The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay & Meaning to Everyone’s Work
Zeynep Ton
Harvard Business Review Press (June 2023)

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” Mark Twain

It is no coincidence that companies annually ranked among those most highly admired and best to work for are also annually ranked among those most profitable, and having the greatest cap value in their industry segment.

What Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell characterize as “customer evangelists” is — with rare exception –impossible unless and until companies also create employee evangelists. Years ago, when then chairman and CEO of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher, was asked to explain how his airline was more profitable than all of its nine major competitors…COMBINED. This was his response: “We take great care of our people, they take great care of our customers, and our customers  take great care of our shareholders.”

Zeynep Ton is convinced (and I agree) that almost any company — whatever its size and nature may be — can create customer evangelists but only if it creates employee evangelists. Hence the importance of the Good Jobs Strategy, which she introduced in her eponymous book in 2014.

It is worth noting that the results of major research studies of both customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction indicate that, when asked to rank what was of greatest importance to them, most respondents ranked [begin italics] feeling appreciated [end italics] either first or second. (What about price and compensation? They were ranked in a 9-14 range.) In this book, Ton provides a wealth of information and insights in response to five key questions posed in the Introduction. Here’s the first: “If you didn’t found your company with the good jobs strategy, why should you adopt it now — especially if your company is profitable?” Here’s the last: “How long does it take [to implement the good jobs strategy], and what kind of leadership does it take?”

So what specifically are the components of the good jobs system? They are: Focus and simplify; Standardize and empower; Cross-train; and Operate with slack. What does it mean to operate with slack? “Ensure employees have time to serve customers [e.g going the extra mile], do their work without mistakes, develop a leadership bench, and have time for improvement. Minimize burnout.”

Ton thoroughly explains the HOW of achieving all this while anchoring her key insights in real-world situations. For example, I especially appreciate her discussion of Costco and its founder and (until 2012) chairman, Jim Sinegal. From its beginning, Costco has offered the highest pay and the best benefits in retail. Sinegal: “We put a priority on loyalty to the people we have working in our company. We are creating careers for people. Not just jobs. They are opportunities for success.” Be sure to check out Pages 114-118, 123-124, 126-127, and 130-132.

Frankly, I am astonished by the number of C-level executives I have known who had never quantified the total costs of the loss and replacement of valued workers and profitable customers/clients as well as the total costs of sluggish cycle time, mediocre first-pass yield, late deliveries, etc. Waste is unavoidable but it’s minimal within the culture of good jobs. There is always some stress but it’s minimal within the culture of good jobs. I’ve also observed that, within a good jobs culture, people think and behave in terms of first-person PLUAL pronouns.

Congratulations, Zeynep Ton, on a brilliant achievement. Bravo!

Here are two concluding suggestions: Highlight key passages, and, keep a lined notebook near at hand while reading The Case for Good Jobs in which you record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines) and page references as well as your responses to questions suggested by the material. These two simple tactics will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.