Peggy Johnson Quotes

Culture used to be viewed as the 'touchy-feely' side of business, but that's no longer the case. If you don't have a defined culture behind you, then you aren't going to be effective at executing your strategy.

I have a foundational belief that business results start with culture and your people.

Great companies in the way they work, start with great leaders.

Company culture is my number one priority. It's more important than the team, the product, the business model, or the investors. All of those things can be fixed and made better over time. But culture has to be established on Day 1.

Most of the time, when you need something at a company, you make it. If you want to sell a product, you create it. If you need a head of marketing, you hire one. If you want to create a great company culture, what do you do? The lack of a clear answer on this is why I believe most companies don't have a great culture.

I think the most important thing is not only do you want to build a roster, but you also want to establish a culture within any given organization.

No one gave me a recipe for how to create company culture. I wish I had had one.

I grew up in the IBM school of management.

If I can impact an executive and his or her team, I can help to change the culture of an organization.

A company is only as good as the people it keeps.

I think one of the main challenges that the World Bank faces is creating an organizational structure that doesn't get in the way of its staff. We have fantastic staff. People told me as I was coming into the organization that the greatest asset of the World Bank Group is its staff, and I think there's no question that that's the case.

Turning a culture around is very difficult to do because it's based on a series of many, many decisions, and the organization is framed by those decisions.

I hadn't really worked in an office before Shutterstock, so I didn't have the experience of building a culture, nor did I understand how important that is for attracting and retaining the best talent.

Since most startups operate at a break-neck pace, with a concept to prove or a product to launch within a rapidly shortening runway of financing, company culture often gets shoved aside. This is a big, big mistake: Nobody serious about their business should put culture in the corner.

People have come to me over the years and said to me: 'I admire the culture of Starbucks. Can you come give a speech and help us turn our culture around?' I wish it were that easy. Turning a culture around is very difficult to do because it's based on a series of many, many decisions, and the organization is framed by those decisions.

I don't believe very much in corporate offices. I believe in leaders who are with their customers and their people.

If there are only three guys at the top of the organization handling things, it's the definition of a bankrupt company. In creating leaders without titles, we are going to have organizations with people at the helm putting forth their best.

If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization.

Microsoft's culture is very strong.

The first people in a company are the most important. They will hire people like themselves and create a culture that either works or eats away at the chance for success.

Ultimately, what any company does when it is successful is merely a lagging indicator of its existing culture.

The most important ingredient for the success of any company is the quality of its people, starting with its leadership team.

For the label to grow, it has to have great executives who understand the culture, understand the mission, and can lead. I don't want to be part of every decision.

Great leadership and great companies aren't built overnight, and they're not built without capital. And capital can sometimes be counter-productive to building a great culture.

When employees join executives in truly owning the responsibility for business success, an exciting new sense of teamwork takes hold.