Learn About Brand-Culture Fusion from These 59 Organizations 

The audio book version of FUSION: How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World’s Greatest Companies is now available!  Now you can listen to stories, anecdotes, examples, and case studies about 59 organization and learn about how to achieve brand-culture fusion, the full integration and alignment of external brand identity and internal organizational culture.*  Here’s a sample and a list of what you’ll learn in the FUSION audio book:

1. Adobe — Adobe’s leaders approach culture change as a strategic business change.
2. Airbnb — Employee experience (EX) is the critical strategy that Airbnb relies on to build its brand and pursue its purpose.
3. Amazon — The company succeeds because it has a single, unifying drive behind its internal culture and its external brand.
4. Apple — A short, powerful phrase aptly conveys the company’s reason for existing.
5. Autodesk — What motivates employees most isn’t six-week paid sabbaticals and its extraordinary office designs.
6. Banco Supervielle — Company leaders defined the behaviors they expected employees to demonstrate for each core value as well as those behaviors they would not accept.
7. BELAY — CEO and cofounder of this virtual staffing company Brian Miles believes “‘Why’ is the best thing to leave somebody with when you’re not around.”
8. Chevron — Employees reinforce the company’s core value of safety by opening each meeting with a “safety moment.”
9. City Year — This nonprofit organization, which places young Americorps members in urban schools to help students stay in school and on track to graduate, extends its rituals and artifacts including its iconic red jackets to engage key donors in brand-building.
10. Cleveland Clinic — The renowned medical center uses a particular organizational structure to support and advance its desired culture and brand.
11. Clio — The firm which makes legal practice management software goes beyond training its customer service agents on how to answer customers’ questions and fix their problems efficiently and effectively and also helps them develop the specific skills required to fulfill the company’s purpose.
12. Crossroads Church — Values offers organizations like this Cincinnati, OH-based mega church clear guidance in the midst of a crisis or a crucible moment.
13. Facebook — The company made a deliberate change in its purpose when it was called for,
14. FedEx — The leaders at FedEx discovered the unifying power of core values after acquiring several businesses.
15. Ford — The company’s extraordinary post-Great Recession turnaround demonstrates the transformative power of a culture steeped in an overarching purpose and integrated with the brand.
16. Gazelles — With clear and cleverly-articulated values, this strategic planning consulting and coaching firm conveys its priorities and its unique personality.
17. GE — GE’s leaders used a purpose-driven business strategy, Ecomagination, to shape external perceptions of the company.
18. Gentle Giants — At this moving company, every new hire is required to run the stairs at Harvard Stadium, a ritual that’s not only a rite of passage, but also an integral part of training.
19. Google — Leaders implemented “the rule of seven” throughout the company’s organizational structure.
20. H&M — This retailer’s core values are highly correlated and support each other.
21. Hubspot — The inbound marketing software company avoids using acronyms in job descriptions because they not only confused candidates but also sent the message that they were expected to adapt and conform to the company’s “language” and processes rather than bring their own (and new) perspective to them.
22. IBM — Sam Palmisano led a cultural renewal at the company by first asking employees to identify IBM’s enduring values, and then he activated newly-inspired values by conducting tests and collecting feedback from employees on how well they served the company.
23. JC Penney — CEO Marvin Ellison instituted “Project Simple” as part of his efforts to turnaround the company.
24. Joie de Vivre — The hotelier asks every employee to spend a night each quarter in one of the company’s hotels other than the one where they work (at the company’s expense, of course).
25. LinkedIn — The company’s vital values made it possible to acquire numerous businesses.
26. MGM Resorts — Company leaders conducted in-person training for all 77,000 employees as part of a wholesale brand and culture transformation.
27. Mitchell International — The insurance software company’s leaders created “The Mitchell Way Day” to inspire and galvanize employees around the brand.
28. Motley Fool — This investor website developed a “Fool Rules” employee guide to explain its core values which include “Honest. Make us proud.”
29. Natura — The Brazilian personal care company redesigned its operational processes to affirm and advance its overarching purpose and core values.
30. NCR — The maker of transaction systems adopted a segmentation model in its EX specifically for the new employee on-boarding interaction.
31. Netflix — The company offers a cautionary example of the importance of values congruence—and the danger of “action inconsistency.”
