Below is an Autogenerated Transcript

It started out as customer service—make the customer happy, do what is necessary to retain the customer, and build loyalty.

Then, it evolved into internal service. Organizations began ensuring that departments like IT, finance, and HR were actually providing great service.

However, it soon became clear that even if all the right actions were taken to improve service, it wouldn’t be sustainable unless the organization fostered a culture where service was ingrained in the way people were recruited, engaged, communicated with, compensated, and challenged. Otherwise, service excellence would remain dependent on individuals or specific departments rather than becoming a company-wide norm.

So, I became deeply involved in understanding how an organization can build a strong service culture. And that’s what the book is about.

Now, Johnny mentioned in his keynote yesterday that there isn’t necessarily a wrong culture. There’s no inherently good or bad culture—except, of course, if it’s illegal, unethical, or immoral. Let’s put those aside.

There have been many successful companies that built their culture around a specific focus. For example, some companies emphasized innovation, making it the core of everything they did—like Intel in its early days. Others built a culture around sales, ensuring that everything facilitated that goal. Some prioritized cost control to maximize profits.

There’s no absolute right or wrong. It’s about what’s appropriate, competitively advantageous, and attractive for talent.

Today, organizations need cultures that attract, engage, retain, develop, and appreciate the best young talent in the world. That means building cultures that are different from what we’ve had before. Simply focusing on service and creating value is no longer enough.

In the current era—one marked by geopolitical turmoil, ecological concerns, and rapid advancements in AI—businesses must adapt. We’re all feeling a bit shocked by these changes, aren’t we? That’s why you hear terms like “well-being” and “wellness” being emphasized more frequently. And that focus is legitimate.

Look at how language has evolved: diversity became inclusion, which then became belonging. But belonging is a tricky word because if some people “belong,” that implies others do not. Wasn’t inclusion supposed to prevent that?

Language is incredibly important. One of the critical words emerging now—no surprise to any of us—is care. It has started to replace service in many conversations. But we must be cautious because words like care, just like trust, can become overused and lose their meaning.

The real challenge is defining what care actually means, teaching our people about it, developing the right skills and competencies, and ultimately building a culture around it.