Goldman Sachs is a titan of finance but, for a giant, it is remarkably dynamic. Our MIT research has identified the company as an Agility Champion.

Agility is a strategic dimension of culture that allows a firm to respond to changing market circumstances and nimbly seize emerging opportunities.

In this discussion, Jacqueline Arthur, Goldman’s senior-most human capital management executive, walks through how Goldman has cultivated such a remarkable culture of agility while attracting a distinctive and impressive employee base.

Kunal Kapoor is the CEO of Morningstar. 

In 1984, Morningstar was founded out of a Chicago apartment, named after a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote. The company aimed to empower investors to make more successful decisions by providing them with high quality insights. Ten years later, Morningstar had about 200 employees, and around that time Kunal became one of them. 

Since then, the company has indeed transcended, albeit in a direction more NASDAQ than Walden Pond. In 2005, the company went public. Over the next twenty years, the company’s revenue and headcount grew more than tenfold, to $2.3 billion and 11,000 employees. Along the way, the company broadened its customer base, global footprint, and product line. 

Core to Morningstar’s success is its distinctive culture, which works both for employees and stakeholders. On Glassdoor, employees are significantly more likely to positively mention the culture than employees from peer firms. Its culture excels on specific targeted dimensions; employees are also off the charts more positive about educational opportunities (“growth mindset” Morningstar core value) and cross silo collaboration (“one team”), for instance.  

In this episode, Kunal walks us through why culture matters so much to Morningstar and how he and his fellow leaders crafted such an excellent one as the company rapidly grew by two orders of magnitude.  

Craig Kliethermes is the CEO of RLI Insurance Company

In 1961, Gerald Stephens founded Replacement Lens Inc to offer a novel insurance policy that covered the cost of replacing contact lenses. As the price of contacts fell over time, insurance demand fell as well, but RLI already diversified into other niche insurance markets. 

Today, RLI offers dozens of highly specialized insurance products across a wide range of niche markets that fill unmet customer needs 

This steady stream of new product introductions has allowed RLI to deliver the highest revenue growth among specialty insurers over the past five years and total shareholder returns at the top of the industry

RLI attributes much of the company’s success to great people and its distinctive culture, captured in the tagline "different works."

Employees love the culture, and have voted RLI one of Glassdoor’s best places to work for four of the last six years.

RLI puts five core values--ownership, customer focus, drive, innovation, and integrity at the heart of its culture  

We analyzed how more than 50,000 employees described their company in Glassdoor reviews for 45 insurance companies.  We found that RLI employees spoke about the company's core values much more frequently and positively than employees in peer companies.  

In this episode, Craig discusses the vital role culture plays in RLI’s success, and how the company fosters such a strong one. 

Adam Holton is the Chief People Officer of GE HealthCare. 

General Electric entered the healthcare more than one hundred years ago. In January 2023, GE HealthCare was spun off from General Electric as a publicly traded company with more than 50,000 employees and 2024 revenue of nearly $20 billion. 

Especially since its spin-off, GE HealthCare has cultivated a best-in-industry culture, as measured by Glassdoor ratings. Employees speak two standard deviations more positively than peers about learning and development and feeling respected. GE HealthCare also has a demonstrably non-toxic culture where employees feel like they are treated fairly. 

Before launching a corporate career in a series of senior HR roles at GE, USAA, CHS, Numotion, and Amedisys, Adam was a US Marine, which shaped his thinking on business management and culture.

In this episode, Adam reveals the secrets of GE HealthCare’s resounding cultural success in the face of a turbulent transition and reflects on how the strong culture of the Marine Corps influenced his approach. 

When Steve joined Milwaukee Tool as president in 2007, the company was 83 years old and sold a limited range of traditional power tools

During his tenure as president, Steve led a remarkable transformation of the company’s strategy and culture that produced a steady stream of technical and product innovations. 

Today, Milwaukee Tool sells a wide range of cordless power tools for the building trades, and is the market share leader in North America and globally. This steady stream of new products has allowed Milwaukee Tool to deliver double-digit revenue growth, year-in and year-out, for nearly two decades. And over the past ten years, Milwaukee Tools’ parent company has generated total shareholder returns of 17% CAGR, versus 7% for its direct competitors and 11% for the industrial sector as a whole

Steve attributes much of the company’s success to great people and its distinctive culture. And employees agree. Employees have voted Milwaukee Tool one of Glassdoor’s best places to work for three of the last five years. Not only do employees love the culture, they also say Milwaukee Tool excels on its core values of empowered leaders, candor, and speed/agility/urgency. 

We analyzed how more than 40,000 employees described their company in Glassdoor reviews for 27 industrials. Milwaukee Tool employees were nearly twice as likely to mention empowerment, and discuss it more than twice as positively as the average industrial. 

In this episode Steve, who is now the CEO of Milwaukee Tools’ parent company, reveals the secret of Milwaukee Tool’s cultural success.

Loren Shuster is the Chief People Officer at the LEGO Group.

92 years after its founding in Billund, Denmark, the LEGO Group today ranks first among most reputable companies in the world, according to RepTrak’s 2024 list. The world’s largest tire manufacturer (although it does not make large tires), the LEGO Group has increased revenues at a 10% compound annual growth rate over the past five years, more than twice the rate of peer toymakers like Mattel and Hasbro. 

