SOUL INDEX COMPANIES CONSISTENTLY OUTPERFORM THE MARKET.

Companies that have built their Corporate Soul perform better than their peers.

Powering Culture & Success with the Soul System® suggests that both culture and success are two sides of the same coin. To perform well in the Soul Index, companies need to demonstrate a balance of both.

When it comes to culture, you better trust the opinion of the employees.

Various studies show which companies perform well when it comes to employee engagement and satisfaction. Also, their view on CEO performance is a reliable kpi for leadership that reaches the entire company in a positive sense.

When it comes to success, there’s quite a load of analysis available.

Success is the ultimate result of consumer focus. We have seen more and more over the years that consumers take a closer look at purposeful companies.

The thesis of the book is that a shared purpose is the starting point hence purpose rankings needed to be part of the performance measurements.

Last but not least brand perception is a critical lever, too. No surprise that brand power is the final element for the Soul Index.

And the winner is:

Adobe

It comes as no surprise that Adobe tops the ranking. The company is led by CEO Shantanu Narayen since 2007. He has overseen the successful transformation of a creative software business moving from the desktop to the clout.

Adobe is an exciting example of a company with soul characterized by top ratings for both their employee appreciation for the CEO (World’s Best CEOs by Barron’s four times in a row from 2016 to 2019, as well as Top CEO by Glassdoor in 2019) and overall employee satisfaction as well as global business impact.

In 2018 Adobe exceeded $100 billion in market cap and joined the Fortune 400 for the first time. It also ranked No. 13 on Forbes Most Innovative Companies list that year.

Congratulations!

The majority of the companies in the top 10 table operate in the tech environment.

Deloitte (founded 1845) is the oldest company in the top 10 and Workday (founded 2005) is the youngest. Only Deloitte and Ultimate Software are private companies.

The list continues.

On #17, Southwest Airlines shows up as the only airline in the mix.

Beyond Deloitte in the top 10, three additional European companies complement the top 20: #12 Germany based SAP ahead of #15 ranked Swedish giant IKEA. Adidas comes in at #18.

IKEA as well as Salesforce.com (#2), and Hilton Hotels (#10) are featured cases in the book “Building Corporate Soul”.

The top 20 companies are 85% public companies and 15% private companies.