Last week I had an opportunity to attend a portion of the Gasparilla Interactive Festival. As I listened to Joanna Lord speak about her passions and the growth of her business, it really sparked something in me; Business shouldn’t just be about products and revenue, but it should also have a large emphasis on community.
If you want a successful business, you need to go the extra mile and do something completely unnatural to increase your growth as a company. Joanna talked about taking risks and empowering everyone to be their best selves.
For Porch, the company she currently works with, she discussed how an employee is chosen randomly each month and they are allotted a certain amount of money to do what they feel will help the company (whether it is an social outing for the employees or it is to bring a speaker in for a day to teach them something new). She said that the title of the person has no relevance in this matter, because everyone has something they can bring to the table.
She stressed how important community is within the company, and to make sure that all employees are happy, which increases their chances at being successful as a whole. Which make sense… if employees are unhappy coming to work; they won’t perform as well and in turn the business will suffer. Therefore, community and employee happiness is key in a successful company.
