As businesses have slowly returned or approached pre-pandemic levels, it has re-awakened the awareness of how important of a company’s culture can be.
More and more, company and community leaders have stressed how crucial it is that a company has an inviting environment, with teams looking for ways to both measure and customize its cultural identity.
A new arrival at the UCF Business Incubation Program might have just the thing to streamline that work.
PeopleProductive has created a program that helps companies define and implement culture shifts that help them become more productive and appealing.
If you don’t think that’s necessarily technology, well, cofounder Frank Wander has something to tell you.
“Cultural transformation is a foundation for a successful digital transformation,” he said. “Culture started to become part of the discourse in 2014. It emerged as something people wanted to know more about.”
The general public has had a complicated relationship with the word “culture” for some time.
Only in recent years has there been a wave of “chief culture officer” positions and resume entries popping up on the popular professional networking site LinkedIn.
But the importance of the word peaked in 2014, when Merriam-Webster knighted the term by making it its word of the year.
The acknowledgment drove a boost in search queries.
“It was something people wanted to know more about,” Wander said. “We were at the beginning of that learning curve, learning more about it and its importance.”
PeopleProductive has already had some notable successes.
They helped Honda Manufacturing in Alabama, for instance, double their production.
That’s because, as Wander and cofounder Dan Novais say, cultural enhancement leads to productivity growth.
“We help companies bring transparency into their culture,” said Novais, a senior executive and chief revenue officer for PeopleProductive.
It was Novais who initially connected PeopleProductive with UCF’s Business Incubation Program.
After selling a company to AT&T, he was looking for another phase in life when he stumbled upon PeopleProductive.
“It’s about culture and reframing it in a different manner,” he said. “I come from the tech world so I assure you we can walk the walk.”
PeopleProductive’s platform went live for the first time in June 2015 after a brief beta period.
At the time, the company was already working with 30 clients.
The connection to the incubator comes from Novais, an Orlando native who has been involved in the small business community here for years.
He has been a mentor for UCF and an adviser for the Orlando Economic Partnership.
“Other than statistics, being involved gives local brands here the signal that we are here for local companies,” he said.
Wander is not local but says he has found Central Florida’s business environment to his liking.
His career has been shaped by advocacy for business cultures.
“People have become the most important tool in every company and productivity is a key driver of success and innovation,” said Wander, who has experience with Prudential and Merril-Lynch. “There are many definitions for culture. Many have their own but they don’t know how to shape it.”
However, while it’s easy to dismiss the culture conversation as one led by a buzzword, Wander says there is more to it than that.
“If Orlando could make every company super productive, they would do much better and grow quicker as a region,” Wander said. “Culture is a leadership issue and we give leaders the solutions. It’s all woven into the job and we build developmental relationships that put the power in their hands.”
