Client First?

I recently came across a company website that has the statement “Client First” as their first mantra for success. During my tenure at Ultimate Software, taking care of the employees always came first. Almost intuitively, you take care of the employees to enable them to focus on the customer which, in turn, leads to investor happiness (well, as happy as you can make them). Seems almost too simple. I still remember when we gave out our first MVP award for Delivery during our annual awards ceremony. The winner’s awesomeness earned him $250, if I remember right. The next year the bar rose, and the winner received a Rolex from our CEO. After presenting the award he called out the prior year winner and made a joke about them winning one year too soon. Nah, he said, and called him up to give him his own Rolex. Just doing the right thing. And people first starts at the top. One of a thousand examples. It absolutely does work.