Top 10 Inspirational Quotes on Company Culture from Tech Leaders

Company culture is a key aspect of any company, whether you are a start-up or a Fortune 100 organization. Oftentimes, leadership is a key contributor to building a strong company culture. In an article by Forbes, leadership is said to affect the confidence of the staff and whether they see mistakes as opportunities for learning or failures that damage the self-worth of the employee. Leaders have the power to be the shining example of the organization's work culture, which will trickle down to the employees. 

With that, we have gathered 10 inspirational quotes from some of the most successful CEOs and leaders that touch on the importance of a strong company culture.

“Why is culture so important to a business? Here is a simple way to frame it. The stronger the culture, the less corporate process a company needs. When the culture is strong, you can trust everyone to do the right thing.”

 — Brian Chesky, Co-founder and CEO, Airbnb

“Culture is like the wind. It is invisible; yet its effect can be seen and felt.”

— Bryan Walker, Partner and Managing Director, Ideo

“Determine what behaviors and beliefs you value as a company, and have everyone live true to them. These behaviors and beliefs should be so essential to your core, that you don’t even think of it as culture.”

— Brittany Forsyth, SVP of HR, Shopify

“Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person — not just an employee — are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”

— Anne M. Mulcahy, CEO, Xerox

“Everything rises and falls with corporate culture. If you do it right, you can build a market leading business that makes the world a better place...If you get it wrong you won’t be able to attract and retain the team required to build a sustainable and meaningful organization.”

— Jason Lindstrom, CEO, Bucketlist Rewards

"Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization's makeup and success — along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like... I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn't just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value."

— Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Former CEO of IBM

“Corporate culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that is completely within the control of the entrepreneur. Develop a strong corporate culture first and foremost.”

— David Cummings, Co-founder, Pardot

“Organizational Culture is the “water” in the fishbowl. If the water is clean, nourishing, energizing, the fish will thrive and if the water is toxic the fish will die leaving the infrastructure value-less.”

— Ranjan De Silva, Partner, Senior Management Consultant, Sensei International

"Presenting leadership as a list of carefully defined qualities (like strategic, analytical, and performance-oriented) no longer holds. Instead, true leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed. Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection."

— Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and Founder of Leanin.org

“Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.”

— Simon Sinek, Author, motivational speaker, and marketing consultant

We hope this will inspire you to think of your company culture and ways you can go about continuously improving it!