Bulldozer00's Blog

Over the years, I’ve been on a constant watch for unique companies. By unique, I mean those that stand apart from the rest of the herd in the way that the executive leadership balances the needs of all stakeholders – not just the shareholders, or especially, themselves. Of course, unless you’ve worked at a company, it’s pretty tough to know if the company really lives up to its core values and “walks the talk”. That’s because all companies project the image that they are great places to work, regardless of whether they really are.

So, how do I decide whether a company is a cut above the rest? Via subjective evaluation of external observations, of course. Here’s my unscientific list of “research” methods:

• Read third party accounts of experience given by former and current non-management employees.
• Read, listen, and watch multiple interviews with CEOs and executives.
• Scour publicly available mission statements, visions, core values and cultural descriptions for authenticity, lack of corpo jargon, and attention to detail.
• Stay away from glossy annual reports.
• Ignore whatever the hand picked company spokesperson(s) say.

Of course, my methods aren’t perfect, but do you know of any better ones?

Here’s my current list of faves. What are yours?