Recognise This – Culture is the foundation of any company’s success, especially over the long-term.
Since the latest Fortune “Best Companies to Work For” list came out, there have been several interviews with CEOs and presidents of various organisations. I’ve read quite a bit of good advice or interesting insights from these leaders (and their employees) and thought I’d share the most interesting excerpts with you this week. Today, we begin with Mars, Inc., makers of M&Ms, Snickers, and 9 other billon-dollar brands.
In this detailed article, Fortune shares these insights into the unique culture of Mars.
The Importance of Culture
The décor and the “perks” matter far less (or not at all) than the culture people work within every day. Make sure yours is a culture and a mission employees want to engage with and get behind.
“For the first time, the company has made it onto Fortune’s annual U.S. roster of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. At No. 95 on the 2013 list, Mars boasts employees who love not only the products they make but also the office culture and the company’s long-standing principles. That might seem surprising on the face of it… Its work sites are utilitarian rather than comfy. There are no Foosball tables or sushi chefs. ‘A lot of really good companies invest in the wrong architecture,’ says Paul S. Michaels, the nonfamily president of Mars. ‘Does it add value for the consumer [for] Snickers bars to pay for marble floors and Picassos?’”
Culture Drives Retention
Manufacturing is not known for high retention rates. It’s especially not known for non-unionisation (at least in the U.S.). Yet, at Mars, the culture is so strong, employees (of all stripes) stay because they can grow and develop in their careers.
“And yet employees thrive. Once they get a job, they stay: Turnover in the U.S. is a low 5% or so (excluding the sales force). Some families can claim three generations of employees. The 78-year-old woman who runs the in-house candy shop at the plant in Slough, England, has loyally worked at Mars since the reign of George VI — more than six decades. The demographics of the Mars workplace in the U.S. — about 70% of it in manufacturing, almost entirely nonunionised — are diverse; women constitute 38% of the managers.”
“Statements” Are Meaningless
A mission statement is just that – a written idea – until you make it real for all employees in what they do and experience every day at work.
“Jim Price, site-quality and food-safety manager at the chocolate plant in Hackettstown, N.J: ‘If you ask some companies for their mission statement, they have to pull it out of a drawer. Here you just have to look around.’”
Deeply Embedded Core Principles
Your core values are equally useless if they are nothing more than a plaque on the wall. They must resonate for employees and guide their daily work. And they mustn’t change with the wind. Consistency over time matters.
“The company believes in the “Five Principles of Mars”: quality, responsibility, mutuality, efficiency, freedom. The principles are emblazoned on the walls of its 400 offices and manufacturing sites in 73 countries, including such faraway lands as China, Madagascar, and Saudi Arabia… The principles are what unify Mars employees across products and geography.
“Every Mars employee gets a glossy 27-page booklet explaining the principles in action, signed with the names of 13 family members. The principles, righteously explains the booklet, ‘set us apart from others, requiring that we think and act differently towards our associates, our brands and our business.’”
“Employees can, and do, recite the Five Principles as if they were handed down from the managerial heavens. They’re cult as much as culture… While the principles weren’t codified until 1983, they date to the early days of Mars.”
Unity Manifests in the Physical as Well as the Emotional
Especially in large, diversified organisations, your core values must guide every employee’s actions, in every division, unit and team, everywhere in the world.
“Each Mars division functions with vast independence — subject to the core principles. When Chicago-based Wrigley was acquired by Mars in 2008, the storied 117-year-old chewing-gum manufacturer had to gut its interior offices to change to Mars’s open-floor plan; such is the value of approachability and communication that is presumed to go along with an egalitarian workspace…
“‘A very important tenet of Mars is we don’t want to be a holding company of different companies,’ says Martin Radvan, the president of Wrigley, who took over the division in 2011 after 24 years in other Mars positions. ‘At the end of the day, I think there’s a strong feeling we’re all Martians.’”
If you were interviewed by Fortune on why your company is “Best Place to Work,” what would you spotlight?
