Free Book on Winning the Company Culture War

Book about corporate cultureAlmost every business owner I’ve talked to over the years mentions customer service as one of the most important attributes, if not the most important attribute, of a successful company. After digging around a bit to find out what that really means in practical terms, it usually boils down to company culture.

If you receive poor customer service, it most always reveals something deeper: a flaw in that company’s culture that hinders employees from going the extra mile for the customer. There’s a lot of it about these days, but each business has the ability to mold its culture so that everybody wins.

Everybody Wins happens to be the title of the free book you can have delivered to you when you click here and fill out a simple form. It’s a compilation of thoughts from LexJet employees, customers and business partners about the elements that contribute to a culture in which Everybody Wins. Its goal is to find those winning elements and spark ideas about how to build a strong cultural foundation that starts inside and is reflected outside to everyone with whom we come in contact.

For instance, a common refrain in the personal stories found in Everybody Wins is empowerment, where each employee is allowed to go beyond simply doing a “job” and function as an entrepreneur. Solid training and then unparalleled mutual support, in which each team member treats the other as a customer, are key contributors to individual entrepreneurial empowerment.

This is but one of many nuggets you’re sure to come away with after reading through Everybody Wins. As always, we want to hear from you about steps you’ve taken to improve your company’s culture, and ultimately your company’s overall success.

A Photographer’s Best Friend: Dogs Underwater

Underwater photography sessionsSeth Casteel is making a splash with his underwater HD photography of dogs as they dive in after tennis balls. The results of his experiment have created an Internet sensation, with ball to ball coverage on blogs of all stripes, from ABC News to the Discovery Channel and throughout social media, primarily Facebook.

“I was photographing a little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Buster. We were meant to do an ‘on-land’ shoot in his backyard, but he decided he would play in the pool the entire time. Watching him jump in time after time after a sinking tennis ball, it occurred to me that I needed to see what that looked like,” explains Casteel. “I had no idea what to expect, but I just thought the results were so fascinating and fun.”

As the name of his business, Little Friends Photo, implies, Casteel specializes in pet photography. To say Casteel loves man’s best friend would be an understatement. Like photographers who specialize in human portraits, Casteel seeks to bring out the unique personality of each pet. Casteel’s experiment yields personality plus as determined dogs paddle their way to their play prey.

Photographing dogs underwater“From the water’s surface, it’s a simple exercise: a dog’s leap, a splash, and then a wet head surfacing with a ball, triumphant,” says Casteel. “But beneath the water is a chaotic ballet of bared teeth and bubbles, paddling paws, fur and ears billowing in the currents. From leaping lab to diving dachshund, the water is where a dog’s distinct personality shines through; some lounge in the current, paddling slowly, but others arch their bodies to cut through the water with the focus and determination of a shark.”

The timing of all this viral attention comes at a perfect time for Casteel, who is putting together a book to be released this fall called Underwater Dogs, which features 80 portraits of diving dogs, which Casteel says “gives playful and energetic testament to the rough-and-tumble joy that our dogs bring into our lives.”

Casteel also has an exhibition opening in Brazil this month, which will be followed over the summer here in the United States. The photographs are available at Casteel’s website as art prints up to five feet wide. “They look so cool when they are big,” says Casteel.