32. Nike — At Nike, the company is powered by the most important question an organization must ask itself.
33. Oakley — Disruption by Design, a campaign that conveyed Oakley’s culture of disruption, clarified its brand differentiation and established the basis for increased differentiation in the future.
34. Patagonia — This company leveraged its well-defined, deeply entrenched culture to shape its brand identity.
35. Plant with Purpose — The leaders at this non-profit believe that employees best understand and embrace the purpose of the organization when they experience it firsthand, so they arrange for all employees, regardless of role, to spend time working at one of their field locations.
36. Quicken Loans — This company deployed an online learning tool comprising electronic flash cards, one for each of its core values,
37. QuikTrip — The regional convenience store chain relies heavily on the company’s core values in its recruiting efforts and puts applicants through “a rigorous, structured screening process.”
38. Rabobank Nederland — This large financial services provider in the Netherlands used a 3-part design model when it began developing an EX to support a new, more self-directed work culture.
39. REI — The retailer launched #OptOutside, a campaign with a bold message rooted in its culture to bring attention to your brand and set it apart.
40. RightNow — The customer relationship management software company changed its contracts after discovering how back-office functions and employees in non-customer- facing roles affect brand touchpoints.
41. Salesforce — The company’s Ohana spirit is intricately woven into the fabric of its culture through everyday practices that individually might seem small but collectively bind employees together.
42. San Diego Regional Airport Authority — This public agency created a new role to support its desired culture by combining responsibilities historically segregated into marketing and human resources departments.
43. Southwest Airlines — The company’s agile, efficient, and fun culture is actually rooted in a unique organizational design.
44. Starbucks — At this company, a unique EX helps them feel its purpose and values personally.
45. Tarjeta Naranja — The Argentinian credit card company calls its EX “Joy for Your Day” and includes activities and celebrations that promote the company’s culture of happiness.
46. Telefonica — This Madrid-based telecommunications company launched an integrated employee brand engagement communications campaign to increase employees’ understanding of and motivation for undertaking the transformation to a digital telecom.
47. Telenor — The Norwegian telecom company relies on an e-learning program to successfully accomplish its engagement goals.
48. Tencent — Chinese Internet giant Tencent designed its new headquarters in Shenzhen to echo and reinforce its cultural emphasis on innovation.
49. Traction — The leaders at this creative agency encourage employees to participate in events like Burning Man even if other companies would be concerned about the nudity, drug use, and sex that some might involve.
50. Tower — Stephan Aarstol, CEO and founder of this lifestyle company, realized he needed to make his brand values a part of his company’s “fabric” and changed its work hours.
51. Umpqua — At this regional bank, the senior officers for Cultural Enhancement (human resources) and Creative Strategies (marketing) have their corner offices at either end of the executive floor and their employees work side-by-side in between.
52. Unilever — The packaged goods corporation launched USLP, the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, and used its core values to sharpen it corporate-wide brand identity.
53. USAA — This insurance and financial services provider designs experiences to help employees cultivate empathy for their customers and develop new products and innovative solutions that customers love.
54. Valve — The creator of video game platform Steam applies a unique approach to compensation decisions.
55. Virgin Group — Founder Richard Branson believes purpose is essential to engaging employees who are expected to work longer hours and with greater commitment.
56. Volkswagen — The emissions scandal at VW revealed an organizational culture completely out of line with its brand.
57. WD-40 — One of the company’s core values, “creating positive lasting memories,” aligns and connects what the company does on the inside to what it does on the outside.
58. Zappos — This company publishes an annual “Culture Book,” a collection of unedited submissions from employees about what the culture at the company is really like and what it means to them.
59. Zingermans — Leaders infuse the company’s fun and funky brand and culture into every aspect of its business, including its Staff Guide.

You can learn more about FUSION (available in hard cover, e-book, and audio book) take the free online Brand–Culture Fusion assessment, and download a free chapter here.  And check out the 4.9 star rating and reader reviews on Amazon here.

* Extensive analysis and insights are included for organizations whose descriptions are in bold.

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