corporate culture

The Green Zebra guide - local savings for sustainable living, is a great corporate gift to give employees to encourage a culture for sustainability and green business within your organization. Culture is king and how people behave dictates if business strategy is executed or just talked about. The Green Zebra guide is the Entertainment book for green living, filled with coupons and offers for local, health and environmental products and services. Yoga classes, health food stores, restaurants, attractions, hotels and yes, even gift basket businesses have coupons inside, many of value worth more than the $20 purchase price of the book. If you're wondering how to get your employees to bring sustainability into the work place, why don't you try to get them to bring it into their lives. If they like it, they'll bring it to work and feel good about it too.

Sustainable business doesn't work if its another thing for your employees to do. More tasks and more things to be responsible for in their job description. Green business flourishes when it's just how people do their job. It's part of the culture of how decisions are made, how opportunities turn are executed, the questions people ask and the answers they have. It's been well proven that sustainability can save companies money in HR, retaining employees for longer periods of time, increasing productivity and decreasing costs associated with training and lost knowledge and experience when people leave. When your employees bring their values to work they love their jobs, at least aspects of their jobs, and feel good knowing that their energy day in day out is going to improve the world in some way. If you're looking for more info on this subject I recommend reading 'The Sustainability Advantage' by Bob Willard. I've had the pleasure to meet Bob numberous times over the last few years at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) and also at the CBSR Summit, an annual day long conference on corporate social responsibility in Canada.

Top 3 Things We Value in Green Zebra

1. Save money - try new products, restraunts and services with less risk. Some will be good, some not so much but you will find things that you enjoy that you might have not tried without a little incentive.
2. TB Vets - a portion of revenue gets donated to TB Vets, helping to improve health for residents in BC
3. Build a corporate culture that embraces sustainability - a significant value driver for bottom line benefits in your business. Giving people a coupon book isn't going to change your culture overnight. People build culture. But managment can help to steer the ship and as people try greening their personal lives in ways they enjoy they'll start to bring their behaviours to work. This is something that your can't train in a workshop or buy.

Saul Good is hiring and I'm looking for someone amazing that wants to be a part of building this business. As my business has grown I've been learning about how to best maximize the use of my time and get help from people to grow.  My experience is limited in this space but this is how things are looking from my perspective.

Top 3 things to consider when hiring

1)  cultural fit

Culture is king and drives how your business lives in the world, the kinds of clients you attract, the kinds of employees you retain and the feeling and breath of your business. In some ways culture = brand. Although there are ways for larger businesses to propogate their cultures, like the Zappos Culture Book and extensive interview process to ensure cultural fit, small business needs to really rely on having a strong understanding of your brand and values, trusting your instincts and finding the people that feel like a good fit. I'm not looking to hire a cog in the wheel, but people to build a strong foundation for an amazing company. Culture will evolve and be co-created by the employees but choosing the right ones early plays a big role in how it'll all play out.

2) focus on what you're great at and get help with things that you're not the best

I'm good at sales. I think it's really fun to get to know people, their businesses, and figuring out creative ways to help them build relationships to nurture success. I need help in operations, taking care of all the details that make this business tick, working with suppliers, ordering products, assembling gifts and getting them where they need to be when they need to be there. I've decided to focus on the sales and marketing side and I'm looking for help in operations. I see this as a good way to focus on what I'm good at and getting help at things that keep me busy instead of adding value strategically.

3) attitue is essential - anyone can learn anything

People are smart and can learn how to do almost anything. But attitude isn't learned and is really hard for people to change. If you've got a great attitude you'll make the most out of challenging situations, be pleasant to work with and be willing to learn and grow. These are the types of people I want to hire and build Saul Good with.

If anyone has any other tips for me please feel free to share your experience with comments below. And if you know anyone that could be a good fit for my operational needs here at Saul Good please send them my way.

Last week I went to Las Vegas for the Awards Recognition Association (ARA) show along with my friends at Eclipse Awards.  Recognition is a powerful way to build relationships, both in business and in pleasure, and going to the show was a great opportunity for me to learn more about the industry.  Sustainability has all to do with recognition and appreciation, as I learned so deeply working on my MBA at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI), as it's really about taking care of people and building culture, two powerful pillars needed to build successful progressive businesses and organizations.  One of the highlights of the trip was a tour we scheduled at the headquarters of zappos.com.  We had heard from friends that it was a great tour, and knew a bit about the success of this online retailer, but were totally surprised as to how progressive the organization was.  Jerry, the Zappos Major, took us on the tour and didn't cease to amaze.  In the photo above you can see him in his festive glory.  Behind you can see the desks of the c-suite, not what you might expect for a billion dollar company!

Management drives culture but employees create it

I was facinated to see how passionate, personal, creative and friendly the Zappos employees are.  For a company thats focussed on service, they were spot on.  They made me feel important and of value and this feeling I now attribute to their brand.  As we walked around the offices there were two things that I thought were super cool.

1. Each department decorated their own area and meeting room
2. Each department welcomed us in their own way

These factors help employees to own a piece of their job, to have creative freedom and expression and be recognized and valued for things that are fun.  This helps to build a positive culture, with happy and satisfied employees.  People who like their job and feel proud to serve their company.  They like each other and their customers.  From tiki lounges to hoola hoops to cowgirls ringing triangles to Mexican margarhita escapades, Zappos has a taste for everyone.

Zappos Library

At the end of the tour you get to choose books from their library that you promise to read, all of which looked good but a couple stood out.  I choose 2.

1. Co-opetition by Adam Brandenburger & Barry Nalebuff
2. Made to Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

Since learning from Elizabet Sahtouris, an evolutionary biologist, at BGI I've been facinated by how cooperation is a more powerful tool for survival in the game of evolution.  That by working together and understanding each other's needs that we're able to best figure out how to work and live with each other.  This is the basis of what we're working towards in the Strathcona Green Zone, how businesses can work together for mutual benefit and build a healthy interconnected sustainable community.  It will be interesting to see how Brandenburger & Nalebuff tie in how cooperation and competition are related.  I'll keep you posted.  One of my great entrepreneurship professors, Paul Hudnut, talked about how to create powerful 'sticky' ideas in a presentation one day a couple years back and given my interest and passion for storytelling and marketing I'm excited to dive into this one as well.

Feeling like a king

Although my friends made me wear a tiara Zappos still made me feel like a king.  Another great moment of the tour was in our visit to Dr.Vik's office, a space used for employees to talk about things going on in their lives and get advice to help them deal with things and achieve their goals.  This sence of safety, comfort, and support again are powerful ways to build a healthy trusting culture, where everyone understands that people are people, not just cogs in the wheel making sprockets.  Success is based on people and it's manifested in the cultures that we create.