--- title: "Ask The Experts: How Brands Can Grow A Stronger Culture With Jeff Fromm and Jimmy Keown" url: https://burnaze.com/article/0cd8a97f-d7d6-4908-8341-7190f63e76a8 source: "1851 Franchise" original_url: https://1851franchise.com/ask-the-experts-how-brands-can-grow-a-stronger-culture-with-jeff-fromm-and-jimmy-keown-2712237 category: "Franchise Industry" industry: "Franchise Industry" published: 2020-02-11T14:09:00.000Z modified: 2026-11-01T02:08:32.894Z image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/265f4efb8291adc480937135a4334ae96183.jpg --- # Ask The Experts: How Brands Can Grow A Stronger Culture With Jeff Fromm and Jimmy Keown **TL;DR:** Establishing a strong company culture is crucial for success, and it starts with assessing the current situation and understanding the culture that already exists. Leaders play a significant role in influencing and embodying the culture they envision for their brands. *originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2020-02-11. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/ask-the-experts-how-brands-can-grow-a-stronger-culture-with-jeff-fromm-and-jimmy-keown-2712237).* ## Story An established culture is the backbone of every company. It defines the values and influences the behaviors that contribute to the distinctive social and entrepreneurial environment of the business. It’s what employees—from the top line all the way down—see, believe in and execute each time they step through the doors of the business. Culture is ‘how do we win on the inside so that we can win on the outside?’ said Jimmy Keown. Winning on the inside means finding advantages within the culture to help create alignment, energy and shared intent in order to then win on the outside. Winning on the outside means the company is successful, making money and making a difference in the world. - The first step a brand or company should take if looking to establish (or reestablish) a strong culture is to assess the current situation the company is in. - Understand the culture that already exists through research and observations and adjust accordingly. It’s tricky—the question of how to establish a culture from scratch is really tough. It starts with primary and secondary research of companies or brands out there with attributes of culture that are exemplary. The culture needs to help support some type of intent that you have as an organization. Ask things like, “What are we trying to accomplish?; What is our mission?; How do we want our employees to feel?” One of the trickiest things about culture is that most companies don’t realize that it’s something they have to invest in. It’s something that’s not only important to the health and wellbeing of the employees, but it’s important to the success of the company. Establishing a company culture means creating certain rituals as part of a larger strategy that stakeholders will be able to perceive and feel. For example, instead of monthly or quarterly meetings, try weekly or daily stand-up meetings. Or try an app that allows employees to ask things anonymously so that they don't fear the answer or getting in trouble. Meaningful and authentic—those are two words that have a lot of different meanings. “Meaningful” goes back to more of understanding that broader intent and the role that everybody plays in that intent. What does “meaningful” mean in our company and how do we get our employees to reflect that? “Authentic” is a word that’s often really hard to nail down. We’ve had clients that say, “Oh, we really want to be more authentic,” but it’s something that really has to be unpacked. Seventh Generation—the laundry product company—is a brand that really lives its culture by creating products based on their beliefs and exemplifying a brand strategy that reflects it. All of their products are plant-based and packaged with sustainability and health in mind. MOD Pizza hires people who have been incarcerated and/or have a gap in their employment history. They, of course, do background checks and make sure that each person will be a good fit, but it really gives people a chance who otherwise wouldn’t get one. Southwest Airlines is a company that treats everyone as though they are a customer. Most brands are focused on being “customer-obsessed,” so when you go into a place where everyone—customers, pilots, corporate workers and flight attendants—is treated like a customer, it makes for a great environment and culture. A leader needs to have qualities like collaboration, listening, willingness to be wrong, willingness to change and empathy to grow the culture they envision for their brands. Culture is something company leaders can influence, but it’s something they can’t dictate. Leaders need to play to their strengths and embody everything they want to see in their people—it starts with the CEO and the top line. In order to be successful, they need to understand the culture they want to embody better than anyone else at the company. It can then trickle down from there. It’s important for them to understand and empower that knowledge throughout the entire company. Additionally, they should also create some sort of feedback loop, whether that may be an app or an online forum, where employees can reinforce positive aspects of the culture. ## Entities - 1851 Franchise (publication) - Franchise Industry (sector) - leadership (topic) - company culture (topic) - employee engagement (topic) - brand strategy (topic) - MOD Pizza (company) - Southwest Airlines (company) - culture development (topic) --- Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/ask-the-experts-how-brands-can-grow-a-stronger-culture-with-jeff-fromm-and-jimmy-keown-2712237). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/0cd8a97f-d7d6-4908-8341-7190f63e76a8).