Twitter and Why Company Culture Still Matters

This episode features Kevin Oakes, CEO and co-founder of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), an authority on next practices in human capital. He is also the author of Culture Renovation™.

Questions For Kevin Include:

• Does company culture still matter? 
• In a time of hybrid/remote work, how much can companies still hope to maintain a sense of company purpose? 
• What has the upheaval at Twitter done to it's company culture? 
• What are some of the signs that an organization is in need of a culture renovation? 
• You have said "Research shows that a toxic culture is 10x more likely to contribute to attrition than compensation. Yet, how are most companies trying to retain and attract talent? By compensating them more, according to a recent study by i4cp and Fortune. The study, The Talent Imperative, shows that in this hypercompetitive talent market, compensation is currently the #1 approach companies are taking to hire more—and lose less—members of the workforce." Tell us more about the findings.
• You recently announced the agenda for the i4cp 2023 Next Practices Now Conference. Tell me about the event. 
• Can you share one piece of advice or some direction you were given by a mentor, leader or colleague that inspired you to perform at a higher level in your career?
• How can we learn more about you i4cp?

More About Kevin

Kevin is currently on the board of Performitiv, and on the advisory boards of Guild Education, EdCast, and Sanctuary. Kevin was previously on the board of directors of KnowledgeAdvisors, a provider of human capital analytics software, which was purchased by Corporate Executive Board in March of 2014. Kevin was also the Chairman of Jambok, a social learning start-up company which was founded at Sun Microsystems and was purchased by SuccessFactors in March 2011. He also served on the boards of Workforce Insight and Koru prior to their sales.

He is on the board of Best Buddies Washington and helped establish the first office for Best Buddies in the state in 2019. Best Buddies is a nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, and inclusive living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Kevin was previously the Founder and the President of SumTotal Systems (NASDAQ: SUMT) which he helped create in 2003 by merging Click2learn (NASDAQ: CLKS) with Docent (NASDAQ: DCNT). The merger won Frost & Sullivan's Competitive Strategy Award in 2004.

Prior to the formation of SumTotal, Kevin was the Chairman & CEO of Click2learn, which was founded in 1985 by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. Prior to joining Click2learn, Kevin was president and founder of Oakes Interactive in Needham, MA. Oakes Interactive was purchased by Click2learn (then called Asymetrix) in 1997, which Kevin helped take public a year later.