Michael Biggerstaff, owner and CEO of NxtBook Media gave a lecture titled “Blending Creativity with your Company Culture to get Outstanding Results,” in the M&M Mars Room as a part of the Executive Lecture Series.
NxtBook Media was named as one of the Ink’s 500 fastest privately held companies twice. It has been in the top three best places to work in Pennsylvania for the last six years.
The mission statement is that Nxtbook Media “exists to inspire our community to realize its full creative potential. We embrace the fact that we are integral part of our community’s success and will passionately support them to that end.”
The title Biggerstaff has given himself is “Chief Inspiration Officer,” though in formal terms, he’s Chief Executive Officer. The change in title is part of his company culture. His vision of the company focuses on inspire, service, collaboration, influence, integrity, creativity, excellence and passion. He allows all his employees to come up with their own titles. There are titles such as Visual Intelligence Operations, Master of Smooth Operations, Designer Extroardinaire, Pixel Pusher, Uptime Preservationist, Designologist, Purveyor of Solutions, Sultan of Success and Head of Tales. Interesting job titles create great conversation starters when they meet new people. It adds flair to their work, the company culture and the employee identity.
Biggerstaff stalwartly believes that investing in unorthodox, creative events strengthens the community of the company. A happy employee that can express their individuality and personality at work will better the company results.
For example, he decided to hang a glider in the office mezzanine as an office piece. His company has lockers because there is a running club within the company. Some people don’t have a work office; they can do their work on their laptop while relaxing on their comfortable couches. They participate in a tricycle race ever year, which they hang on a ceiling as a decorative art piece. When they removed their carpet, they decided to draw on the floor with artwork, and then laminated the floor instead of replacing the carpet as memory to the collaborative experience their company took. All of these decisions seem silly, but he believes they are all important in creating a healthy company culture.
He thinks more companies should take the opportunity to inspire creativity; it builds a certain type of energy, impacts culture of the company, builds memories and will service customers better in an unquantifiable way.
They have a unique sabbatical program; an employee gets a continuous two weeks sabbatical. After 5 years, an employee gets four weeks of sabbatical, and after 10 years, an employee gets 4 weeks of sabbatical and $5,000 to go on vacation. During the employee sabbatical, their co-workers will prank their office space. Sometimes they will put fake police tape around their office space and send the employee postcards of the prank to show how much they miss the employee.
All of these activities are activities that can reenergize employees and cause them to enjoy their work life and laugh. It gives them the knowledge that the individuals matter and that their coworkers miss them.
Biggerstaff always puts in effort to wear mismatched socks. He wears it as a constant reminder to himself to stretch himself, to take risks and that it’s okay to feel comfortable. He thinks all of these activities will create a company that will attract talent, keep them within the company, engage people, create energy, create momentum, inspire creativity, collaboration and the feeling that work is not work.
He believes that every new person they hire will impact the company culture. He believes any person can impact the company culture no matter their age or experience. Culture is worth spending time on and takes time to change, but it is important to help change the culture when it needs it, because each employee perspective is valuable. Everyone plays a role, everyone is important in completing the final objective.
Biggerstaff believes that, “the most difficult part is communicating sincerity as a company and getting people to understand what you’re trying to envision. CEOs should put money into their own culture. CEOs should be engaging to create a synergistic attitude. A company should give itself leeway to be creativity. When you create a fence, you kill creativity.”
