Let's Talk Culture

Good afternoon! Welcome back to Scaling Greatness, a newsletter from Integreon focusing on amplifying business excellence and innovation. Hit the subscribe button to receive an update when new editions are published.

?? by Emily Watkins , Executive Editor

Over the course of my career, I’ve experienced both the positive and negative effects of different company cultures – from supportive and thriving, to problematic but evolving, to downright toxic and defeating. Thankfully, at Integreon I’ve been able to see firsthand how a strong and positive company culture makes a significant difference in satisfaction and happiness at work. And the impact of a healthy culture extends beyond employee satisfaction.

According to Gallup , companies that focus on a high-engagement, strengths-based culture and attract talented managers and contributors can realize as much as 59% higher revenue per employee. Similarly, PwC’s 2021 Global Culture Survey found that companies with a distinctive culture are more likely to see increases in customer satisfaction (89%), employee satisfaction (80%) and revenue (48%).

So, what makes a company culture great?

Recently, at ALM Consulting Magazine’s Best Firms to Work For event, Integreon led a roundtable discussion on this subject - what it takes to build an exceptional culture. The resulting conversation led to 5 key aspects of a thriving workplace:

1. Collaboration and Teamwork: A great company culture thrives on collaboration and teamwork, valuing the contributions of each unique team member and fostering an environment where everyone feels heard and valued.
2. Empowerment: Empowerment is crucial for a positive culture. Employees should feel like they are an integral part of the organization, with opportunities to grow, take on challenging assignments, and even make mistakes.?
3. Supportive Environment: Building a culture where people are eager to help not just their clients but also each other is essential. When employees feel supported and part of a team, it enhances their overall well-being and productivity.
4. Shared Values and Accountability: It’s important for employees at all levels to share the same values and “walk the talk.” Incorporating company values into performance reviews promotes accountability and ensures that everyone is aligned with the organization’s mission and vision.
5. Ownership Mentality: Encouraging employees to act like owners fosters curiosity, self-initiative, and accountability. When employees feel a sense of ownership, they are more likely to go above and beyond in their roles, driving the company towards greater success.?

What makes your company culture great?

? ?Strategies for Protecting Against a Cyberattack

(An excerpt from: Cyber Awareness: Be Aware of the Human Factor )

?? by John Wei , Contributor

October marks Cyber Awareness Month, a time to focus on the complex and increasingly sophisticated cyber threat landscape.

According to?Check Point Research ,?cyberattacks?globally increased 30% YOY in Q2 2024, reaching 1,636 attacks per organization per week. Defending against ever increasing cyber threats requires a highly collaborative approach, involving not just a select few cybersecurity professionals, but everyone across the organization. It starts with raising awareness and extends to implementing and enforcing best practices. Ultimately, companies must rely on humans acting responsibly and maintaining vigilance.

Protecting against or mitigating a cyberattack includes both human and system factors.

Human Factors:

1.?Digital Hygiene:?Good digital hygiene involves several important habits. Avoid reusing passwords across multiple accounts, limit device access to only trusted individuals and use only secure Wi-Fi networks.

2.?Human Behavioral Hacking: Despite the presence of advanced anti-phishing and anti-spam tools, malicious emails still slip through the cracks. In the aftermath of a company experiencing a cyber incident, hackers have even been known to call employees posing as IT helpdesk personnel to gain control over the end user’s PC.

System Factors:

1.?Application Failures:?Database corruption can lead to the loss of critical data, system downtime, and potential financial implications for businesses. It is crucial to regularly backup data, implement robust security measures, and conduct routine maintenance.

2.?Industry Incidents:?Like the CrowdStrike service disruption early this year and the telecom carrier DNS outage, these events resulted in significant downtime and exposure for businesses worldwide.

3.?Hardware/Infrastructure Failure:?The most challenging scenario for an infrastructure failure is when an organization’s system is partially down yet remaining with a system “heartbeat”. This makes diagnosis and recovery decisions more difficult.

Take Action:

1.?Reduce the Attack Surface.? When you have more account authorization active than minimally necessary, you enlarge the attack surface. This is why the account of an offboarded employee should be expeditiously removed. By the same token, when you create network topology, you want to control the access points, especially those that are externally facing so that there are fewer entry points for an attacker to gain access into your network.

2.?Mitigate vulnerabilities?before hackers can exploit them.

3.?Minimize the impact?when a cyber incident occurs, otherwise known as minimizing the “blast radius”. By using techniques such as zoning and subnetting you can limit the impact that a single comprise can have on your overall technology landscape.

4.?Create resilient recovery options?and prepare ahead by identifying risks, backing up data, and establishing response protocols.

System resiliency tools and strategies have greatly improved over the years. However, the human factor continues to be the area of greatest vulnerability. As systems become more secure, AI/GenAI has made humans an even softer target for threat actors. Addressing it requires a collective effort and daily vigilance.

(Read the full article here )

? ?A Moment of Greatness

Highlighting companies who highlight greatness.

DPR Construction: We Exist to Build Great Things

Great Teams. Great Projects. A Great Place to Work. DPR Construction takes greatness to heart putting it as the front and center of their brand.

We love to find moments of greatness anywhere and everywhere. Let us know where you see greatness or how your company inspires great work.

As a trusted partner to many of today’s dynamic and forward-thinking organizations, Integreon has first-hand experience in helping clients to recognize and take full advantage of their best ideas. Clients look to Integreon for help streamlining communications, research and design - creating impactful content and materials for both internal and external consumption. You can learn more about Integreon’s work here .

Ready to learn more about scaling your firm’s greatness?

Let’s start a conversation:

Murray Joslin | Editor in Chief | Executive Vice President, Creative & Business Solutions

Emily Watkins | Executive Editor | Senior Marketing Manager, Creative & Business Solutions