Corporate Culture

By Charles Vander Kooi

You need to develop a culture which is going to center on and focus on people. You are going to get as positively excited about people as you would if you had landed the most profitable ongoing contract in the world, or just purchased the newest widget on the market.

Corporate Culture is spelled atmosphere.

It is difficult to explain a corporate culture. It is people being emphatic, fair, consistent, communicative, encouraging, concerned and thoughtful. Managers with few, if any, staffing problems usually have one common denominator, the Golden Rule, do onto others as you would have done unto you.

Too many managers, owners, entrepreneurs follow the other two golden rules:

  1. Ive got all the gold, so I rule.
  2. I havent got all the gold yet, so get out of my way.

I used to fly out of Cleveland almost every Monday morning. I always kidded that I liked to fly Northwest Airlines, and would except they were always on strike. Their counter always seemed to be closed due to labor difficulty.

To quote excerpts from a news story about Northwest I just read:

Union leaders accustomed to fighting with management now sing its praises. Out on the front lines our employees are bubbling with enthusiasm. People are smiling says a customer. Theyve repaid more than 1.3 billion dollars of debt more than two years ahead of scheduleMore importantly they are overhauling a corporate culture famous for autocratic, penny-pinching management into one which puts people customers and employees-first. That the CEO Cheechie and his close knit team may be right people to turn things around as they learned the importance of serving the customer working for

The article went on the say the turnaround, the new corporate culture, is the result of actions three new managers took. In less than a year, these three people initiated a change in the corporate culture which affected 42,030 employees plus hundreds of thousands of customers.

The act of genuinely caring, being emphatic about customers and employees, creates an atmosphere which filters though the entire organization. Regardless of the size of your firm, if you can come across as being people orientated and, in fact, are your staffing plans will be effective because there is an effective atmosphere for them to function in.

You will also find out because you and your employees are in accord, additional sales come in, Following the Other 80/20 Rule did not hurt your volume at all. The market place would much rather do business with, come in contact with, an organization that is enthusiastic and cheerful.

Seminars offered by Charles Vander Kooi
Estimating & Bidding Balancing Estimating, Job Costing, and Accounting People Management

Charles Vander Kooi Biography:

Charles Vander Kooi has been involved in the construction industry for over 30 years, thirteen as an upper-management employee of companies and seventeen as a consultant. He has bed over a billion dollars in work over his career. As a private consultant, he has helped over 1,200 companies in their estimating/bidding systems and has lectured to over 70,000 contracting people nationally and internationally.

Constantly in demand, Mr. Vander Kooi speaks at an average of 100 Trade Shows and Conventions annually, teaching his philosophy across the U.S., Canada and Australia. His company consults with an average of 100 clients annually to assist in improving their performance.

He has authored eight books to the industry and his seminars are available on audiocassettes as well as videos.

Vander Kooi and Associates, Inc.
Phone: 303.697.6467, Fax: 303.697.6815

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