There’s an old saying about a person’s character coming out in tough times that goes something like:
The true test of a person’s character is how they react in times of adversity
I think this applies to people, families, workgroups and even corporations. Especially corporations! I have worked for several over the years and when one loses their identity and character it is an ugly thing.
Character is very important especially for large corporations to keep them from getting too impersonal and forgetting that their customers, employees, and stockholders are all just people and want to be treated that way.
Corporate Culture
As you probably know, I work for a large corporation, Southern Company, which has roughly 26,000 employees. (Note – I work for Southern Company, but this is my blog and everything here is my opinion and does not represent Southern Company in any way). It would be easy for them to lose their identity given the large corporate structure, geographic spread, and the length of time they’ve been in business. They haven’t.
As far as large corporations go, I don’t think you could ask for a better corporate “Character.” People who work here for the most part stay a long time. Why? The leadership focuses on quality, vision, long term strategy, family, and culture more than any company I’ve worked for or consulted at in previous jobs. They treat people with respect and follow the golden rule.
A perfect example of why I think a corporation can have character was demonstrated this week. I can’t really go into the details, but let’s just say an individual was going through an unimaginably tough personal situation. Peers, managers and managers of managers came together and did things that you would never see in most other cultures. I have never stated the following in over two decades in IT positions, but I was truly proud to be part of the team and company that can apply their culture all the way down to an individual and their workgroup.
The way I always evaluate things is if it were my company, would I do things like x… in this case, ABSOFREAKINGLUTELY!
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