The LEGO Group has achieved this growth without sacrificing profitability. The company’s return on assets is over 22%, compared to 3-5% for Mattel and Disney and negative returns for Hasbro.

The LEGO Group combines outstanding business results with a culture that employees love. More than three quarters would recommend the company as a place to work to a friend on Glassdoor, compared to about half for Disney, and Mattel, and just over one third for Hasbro. On Glassdoor, LEGO Group employees speak significantly more favorably about collaboration, organizational support, respect, toxic culture, innovation, and many other dimensions of culture than those three competitors. 

In this episode, Loren gives us an insider’s view into one of the most interesting and playful cultures in the world, diving into the LEGO Group’s singular Leadership Playground, which he played a pivotal role in developing.  

Sharon MacBeath is the seniormost executive responsible for human resources at Hermès, where she sits on the company’s executive board. 

Hermès was founded in 1837 when expert leather maker Thierry Hermès opened a Paris workshop to make horse harnesses for European nobility. The company has thrived since then while maintaining its commitment to exquisite craftmanship and uncompromising quality across a range of product lines including leather goods, clothing, home furnishing, and the iconic Birkin and Kelly bags. 

Hermès is the 42nd largest company in the world by market capitalization. Its employee count has approximately doubled in the last ten years, to 22,000. Measured by total shareholder returns, it is one of the most financially successful companies in the world.

Core to Hermès success is its distinctive and, remarkably, unwritten culture. On Glassdoor, employees are multiple standard deviations more favorable about toxic culture, organizational support, and empowerment than peer companies in the luxury space: all core elements of Hermès’ humanistic approach to culture, yet just a small subset of the many cultural dimensions where Hermès significantly outperforms peers. 

In this episode, Sharon lets us dive into one of the most enigmatic and successful cultures in the world, sharing what Hermès’ culture actually is and how leadership has been able to preserve it so effectively for nearly two centuries in the face of transformative growth, especially during her own tenure. 

Link to Hermès Universal Registration Document

Link to excellent Acquired podcast on Hermès 

Manny Maceda has the unique distinction of being the seniormost leader of the best-led company in America, according to Glassdoor’s 2024 Best-Led Companies list. 

Bain and Company, which Manny led as Worldwide Managing Partner up until recently, when he transitioned to Chairman, was also ranked #1 in Glassdoor’s 2024 Best Paces to Work list, and has been the top-ranked consulting firm on Glassdoor for ten years in a row. 

Under Manny’s leadership, Bain has also excelled financially. Between 2018 and 2023, revenue increased by more than 75%, outpacing McKinsey.

A global firm operating in 22 countries, Bain’s culture is remarkably consistent. Its culture ranked #1 across consulting firms in 18 of those countries.

“A Bainie never lets another Bainie fail” is core to the firm’s values. Sure enough, on Glassdoor Bain employees speak considerably more frequently and positively about organizational support than any other consulting firm, one of a wide variety of cultural dimensions they significantly outperform peers on. 

An MIT alumnus, Manny joined Bain in 1989 and in his 35 year career at Bain advised CEOs at some of the world’s most successful companies. In this episode, Manny reflects on the role of culture as the operating system coordinating Bain’s success, how Bain successfully lives up to its core values over a long time horizon, and how the company maintains its culture so consistently across a global organization. 

Bain's operating principles link 

Jim Whitehurst has the distinction of leading not one, two companies who were Culture Champions at the time of his leadership: Delta and Red Hat. 

As Chief Operating Officer, Jim navigated Delta through a hostile takeover bid and bankruptcy in 2005, maintaining the airline’s distinctive culture, and positioning it to thrive in the future.

Jim then joined open-source software pioneer Red Hat as CEO, managed its rapid growth from 1,500 to 15,000 employees, and oversaw its $34 billion sale to IBM—one of the largest software acquisitions ever. Jim then served as the President of IBM, where Red Hat continues to be a key driver of revenue growth. 

He is currently a managing director of Silver Lake, a leading private equity firm focused on the information technology sector, and sits on several boards. 

Jim is also one of those rare executives who has thought deeply about what he learned throughout his career, and codified some of those insights in his book, The Open Organization.

In this episode, Jim reflects on his illustrious career and the important role culture played in it.

Link to Jim's book, The Open Organization

Marvin Boakye is the Chief Human Resources Officer of Cummins, where he oversees all aspects of recruitment, people operations, learning and development, culture, and the employee experience.

Cummins is a manufacturer and distributor of engines, power sources, and components for vehicles and industrial use. The firm has nearly 75,000 employees across 190 countries, and ranks #146 in the Fortune 500 with 2023 sales of $34 billion. It consistently outperforms industry peers on returns on investment capital. 

Cummins’ core values include integrity, diversity and inclusion, caring, and teamwork. Many companies have similar official values. The difference is that Cummins lives up to them, with employees on Glassdoor speaking more significantly more favorably about these topics than industry peers: up to four standard deviations more favorably. Of more than 500 companies in our large study of culture in 2020, Cummins ranked number one for diversity and inclusion, and has maintained its strength in that area since then, boasting similarly impressive scores for collaboration, integrity, and employee support, among many other dimensions of culture. 

In this episode, Marvin discusses how Cummins was able to build a culture that lives up to its core values so successfully and works well for both employees and shareholders. 

Link to Cummins 2024 Human Capital Management Report