FutureM 2014 Culture Matters: The Essential Elements of a Winning Organization Speakers: Ralph Folz (@ralphfolz), CEO, WordStream Kory Kolligian COO, Altitude Highly engaged and satisfied employees contribute to the growth and success of an organization. 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. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, these same companies added new employees at rate that was five times higher than the national average. Join us as we discuss strategies to develop a positive and productive work culture.

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.
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5. Culture makes a big
difference in attracting and
retaining great people.
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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.
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7. Purpose and Values
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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 . . . .
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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.
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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.
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13. Thank you.
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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?
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16. My Core Values Journey
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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
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18. Form a
committee
(good cross-section)
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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”
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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
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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
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22. More Examples
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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