze data.