Shortly after a new employee joins Emmis Communications, he or she receives a large, white envelope. Inside that envelope is one share of Emmis Communications stock. While that one share is unlikely to change anyone's financial standing, the message is clear: Emmis wants its employees to feel and act like they own the company ” and it wants them to reap the benefits of the company's success.
But that share of stock sends another message, too: This company is different. In contrast to the many companies that adopted an employee-focused culture as that approach came into vogue, Emmis Communications was founded with an employee-focused philosophy. When Jeff Smulyan started the company with one radio station in 1980, he knew radio as an industry in which people did not expect to spend their entire working lives with one firm — industry veterans knew from experience that they would have to move from company to company in order to advance their careers. But Jeff Smulyan wanted to build a company where people could grow by staying in one place. And he believed he could build that kind of company, by treating people well, allowing them to have fun, providing plenty of opportunities for personal and professional growth, and giving them "a piece of the pie."
Read the EMMIS Story. |
