How Apple’s Winning Corporate Culture Leads to a Higher Stock Price

Winning cultures like those at Apple (AAPL) and Starbucks (SBUX) are considered anomalies in corporate America. Lindsay McGregor, co-author of Primed to Perform, said those types of high performing work environments should be the norm, not outliers. 'These companies realize that in today’s world, where there is lots of volatility, lots of complexity and the younger generation is much more vocal about working in lousy cultures, you have to proactively manage your culture,' said McGregor. According to McGregor, there is a science behind every culture whether it be terrific, mediocre or toxic. McGregor and her husband slash co-author Neel Doshi used analyses of thousands of studies on human behavior derived from their proprietary total motivation survey in order to lay out systematic and sustainable approaches that any organization can use to build a high performing culture. Or transform an existing one. McGregor said motivation is at the heart of any company’s performance. She said when work is done for the love, outcome or developmental benefit of it as opposed to emotional or economic reasons, people are better able to execute their plans. Furthermore, she said motivated employees are able to skillfully diverge from a game plan when something unexpected happens.