Culture

Buyers are growing increasingly comfortable purchasing a home sight-unseen, with 36% saying they'd buy a home entirely online, while 43% would sell a home that way, according to a Zillow survey taken in mid-May. With the pandemic limiting travel and home viewing options, and more people contemplating moves because they can work remotely now, the practice is likely to become more common, according to Zillow.

The home improvement retailer's competitive advantage has nothing to do with numbers. Oftentimes, the strongest competitive advantages we see in the world of business are built from intangible assets. These are characteristics that may not seem obvious at first, but that can seriously impact a company's long-term success. This is the case for Home Depot (NYSE:HD), which has a robust organizational culture that has played a key role in the stock's sevenfold rise over the past decade.

New extras aim to de-stress workers with meditation apps and virtual yoga and gym workouts. And snacks!

The pandemic is forcing companies to focus on experiences their clients expect, while mobilizing them to accelerate product and service innovation.

Business leaders with long-term leadership coaches say tough feedback has prepared them for the challenges of the pandemic.

Turn massive challenges into meaningful change. As governments make significant interventions in response to the coronavirus, businesses are rapidly adjusting to the changing needs of their people, their customers and suppliers, while navigating the financial and operational challenges.
With every industry, function and geography affected, the amount of potential change to think through can be daunting. We are here to help.
On this page you will find expert perspectives from our leaders that provide insight paired with tangible actions your organization can take to turn massive complexity into meaningful change.

Corporate directors, CEO’s and the entire C-suite will be battling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on multiple fronts for months to come. But once things start to come under control, what’s next? Where’s the path to business renewal and growth and how is a company’s business strategy impacted by this crisis?

Continuing our series on the COVID-19 crisis and its implications, many companies are now looking to the future, including when and how employees will return to workplaces. Bob Feldman, Vice Chair of ICF Next, explores the question of how we get back to work, from implementing policies and guidelines that ensure workplace safety to the broader, potentially lasting impact on corporate culture.

This week we convened Page and Page Up members for a discussion on how cultures are being evolved, sometimes organically and sometimes intentionally. The discussion was fundamentally about two different issues: how to manage and tap into cultural strengths to sustain the business now, and how to start thinking about very different cultural and emotional issues that can be expected down the road. One participant referred to both in saying, “There are things beyond our control, but we will focus on the things we can.”

On March 26, Page and Page Up held a member call on coronavirus moderated by Page Up member Sherry Scott, President at Gagen MacDonald, with a presentation by Levi Strauss & Co.’s Elizabeth Owen, vice president of business performance and workplace communication, and Kate Wagner, senior director of corporate affairs for Europe. They led a discussion about the company’s recent response to the outbreak, including new guidelines for employee work and travel throughout the crisis and investment in strategic partnerships.