2nd Story: Intuit

Brooks Fisher, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s consumer internet business, told me Intuit’s signature story is following:

“Follow Me Home”

Scott Cook, founder of Intuit, was so focused on understanding and fulfilling customers’ needs that he invented “Follow Me Home.” He would go to a store where Intuit’s software was being sold. Then, while a customer was buying Intuit software, he would ask if he could follow customer home. At home, he would watch how customer installed and used software.

Intuit’s Culture

Given Intuit’s story, what is company’s culture -- or main focus? Fisher says story conveys Intuit’s culture which is “The customer always is first.” And, as Fisher puts it, “That’s how you win.” Note: The story also precisely meshes with Intuit’s big, compelling vision: “Our key goal is to revolutionize how people do financial work.”

Hire Applicants Who ‘Fit Into’ Your Company’s Culture

You know it proves difficult to “fit a square peg into a round hole.” Likewise, companies need to hire applicants who ‘fit into’ their organizational culture.

For instance, one company I consult to is ultra-customer service oriented with super-friendly employees. When we did benchmarking studies for this company with Abilities & Behavior Forecaster™ Test – to customize Forecaster™ Test to help hire best – we discovered successful employees in every job scored high on two of test’s scales: + Helping People Motivation, i.e., customer service-orientation + Friendliness

Such customer service-focused and super-friendly employees ‘fit into’ company’s culture, and prove most likely to succeed.

Message = Don’t bet against your organizational culture when you aim to hire best. Fortunately, you can do by 1. benchmarking your “superstar” employees in each job – by having them fill-out a validated pre-employment test to discover their “benchmark” test scores

2. focusing on hiring applicants whose test scores are similar to your company’s “superstar” employees’ test scores

Now, You Can Uncover Your Organization’s Culture

To discover your corporate culture, you simply need to uncover story that 1. employees hear in their first week on-the-job and repeat to new employees 2. perfectly conveys how all employees must act – even when no one is watching!

Usually, story is about company’s founder. It typically conveys insights and actions that lead to remarkable, profitable success.

© Copyright 2005 Michael Mercer, Ph.D., http://www.DrMercer.com

Michael Mercer, Ph.D., is a speaker, and book author. His five books include (a) Absolutely Fabulous Organizational Change™ & also (b) Hire the Best -- & Avoid the Rest™. Dr. Mercer developed the Abilities & Behavior Forecaster™ Test – which helps companies choose productive applicants. You can (1) get a free subscription to his e-Newsletter at http://www.DrMercer.com or (2) call him at 847-382-0690.

This point made in majority of organisations will be perceived as a professional approach to a potential problem that most people do recognise. The delegates will thank you for any controls you put in place next morning.