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In describing the impact of The Flippen Group, our customers typically say that we made a dramatic improvement in their culture. In their book, Built To Last, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras conducted an exhaustive study of many of America’s largest and enduring companies. These companies had an average founding date of 1897. They discovered 17 companies that have stood the test of time and prospered far above their comparison companies. Their goal was to determine the key factors shared by these visionary companies that set them apart from others over the long haul.
Among the most significant factors discovered was that these visionary companies created strong cultures. Using a social contract development process, The Flippen Group helps companies identify the unique culture they want to create and maintain for their employees. The process used for developing their contract allows employees to assess how they want to be treated by their leadership, by each other, how leaders want to be treated, and how people within the company should treat each other when personal offenses occur.
In his book The Human Equation, Jeffrey Pfeffer goes a step further, addressing not only how critical the culture is for a company to thrive, but also specifically stating that a company’s method of managing people directly impacts the bottom line. “Over the past decade or so, numerous rigorous studies conducted both within specific industries and in samples of organizations that cross industries have demonstrated the enormous economic returns obtained through the implementation of what are variously called high involvement, high performance, or high commitment management practices…But even as these research results pile up, trends in actual management practice are, in many instances, moving in a direction exactly opposite to what this growing body of evidence prescribes...The returns from managing people in ways that build high commitment, involvement, and learning and organizational competence are typically on the order of 30 to 50 percent, substantial by any measure.”
Daniel Goleman did extensive research and came to similar conclusions in his book Primal Leadership. One passage states, “Common wisdom, of course, holds that employees who feel upbeat will likely go the extra mile to please customers and therefore improve the bottom line. But there’s actually a logarithm that predicts that relationship: For every 1 percent improvement in the service climate, there’s a 2 percent increase in revenue.” Along the same lines, he later makes the statement, “Our analyses suggest that, overall, the climate--how people feel about working at a company--can account for 20 to 30 percent of business performance.”
These examples of rigorous research demonstrate that the impact made by The Flippen Group goes far beyond simply making people feel better or like each other. The impact is critically important, it is long-term, and it is proven to affect the bottom line. |
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“After putting these principles into practice, Transit Mix’s cement truck driver turnover rate dropped from 72% to 47% in just over 14 months. The dropout rate among certified drivers was less than 1%. Transit Mix is confident that the dropout rate will continue to fall sharply.” |
Mark Stiles
Corporate Vice President
Transit Mix
A division of Trinity Industries
Fortune 500 Company
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