There are many ways to build a successful company but building a better kind of company takes some particular keys. Here are a few we have observed over the years.

1) Give Back

Companies that are interested in driving business development and growth strive to support and strengthen their relationships with both their customers and their communities where they live and work. This not only improves relations with those you work around each day but also provides you with a better relationship to deal with a problem should it occur within your community.

2) Strategic Marketing Literacy

Companies interested in building a better kind of company are committed to providing their customers with a clear set of marketing communications they can use to improve their companies. They support a higher level of marketing literacy by understanding what type of marketing and branding is worth their financial investments. This focuses not only their company’s branding it also focuses those that serve their company that produce effective marketing communications.

3) Employee Training

Progressive companies support their employees by encouraging further education and volunteerism by matching both hours spent and tuitions paid to encourage these efforts. These companies typically have employee-driven programs that take a sincere interest in continuous improvement of their company as well as their community. They often coordinate these efforts at various private and public organizations.

4) Continuous Awards

Companies that excel encourage their employees through a variety of means. Reviews of performance are about achievement, finding new ways to improve, providing better tools to achieve, and offering assistance when roadblocks to progress occur. Acknowledgement of an employee or group of employees good work are publicly recognized whenever possible.

You might be asking yourself if you can you build a company without these four keys? And the answer is, sure. The other question you might want to ask is will your company attain the stature of a better kind of company? And the answer to that is, probably not. The reason is the best companies tend to have some or all of these keys going on all of the time. This keeps them focused on their customers and communities and how they can help them, and this is why they are rewarded with the best business growth.