Campaign: Return on Culture

What if there was a way to measure company culture?

We all know it exists. Though we can all feel company culture, no one is sure of its effect on business. Because it’s intangible. Invisible. Completely up to interpretation, impossible to quantify in any way.

The status quo is soft, inexact and unmeasurable. But what if there were a way to measure company culture?

In this full funnel, year-long, groundbreaking Return on Culture campaign, we proved there is a clear, compelling bridge between culture and business performance. Strategy and its execution are at the forefront of executives’ minds. Culture and talent are critical to operationalizing strategy and we show executives how.

Campaign Objective:

For C-Level Decision Makers, Grant Thornton is the partner that unlocks the potential of corporate culture by proving what factors of corporate culture to invest in will yield and financial performance to be the leading business adviser to dynamic organizations.

Target Audience:

Client Program executives (CFO/CEO/COO) who are focused on revenue growth, reducing operating expenses, and meeting stakeholder expectations.

Funnel Alignment:

Full Funnel campaign to drive awareness of the connection between culture and business performance and the unique organizational strategy solutions offered by the firm

Research Methodology

Partnering with Oxford Economics, GT surveyed 500 C-Suite executives and 500 employees of US companies with $200M-$1B in revenue. We performed economic modeling, regression and correlation analysis to determine culture’s impact on business performance and strongest links.

An index was built to measure organizational performance on 5 most critical culture aspects: workplace environment, sense of community, executive investment in employees, purpose and value system, and diversity.

Additionally, in-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with C-suite executives including:

Ann Rhoades, Co-Founder of JetBlue
Betsy Sutter, Chief People Officer of VMWare
Umran Beba, Chief Diversity and Engagement Officer, PepsiCo

Research Results

Through rigorous and statistical analysis, we established a quantifiable connection between a company’s culture and its financial performance. We can also point to the specific actions organizations can take and the investments they can make to build a culture that delivers financial results. With recommended tools to measure and monitor the impact of culture, we’ve demonstrated how businesses can invest in their culture and enjoy financial rewards.

Key Campaign Content Assets:

Return on Culture research report
Comprehensive report with learnings from research and “big story” narrative (culture = financial performance + “now you can”)
Interactive benchmarking tool
Gated content for lead generation, scoring of organizational performance relative to index