#corporate culture

#corporate culture

Shilpan Amin sits at the operational core of General Motors. As the global chief procurement and supply chain officer, his remit cuts across engineering, manufacturing, finance, and the company's vast supplier network. At GM's scale, procurement is not simply about buying parts. It determines how capital is deployed, how risk is priced and absorbed, how quickly vehicles move from design to launch, and how the company navigates geopolitical shocks while protecting long-term margins.

For the past five-plus years up to this very day, an 800-lb gorilla takes a seat at the table at every meeting in every Taylor Morrison conference room in every one of the organization's offices. From its Scottsdale, AZ headquarters, to its three national operating regions, to its divisional hubs in 20 markets across 12 states, to its sales centers in 345 actively selling neighborhoods, that gorilla is physically there in the room in all of those meeting rooms involving Taylor Morrison's 3,000 or so team members.

At the time, Bezos had interviewed virtually every one of Amazon's circa 200 employees; Hart was one of the few the tech entrepreneur hadn't personally appointed. Over the next 23 years at the online giant, Hart reported directly to Bezos as technical advisor to the CEO, and to Amazon's current CEO, Andy Jassy.The lessons Hart learned at one of the world's most famous businesses have stayed with him to this day, where he leads $1.35 billion online learning giant, Coursera.

Imagine showing up to work at your high-powered Wall Street job and being asked to play Max Headroom, or execute the iconic lift from "Dirty Dancing?" Blackstone's latest holiday video dropped on Thursday, celebrating the firm's 40th anniversary with a slew of 80s references. Three of the Blackstone executives featured in the latest edition of the "cringeworthy" Wall Street tradition spoke to Business Insider about their experience.

Today's case examines how one cryptocurrency exchange navigated two major resets in a single year. The first was moving to a fully remote workforce, and the second was adopting a policy that explicitly banned political and social activism at work, sparking an intense debate about leadership, culture, and the boundaries of corporate engagement in social issues. Oh, and if that weren't enough, these decisions came at a pivotal moment just as the company was preparing for its historic IPO.

In 1983, Howard Schultz was an employee of Starbucks, a small chain of coffee stores that mainly sold beans (and no drinks), when he was sent to Milan for a trade show. As Schultz observed Italians visiting their local cafés, he loved what he saw, describing it as a " sense of community, a real sense of connection between the barista and the customer."

We had this really unique culture, and we had sort of lost touch with it,

One common reason I heard is that bankers simply like to flex - not necessarily their visible arms, but where they work - as many firms give out branded vests. "It's an earned status thing. You put in a lot of work to get to equity research for your team, to get to the PM role for a team, to be able to get to that said firm," one analyst told me. "That's why you wear it."

According to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, this week's 14,000 layoffs were not caused by a focus on AI or to cut costs. Instead, the massive layoffs are intended to kickstart a cultural change within the company. Amazon reported quarterly revenue of $180.2 billion, a 13% increase year-on-year. Profits amounted to $21 billion. Nevertheless, the company is taking a $1.8 billion charge for severance payments this quarter.

Thomas says that combination has sharpened his understanding of why many large companies fail to innovate. "It comes down to one word," he says. "Iteration." Thomas explains that most large organizations are wired for scale, not speed. Their instinct is to map out multi-year roadmaps and place bold, high-stakes bets-an approach that runs counter to the quick experimentation and continuous feedback loops that true iteration requires. In most big companies, he says, that kind of flexible, trial-and-error mindset simply isn't part of the culture.

Elliott Hill spent his entire career at Nike. But he spent a full year as its CEO before giving his first media interview in the role. In mid-October, the company invited a select group of global journalists to Beaverton, Oregon, to see the latest in Nike innovations. We tried a slew of ambitious products that will hit the market over the next year plus: mind-altering footwear, exoskeleton sneakers, and a jacket that inflates to keep you warm.

When Steve Jobs wanted to motivate his Mac team at Apple, he didn't give them corporate pep talks or send them to management retreats. Instead, he told them they were "pirates" fighting against the "navy." The message was clear: stay scrappy, stay rebellious, and don't let the corporate machine slow you down. That pirate mentality worked. The Mac team moved fast, took risks, and delivered something revolutionary.

shifting investor expectations, new regulatory demands, and the challenge of keeping culture intact through the transformation,

iBuying was never out of vogue, Rabois said, addressing comments about Redfin's and Zillow's exits from the space. It was out of vogue because Redfin and Zillow didn't know how to do it. We were always successful. We minted free cash flow every year I was involved in the company. However, it's very complicated and very difficult to do iBuying well, but the value proposition of certainty, transactional speed is incredibly compelling to Americans.

Donna Morris has one go-to question that helps determine whether she'll hire you - and knowing it in advance won't help you script the perfect response, she says. The question is: "If I was to ask people who've worked for you before, what will they tell me?" As executive vice president and chief people officer at Walmart, Morris oversees the largest private workforce in the US.

We want to operate the world's largest startup at our size - that has not been done before. It is hard to do, but it is doable.

Never did it occur to either of us to let them go during a difficult time in their life because they couldn't show up and make money for the company.

I once led a project to completion using only Slack emojis and a positive affirmation that I lifted from somebody's tote bag.

"I am actually disappointed that Tesla canceled its low-end car program, because that's what the world needs - not a truck that looks like a dumpster."