Culture is what drives companies forward. Here are some of our favorite quotes on culture and teamwork from around the globe.
“Create the kind of workplace and company culture that will attract great talent. If you hire brilliant people, they will make work feel more like play.”
— Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group
“No company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.”
— Jack Welch, Chairman and CEO of General Electric
“One of our values is that you should be looking out for each other. Everyone should try to make the lives of everyone else who works here a little bit simpler.”
– Stewart Butterfield, Founder, Slack
“It’s important for us to create a culture of innovation — one that both values and rewards risk.”
– Barbara Landes, CFO, PBS
“Make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, has a meaningful impact and is contributing to the good of society.”
– Larry Page, CEO, Google
“If we really want to be effective with communication, we have to humanize our brands.”
– Amy Jo Martin, Founder, CEO, Digital Royalty
“Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”
– Anne M. Mulcahy, CEO, Xerox
“A strong company culture is incredibly valuable for a startup. It will inspire and motivate each team member to produce the best work they can, rather than just the required minimum. And its value increases exponentially when things go wrong, which they always do in startups.”
— Steli Efti, Close.io
“We try to have the kind of a culture that doesn’t value excuses in the sense that when you’re supposed to accomplish something, and you’re at a high level, then your job is to accomplish it, in spite of difficulty. And you’re rewarded for dealing with that.”
– Phil Libin, Co-Founder, former CEO of Evernote
“We have a culture where we are incredibly self critical, we don’t get comfortable with our success.”
– Mark Parker, CEO, Nike
“I look for two things when I hire a new employee: ambition and humility. Without a proven track record of initiative and ambition, it’s likely the person becomes a drain rather than a contributor to the company — even the really smart, talented ones.”
– Justin McLeod, Founder, CEO, Hinge
“Being a great place to work is the difference between being a good company and a great company.”
– Brian Kristofek, President and CEO, Upshot
“I think as a company, if you can get those two things right — having a clear direction on what you are trying to do and bringing in great people who can execute on the stuff — then you can do pretty well.”
– Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
“Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.”
– Simon Sinek, author, Start with Why
'Engendering a culture of trust also does wonders. This is because, even if you have a heated argument, as long as you keep in the back of your mind that the people you’re arguing with do have the best in mind for the company and wider team, you’ll always be able to make it to the end and remain friendly.”
— Patrick Campbell, ProfitWell
“We believe that it’s really important to come up with core values that you can commit to. And by commit, we mean that you’re willing to hire and fire based on them. If you’re willing to do that, then you’re well on your way to building a company culture that is in line with the brand you want to build.”
– Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos
“Hire great people and give them freedom to be awesome.”
– Andrew Mason, Founder, Groupon
“Assume the best but hire paranoid people.”
– Evan Williams, Co-Founder, Twitter
“I think company culture is something you breathe every day, not a slide deck you receive the first day you arrive.”
— Massimo Chieruzzi, AdEspresso
“Determine what behaviors and beliefs you value as a company, and have everyone live true to them. These behaviors and beliefs should be so essential to your core, that you don’t even think of it as culture.”
– Brittany Forsyth, VP of Human Relations, Shopify
“True leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed… Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.”
– Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook
“I think a large part of that is the fact that I’m a large believer in hiring the right people and giving them unbelievable amounts of power and autonomy.”
– Blake Mycoskie, Founder, TOMS Shoes
“Corporate culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that is completely within the control of the entrepreneur.”
– David Cummings, Co-Founder, Pardot
“Transparency starts as a mindset change.”
– Kevan Lee, Content Crafter, Buffer
“Everyone on the team plays an equal role. My role is to create the wave and everyone on our team keeps the wave going.”
– William Wang, Founder, Vizio
“There’s no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated.”
– Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Group
“I used to believe that culture was ‘soft,’ and had little bearing on our bottom line. What I believe today is that our culture has everything to do with our bottom line, now and into the future.”
– Vern Dosch, author, Wired Differently
“Performance more often comes down to a cultural challenge, rather than simply a technical one.”
– Lara Hogan, Senior Engineering Manager of Performance, Etsy
“You want to set goals that you can hit, so when you start hitting them, you can celebrate those wins. People start trusting in your way of projecting the business.”
– Wiley Cerilli, Founder, former CEO of SinglePlatform
“Over the years we learned that if we asked people to rely on logic and common sense instead of on formal policies, most of the time we would get better results, and at lower cost.”
– Patty McCord, Chief Talent Officer, Netflix
“Ultimately, it’s on the company leaders to set the tone,” Cook told Fast Company. “Not only the CEO, but the leaders across the company. If you select them so carefully that they then hire the right people, it’s a nice self-fulfilling prophecy.”
– Tim Cook, CEO, Apple
“Our culture is friendly and intense, but if push comes to shove we’ll settle for intense.”
– Jeff Bezos, Founder, CEO, Amazon
“Company Culture is the product of a company’s values, expectations and environment.”
– Courtney Chapman, Product Manager, Rubicon Project
“We believe in relentlessly refining our skills and knowledge, as a team and as individuals.”
– Liz Liu, Head of Culture, Scopely
“Considering greater contexts also means acknowledging our values’ potential ‘dark sides.’ For instance, the ‘dark side’ of being obsessively customer-focused and putting the customer first is that we’ll often do things that are not good for our business in the short term, in order to satisfy customers.”
— Chris Savage, Wistia
“In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. They are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign. The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.”
– Howard Schultz, CEO, Starbucks
“Culture is to recruiting as product is to marketing.”
– HubSpot’s Culture code
“Culture is simply a shared way of doing something with a passion.”
– Brian Chesky, Co-Founder, CEO, Airbnb7
“If you want employees to feel appreciated, you need to celebrate their achievements regularly and publicly.”
– Logan Green, Co-Founder, Lyft
“The way I think about culture is that modern humans have radically changed the way that they work and the way that they live. Companies need to change the way they manage and lead to match the way that modern humans actually work and live.”
– Brian Halligan, CEO, Hubspot
“Shaping your culture is more than half done when you hire your team.”
– Jessica Herrin, Founder, Stella & Dot
“Our secret weapon for building the best culture is open and honest feedback.”
– Gina Lau, Team Operations, HelloSign
“It’s about getting the best people, retaining them, nurturing a creative environment & helping to find a way to innovate.”
– Marissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo
