Everybody Matters

At Barry-Wehmiller, Bob Chapman has since 1997 pioneered an approach to leadership that refuses to treat employees as simply functions to move around, control with carrots and sticks or discard at will. Writing with Raj Sisodia, Chapman argues that every person matters, as in a family, and calls this the bedrock of the company's success. When the Great Recession cut revenue for more than a year, Barry-Wehmiller avoided mass layoffs and cut costs in caring ways, including a month of unpaid leave for team members, and it came out of the downturn with higher morale than before. The authors show how any organization can drop rolling layoffs, dehumanizing rules and hypercompetitive cultures.

Simon Sinek pointed to Bob Chapman as an example of how a company should be run, with people first. Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich praised its real-world case that humanity in business leads to sustained growth, and Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon included it in a Facebook post about books he read that year.