When towards the end of last year, INC.com came up with its list of best companies; it got me thinking about the companies that inspired me in 2015. These companies make it to this list for multiple reasons. Some were brave enough to experiment, some achieved monumental feats and some just inspired us by doing what they do best. It isn’t a long list – just 5 organizations that really stood out for me in 2015.
Gravity Payments – Some people may call the $70,000 dollar move sheer stupidity and I’ve contemplated the same at times too. Dan Prince inspires me for one thing alone – for being willing to take a risk and go ahead to do something that until now has defied popular logic. Good move or bad, when companies take risks as big as that, they inspire me. Gravity payments is still alive and it will be interesting to track the impact. Who knows, with time, they may even make us rethink the entire compensation game. In many ways, Gravity Payments did for compensation in 2015 what Buffer did in 2014.
Slack – Thank you INC for making me take a closer look at this company. As Modest’s CEO Harper Reed says – “It’s very, very, very quick for anyone who interacts with Slack to consider Slack, the entity, their friend,”. This company is great at what they do and take human centric design to an all-new level. The fastest growing startup on Earth, like INC calls it, rolled together with Butterfields’s eccentricities combined with a focus on work life balance not only inspired me but made me realize that the best work happens when people go home on time.
KPMG – When, towards the end of 2015, KPMG’s Robert Bolton said that they will strive to swap employee engagement surveys for a more robust diagnostic that focuses on “something truly worth measuring”, it was probably a marketing gimmick for whatever tool they were coming up with. KPMG has jumped onto the little wagon of companies that have thrown out the employee engagement surveys and are looking for something new. Why I loved this bit of news? Yet another HR staple is being questioned and revisited. It is truly the best of times.
SpaceX – I had to mention Elon Musk somewhere. His path breaking innovations via both Tesla & SpaceX have made quite a few headlines in 2015 especially with Falcon 9 landing upright on solid ground. But do you know the one thing that stood out for me? The “Spacex Hyperloop Pod Competition” Not only do they come up with a great idea, but also they encourage development of the idea and keep all information open source. If that isn’t a great way to take the world forward, I don’t know what is.
Basecamp – Lastly my very own favorite of the year. I’ve written about them before and there is so much I have taken away from observing them. They are innovative; they are small and have a fantastic blog apart from being focused and passionate about what they do.
That rounds up my list for the year. What were companies that inspired you in 2015?
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