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A Good Corporate Culture Can Have a Big Impact on Brand’s System-Wide Success
A company’s unique identity can provide a sense of belonging for employees—and that’s better for the business’ bottom line.
Corporate culture can mean many things to a lot of people. It could boil down to the workplace atmosphere—be it a spacious open office plan, cramped cubicles with fluorescent lights or private offices with great cityscape views. It could also be something as simple as the camaraderie of birthday celebrations, the novelty of free snacks or the freedom of lax office hours.
However you choose to define it, corporate culture matters. According to a study done by Harvard Business Review, nearly 92 percent of employees firmly believe that defining their business culture would improve the overall value of the company. Another 50 percent said taking the time to establish and nurture a company culture could also influence productivity, creativity, profitability and growth rates.
But what makes a winning corporate culture? First, every successful company has a unique identity—a distinct set of characteristics that sets it apart from other organizations. This personality can give employees a sense of meaning, and it makes them feel like they are truly part of a family—not just a faceless business.
Toppers Pizza* is one brand that does this particularly well. As the brand expanded steadily from its headquarters in Whitewater, Wisconsin, to its current 70-plus locations in 12 states, it quickly became known for its irreverent brand voice built upon humorous slogans, fun delivery drivers and marketing programs tailored to its college student audience. But the larger and more sophisticated Toppers gets—which increasingly attracts multi-unit franchise investors looking to expand—the more important it is to Scott Gittrich, Toppers’ founder and CEO, that the brand never lose sight of its corporate culture.
“When I left Domino’s to start Toppers, I saw a place and a need for a great, made-from-scratch pizza with a more complex menu, but what we really dared to hope to achieve—and what’s come true—is that it would also be a special place for the people who worked there,” Gittrich said. “I’ve always wanted it to be more than a fast-food job and more than just a place where you dragged yourself to clock in.”
He noted that the corporate team constantly strives to communicate with franchisees as well as managers and employees at the unit level, soliciting feedback and, more importantly, ideas for serving customers better. In the past, Gittrich has also held town-hall-style meetings with several Toppers stores to hear what's working and what's not.
“We love asking our team members how to serve the customer better and where we fit in the market, because they have a true and accurate angle on the customers,” he said.
Gittrich added that when a service idea suggested by a team member gets implemented, it usually has benefits as far-reaching for the employees as it does for the guests.
“At the last town hall I did, a guy pulls me aside, and he’s probably 45 years old and delivering pizzas for us,” he recalled. “He’d spoken to us a couple of times about adding a clipboard to his delivery routine for customers to sign credit card receipts on at the door, and we said OK. It’s just a little touch point, but it made a huge difference in customer satisfaction.”
It also made a big difference in that delivery driver’s life, strengthening his sense of purpose in an organization that, while still growing rapidly, took the time to listen to his suggestion.
“He told me working at Toppers has changed his life— relieving a lot of his stress and changing how he thinks about all the choices he makes,” Gittrich said. “He always thought a job was where you go to make money and where you can’t possibly have fun. But from day one, he has worked with people intent to have fun and laugh at work.”
It is not uncommon for Gittrich to hear of staffers or managers moving up to a general manager at a new store and bringing handfuls of teammates with them, which shows him that Toppers’ efforts to hire the right people with the right attitude and to foster a real rapport with one another is working.
“What makes Toppers a special place to us and the connection we have to one another special is the belief we have in what we’re doing,” Gittrich said. “We think we have an important place in the world. Some might look at us and see a job just delivering pizzas, but we’re the people bringing the pizza to your party; we’re the ones bringing fun to your office. We’re not curing Ebola, but there is a place in the world for us to bring all the fun. We take that seriously.”
But a successful corporate culture can be more than just embodying a unique identity. Some of the best performing companies also display a set of performance attributes that align with the company’s strategy and reinforce their mission.
Wild Birds Unlimited*, the leader in backyard bird feeding and nature specialty stores, encourages all employees to connect with nature in the office and at home. Jim Carpenter, founder and CEO of Wild Birds Unlimited, has turned his lifelong passion into a profit-making venture by sharing his love for bird feeding and watching with others. Carpenter believes that same passion should trickle down to every one of his franchisees, too—and it shows. Wild Birds Unlimited encourages employees to connect with nature. Unique bird sightings are announced over the intercom, and everyone races to the window to get a closer look. The brand also hosts company outings, which includes bird watching, nature hikes and volunteering at local environmental and wildlife organization events focused on conservation and giving back to nature.
“Our best accomplishment as a franchisor is knowing our franchisees are happy,” said Paul Pickett, chief development officer for Wild Birds Unlimited. “We want each of our franchisees to have a genuine interest in the avian world. In doing so, Wild Birds Unlimited has built a company culture that enables us to bring together a community of franchise owners and employees who share the same excitement about the hobby that our founder does. That kind of passion will inspire the rest of the community. When they see how excited a store owner is about bird feeding and bird watching, chances are a customer who walks through those doors will feel the same way, too.”
*This brand is a paid partner of 1851 Franchise. For more information on paid partnerships please click here.
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