When it comes to great culture companies Zappos leads the way. Tony Hsieh founded the on-line shoe business after selling his previous company because he said he didn’t like its people. Hsieh was determined to build a new company with a great culture.
Tag: zappos
Last month Peter Kell, Deputy Chairman of Australian Securities and Investment Commission addressed the issues with culture in the financial sector in a speech at the AFR Banking & Wealth Summit. He described the erosion of trust and confidence in the financial system and the global costs of misconduct arising out of poor finance sector culture. He was of course partly referring to recent events that have happened with organisations such as Target and their accounting scandal where staff over inflated their earnings to the tune of $21 million.
Wesfarmers who owns Target is taking action against 10 staff, Mr Goyder, Chairman of Wesfarmers said ‘What’s so disappointing is that people have made a decision, probably through implied pressure that they felt, to do something mind-blowingly stupid”. Continue reading
How language impacts culture
Have you ever noticed how your language changes depending upon who you spend a lot of your time with? Having lived in many different countries I am always astounded at how quickly my language changes.
Take a simple item like trainers (the UK name for running shoes); they become sneakers in the US, tackies in South Africa and runners in Australia. I remember visiting Australia for the first time and seeing a poster up in the gym shower area that read ‘please wear your thongs when showering’; you can imagine my puzzled expression as thongs in England are women’s skimpy underwear! Continue reading